Teacher-to-Teacher

Building dyslexia-friendly schools

Worldwide an estimated 9 million people are dyslexic. In India an estimated 2 million children are severely dyslexic, and another 3 million mildly or moderately so.

The word ‘dyslexia’ is of Greek origin, meaning difficulty with words or language. It includes difficulty in learning to read and write — particularly in spelling correctly and expressing thoughts on paper. It could also involve directional problems, e.g distinguishing between right and left, and following instructions. The symptoms are diverse and do not afflict an individual simultaneously. However contrary to popular belief, dyslexia is not synonymous with poor intelligence, although an individual with low intelligence can also be dyslexic. The most distinctive feature of dyslexia is that a child’s reading and writing skills are not commensurate with her all-round intellectual ability.

Dyslexia is life-long, but its effects can be minimised by targeted literacy intervention, technological support and adaptations to ways of working and learning. Dyslexia varies in severity and often occurs alongside other specific learning difficulties, such as dyspraxia or attention deficit disorder, resulting in variation in the degree and nature of an individual’s strengths and weaknesses.

Reassuringly, quite a few famous high achievers were diagnosed as dyslexic: Albert Einstein, Tom Cruise, Richard Branson, Duncan Goodhew, Whoopi Gold-berg, John Lennon, Susan Hampshire, Anthea Turner, Steven Spielberg,  Cher, Agatha Christie, Walt Disney, Jamie Oliver. Which goes to show that dyslexia is not a disabling handicap.

The affliction tends to run in families, with the latest scientific research showing that dyslexia is a genetic, neurological condition. But along with its difficulties can be found real strengths, including problem-solving skills and enhanced creativity. Dyslexia cannot be cured, but it needn’t be a life sentence. With appropriate support, many difficulties can be overcome, allowing strengths to shine through. Therefore dyslexia-friendly schools will go a long way in helping children with learning difficulties grow up into confident adults.

While most schools in India don’t have the resources to be dyslexia-friendly, Goa, arguably India’s most well-educated state, has three such institutions — Manovikas School, Sharada Mandir School and Vidya Vikas Academy. These schools demand excellence from their students and support them by linking new ideas with traditional values. The schools’ culture is ‘zero tolerance’ of failure. But this is not an aggressive response; it’s more of ‘tough love’. There is high awareness among teachers of what each student should be able to achieve, together with a range of response strategies when targets are not met. The staff are proactively led to demand excellence, and take action when targets are not met. The ethos is: "if children don’t learn the way we teach, we will teach them the way they learn".

All these schools engage in teacher delivered diagnostic assessments when good practice in the classroom fails to secure progress, rather than rely on referrals to the school counsellor. Therefore the delay between identification and response is minimal, and results in action in the classroom in the first instance. Many perceived learning difficulties respond well to classroom based fine-tuning delivered by dyslexia-aware class and subject teachers.

These schools recognise the importance of emotional intelligence. By virtue of being inclusive institutions they recognise that "there is nothing so unfair as the equal treatment of unequal people". They are typified by a desire and determination to teach the child, rather than just cover the curriculum. Consequently they have the confidence to interpret and mould the curriculum to the needs of certain children, and to justify their actions when challenged.

For instance Manovikas Primary which serves the town of Margao and has an enrollment of 1,200, has put strategies in place to achieve the highest level of support for dyslexic students and their parents within the school environment. The entire school team displays excellent knowledge of all stages of the developmental process of children and can identify learning difficulties in early stages. The screening process within the school is a reliable indicator of dyslexic problems. Where necessary, this process is followed up by a collaborative assessment procedure which involves inputs from the class teacher, the school counsellor as well as psychological services. The use of individual education plans aids the process of monitoring students within each class. Moreover teachers work in partnership with parents, to ensure they are informed at all levels of the identification of needs process.

In sum, the support for dyslexic students within Manovikas Primary is of a very high standard. The use of multi-sensory techniques of teaching is routine and the benefit of computers is provided to all students. Most importantly, the school offers a warm and friendly environment — one in which students feel they are valued and will eventually be able to realise their full potential.

(Remediana Rodrigues is a teacher from Goa who is pursuing an M.Sc in dyslexia at Southampton University)