It’s the class every school should have
“You may be dyslexic if you read slowly and with much effort. But you’re often the one to solve the problem”
THAT’S according to Dr Sally Shaywitz of the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity. Shaywitz features in the new HBO documentary The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia, which emphasises dyslexia as a neurological issue, not a character flaw.
Directed by James Redford, son of Hollywood icon Robert, the film features famous figures from the world of business, such as Richard Branson. It also features Redford’s own family, whom he describes as “typically private people”.
Casting his own family in a documentary about dyslexia was quite the big deal. However, he wanted to make the kind of film he wishes he’s seen when his son Dylan was diagnosed as “functionally illiterate” aged 10. “I would have been spared an extraordinary amount of anxiety about the future,” says Redford.
Both Redford and Shaywitz emphasise that struggles with the written word are not indications of the ability to think, to create, or to solve problems — all valuable skills in the world outside the classroom.
Dyslexia is manifested in specific learning difficulties related to basic skills in reading, spelling and writing. These difficulties are out of kilter with an individual’s other abilities and educational experiences. Processing ability, word sound recognition, working memory, as well as motor, organising or sequencing skills can be affected.
Donald Ewing, head of psychological and educational services with the Dyslexia Association of Ireland, agrees that it has long been established that there is no link between IQ and dyslexia.
He draws a comparison: “People who ‘can’t sing’ generally have no shame about it, and are not viewed as less intelligent. Those of us who ‘can’t do maths to save our lives’ might feel a bit bad about it, but this is often laced with humour and we are generally not judged for it. If, however, you struggle to read a newspaper or make spelling mistakes at work there is often a value judgement placed on this, and a consequent value judgement placed on you.”
Ewing says dyslexia should not be a term that reduces expectations or thwarts ambition. “People with dyslexia have excelled in all areas of work and life.”
Much of this achievement has been against a backdrop of struggle. Gaia Nightingall (42) and Miles Sampson (35) have both been diagnosed with dyslexia.
In Nightingall’s case, she was, ironically, studying psychology at university level when her psychological educational assessment for dyslexia finally happened.
“I had written an essay for a tutor in psychology. He said he thought there was a problem there, and he recommended a friend of his in the department test me. She found the indicators for dyslexia. I was 21.” From then on in university, Nightingall was given extra time for her exams, and was allowed to dictate answers rather than write them.
In school, despite getting good marks, she had been considered constantly disruptive. She was placed in remedial classes and bullied. “The vast majority of teachers thought I was being deliberately rude as if I was handing in messy work to annoy them — or else that I was stupid,” she says.
Nightingall’s career areas have been very much in the practical and visual. She has been a certified organic grower, a forester and now specialises in art.
“I think in terms of images — most people think in language, but for me, the image comes first and the word second. I also rely on intuitive thinking,” she says.
Miles Sampson, now an architect, found the first years of school in Ireland difficult. His mother was one of the founder members of the Steiner School movement in Ireland, so he entered a world where education was done differently.
“In the Steiner school in east Clare the education was fantastic. It was craft, art and creativity driven — these were as important as maths and English. So you don’t feel deflated for not being as good. It was confidence building.
“I don’t have great short term memory for spelling, I could never remember them, or the times tables, that was a big challenge for me. In Steiner you learned by trying to figure things out, you examine a topic in detail, and that suited me more. It was a blessing really. I wouldn’t have managed to get to university without Steiner.”
Sampson’s diagnosis with dyslexia at 12 meant that he didn’t have to sit Irish. It also meant that he was not penalised for the quality of English in his exams — “rather the focus had to be on content”.
In today’s education system, early diagnosis undoubtedly helps children make progress in school. However, there are precious few dedicated classes to help children make the required progress.
One such class is in the Holy Family School in Ennis, Co. Clare. There, Patricia Browne teaches nine 3rd and 4th class pupils. Third class pupils attend from 9am-11am, 4th class from 11am-1pm, and extra classes are given in the afternoon as required. The rest of the time, the pupils attend their standard classes in the school. Impressively, this short two-year timeframe can get children with dyslexia back into the full mainstream school system.
“All of the children in here have a psychological report,” says Browne. “They have to be assessed as having dyslexia, of average intelligence, but below the second percentile in reading, to be eligible for the unit.”
Browne follows the Dyslexia Institute Literacy Programme, which she trained in. Phonology — the study of sounds in language — as well as memory and processing speed are key areas people with dyslexia fall behind in. To deal with this, the lesson plans use various techniques, grounded in cumulative and multi-sensory learning.
Pupils and parents have high praise for the school’s reading unit. “What they do here, it works. It really, really works,” says Breda Kenny, whose son Shane has been through the unit. “They get the basic skills here, but they are life-changing. Early intervention is the key.”
Margaret Keane’s daughter Hannah has also benefited, even though she just had one year in the unit. “She’d missed 3rd class, there was a place for her in 4th class. And it really was a gift.”
Hannah, 11, adds: “I love reading, I read all the time. Skulduggery Pleasant, Artemis Fowl, Jacqueline Wilson are all my favourites now.
“If it wasn’t for this place,” she adds, poignantly, “I wouldn’t be reading what I read now.”
Anything up to 10% of the Irish population have either dyslexia or an associated condition. Yet there are precious few units of the kind found in the Holy Family School.
“Its really been like winning the lotto for us,” says Margaret Keane. “But, like the lotto, it’s a lottery as to whether you can get access to these services. And that’s a disgrace. It really is. Because if your child needs this kind of intervention, this is where you should be. Every school should have access to a reading unit like this.”
In 2010, the Sunday Times writer and food critic, AA Gill, unveiled the extent of his own dyslexia to his readers: “I speak into Amy’s crooked ear, and she types on my behalf ... I am a dyslexic. A dyslexic who writes a lot — 1,500 words, give or take, a day. And if I let the spell-checker get its bureaucratic little pince-nez within squinting distance of any of them, it would say 1,000 are spelt wrongly. I am a grammar cripple, a functioning illiterate. Literally...”
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