'Children with dyslexia just learn differently': Cork mum says son's early diagnosis crucial

An early dyslexia diagnosis helps children get essential learning support in school.

Dylan Gunn with mum Andrea at home in Garryvoe, Co Cork. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

IN third class, Caoileann’s teacher said she should read more. The fourth class teacher told her mum some of Caoileann’s classmates had far worse literacy difficulties. Yet mother-of-three Catherine Sexton knew her eldest child had trouble with spelling.

“She’d get words all mixed up. She’d misread words and misunderstand them. Putting five words in a sentence would take her an hour. It took her ages to get through a bit of English homework — I’d be gritting my teeth.”

When the North Co Dublin mum saw that it took Caoileann’s sister —younger by three years — five minutes to do aspects of English that Caoileann struggled with, she knew something wasn’t right.

In fifth class, the teacher said she’d assess Caoileann. The test found “discrepancies” requiring more investigation. With no further assessment available through the school system — though the school did give Catherine names of educational psychologists they’d had reports from before — the concerned mum got her daughter assessed privately at a cost of €450. She was diagnosed with dyslexia, at the mild end of the scale.

SCHOOL SUPPORTS

Getting the diagnosis made a big difference to Caoileann, now aged 13. “It made a difference to her confidence. It reduced her frustration levels — and I wasn’t getting frustrated either if the English was taking her ages. It was great going into sixth class that the teacher knew. She differentiated spelling homework for her and Caoileann got five minutes with an SNA a few times a week to do sight words lists.”

Dyslexia Association of Ireland (DAI) CEO Rosie Bissett says school supports for children with dyslexia vary depending on level of need. “In theory, schools should be aware of children struggling with literacy even if dyslexia hasn’t been formally identified,” she says.

In the staged model followed by schools, says Bissett, the first stage is: classroom teacher keeps eye on child, differentiates work in the classroom, gives extra support, works on areas of difficulty and gives guidance to parents.

If these measures don’t address the difficulty, there can be additional teaching support — and schools have a lot of flexibility in delivering this. “It can be one-to-one or small group teaching or team teaching, with a special education teacher working in tandem with the main class teacher, helping those struggling with literacy.”

If the child’s struggles continue, the next step is assessment. But the problem, says Bissett, is that it’s really challenging to get assessed through the public National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS). “They tend to leave it until late primary, which we very much disagree with. International evidence for decades has evidenced the importance of early intervention.”

In 2016, NEPS reviewed its practice in the area of dyslexia. “It adopted a model which is based on international practice evidence and psychological theory in the area of literacy development,” says a Department of Education spokesperson.

“This approach recognises that, rather than an early diagnosis, the key protective factor for children with emergent literacy difficulties is the earliest possible evidence-informed intervention.

“When a NEPS psychologist uses the term dyslexia it is in the context of evidence that there has been an ongoing cycle of intervention and review over time and the young person’s difficulties are persistent, despite quality instruction and intervention.

“Such a process happens over time and therefore, the identification of dyslexia is unlikely in the early years of school. It should be noted that there is no specific age at which a diagnosis can occur and that support is available to children of all ages.”

EARLY INTERVENTION

Dr Ellen Reynor is assistant professor at DCU’s School of Inclusive and Special Education, as well as chair of the Masters in Dyslexia at DCU. She stresses how important early intervention is. “There’s strong research showing intervention is significantly more effective if done at age five, six or seven, rather than later at nine, ten and 12.”

Pointing to the cut in numbers of psychological assessments carried out by educational psychologists in schools, Reynor says in the past psychological reports could be used as leverage to access support, for example, learning support, exemption from Irish, State exam supports. “This is no longer the case. Evidence of severe reading and/or spelling difficulties — at or below 10th percentile rank in reading attainment — now needs to be collected by the school to prove a pupil needs supports in exams (for example, scribe, spelling waiver, extra time) or an exemption from Irish (this decision is now made by the individual school).”

Reynor believes it’s vital to retain the dyslexia label for students with reading difficulties in the education system. “The dyslexia label is still being used internationally, yet in Ireland we’re encouraged to use ‘reading difficulties’ instead – not a good idea when you think of the positive benefits of a dyslexia diagnosis.”

Explaining how research shows pupils with ongoing reading difficulties suffer from low self-esteem, increased anxiety and stress as they go through the education system, she adds: 

“They’re often bullied. The dyslexia label has a positive effect on self-esteem and self-concept — it’s an explanatory term for why a child can’t read, spell and write efficiently.”

Bissett agrees, pointing to the big plus of diagnosis: it brings understanding of the child’s strengths/weaknesses profile. “The psychologist’s recommendation points to the priority areas needing to be addressed and to the strategies best employed for the individual child.”

It’s an incredibly important piece of paper, she says, in enabling parents to advocate for their child. “It shows the child isn’t lazy or stupid or ‘not trying hard enough’— just their brain works differently. Giving the child understanding of their own profile boosts self-esteem — it can be so frustrating for a child, wondering ‘how come I can whizz through my maths or be brilliant at art but with English reading it’s like I hit a brick wall?’ It can be hugely frustrating for a child when things don’t seem to add up,” she says, adding that diagnosis of dyslexia is about re-labelling rather than labelling.

Bissett estimates — given Irish class sizes — that three children in every classroom in Ireland have dyslexia. Those with dyslexia get diagnosed across the age spectrum — as seven-year-olds (DAI’s latest survey show more than 70% of parents get their child assessed outside the school system) or at 12, 17 or 22 years of age.

“Dyslexia can become obvious at different ages. With some, you see the first signs from the first year in school. With others, it’s later. Successful dyslexics become very good at using their strengths —protective factors like good intellectual ability or being very hard workers — to help work around challenges their dyslexia brings.

“The child could be spending hours at homework to maintain a certain level — but maintaining that takes a huge toll. The point at which their compensating strategies are no longer efficient is when dyslexia becomes obvious.”

DYSLEXIA TRAINING

Picture: Stock image 

Bissett’s number one wish is for mandatory dyslexia training for teachers while studying for their degree and also during their teaching career. She confirms many teachers have done DAI courses on dyslexia. “They spend their own time and money, often because they’ve a child with difficulties in their classroom.”

She sees a good dyslexia training module focusing on what dyslexia is and on evidence-based approaches to teaching children with dyslexia, as well as thinking about what it feels like to be a child in the classroom with dyslexia — the frustrations, the impact on self-esteem. “It can happen when a child is diagnosed that the dyslexia becomes a real focus but in a negative way — ‘what are the problems, how do we deal with them’. And the child’s thinking, ‘OMG, everyone’s focusing on what I’m terrible at!’

“The focus should also be on identifying and capitalising on the child’s strengths, and on building their confidence.”

Reynor, who qualified as a primary school teacher, worked in mainstream primary schools and spent years teaching children with dyslexia in a special reading school, says teachers should recognise that dyslexia isn’t just one thing. “It can be a phonological difficulty or a lack of fluency or a spelling difficulty.”

The DCU masters in dyslexia takes in approximately 12 students every two years. “It’s quite unusual in that it includes a masters degree from DCU and an assessment practicing certificate that’s accredited by the British Dyslexia Association and overseen by the SpLD Assessment Standards Committee. This accreditation qualifies teachers as specialist assessors of dyslexia and teachers of individuals with dyslexia.”

The programme aim, she says, is to increase capacity in schools for identifying dyslexia — for example, through assessing cognitive processes and reading attainment — and for offering effective teaching and learning recommendations. Also, DCU has more than 100 teachers per year learning about educational difficulties — though not specifically dyslexia — as part of their continuous professional development.

Meanwhile, Catherine’s daughter has just started secondary school. “We chose it based on her dyslexia. We went with a school with small class sizes and a dedicated SEN (special educational needs) teacher — we had an hour-long chat with her. It’s also an iPad school, which will have great tools to help Caoileann with writing and spelling.”

Catherine did a one-day parent workshop on dyslexia with DAI and was involved in having the DAI education officer give a 90-minute workshop to teachers in Caoileann’s primary school.

Bissett says: “Parents are ultimately the best advocate a child has. And — as well as advocating for their own child — parents should recognise they can be a very powerful influence for the good for all children with dyslexia in their child’s school.”

See: dyslexia.ie

'THE WORDS ARE MOVING AROUND'

When Dylan Gunn put up his hand in fifth class and asked to read aloud – and then successfully did so – the whole class clapped.

“It was one of those defining moments,” says his mum, Andrea, who describes feeling “heartbroken” after her son started being very stressed soon after starting primary school, aged four and a half. At playschool, he’d been “highly sociable and popular with friends” and it was felt he’d be well able for primary.

But within a week or so, teachers at St John the Baptist School in Midleton, Cork, realised something was up. “The teacher said, in the classroom, he was like somebody sitting on the window-sill looking in. He was getting very stressed, rubbing his eyes. He wouldn’t put up his hand. He couldn’t sit still or hold his pencil properly and noise really affected him. He’d put up his hands to go to the toilet,” recalls Garryvoe-based Andrea, who later understood he needed to move to regulate himself.

“With very limited resources, the school was absolutely fantastic. They just wanted him to be okay. They recommended we get him assessed, which we did privately. We were told his difficulties pointed to dyslexia.” 

A subsequent educational psychologist report, done through the school, identified dyslexia “on the highest scale”, says mum-of-two Andrea, who describes how words “would fall off the page” when Dylan tried to read. “He’d say ‘the words are moving around’.”

The report recommended a year of OT to help him with writing, as well as visual/perceptual work. “His teachers implemented very good strategies for him to regulate himself – he’s allowed to stand up in the classroom and press his hands against the wall. He’s allowed to have putty. And there’s a precision-teaching approach around sight vocabulary. Using a computer programme has been amazing. He has an incredible imagination and memory and, using speech-to-text, he’s able to write his own stories, essays and projects.”

Dylan, who’s “resilient, very hard-working and knows he has challenges in literacy”, has been attending a DAI workshop in Youghal for two years. “Their mantra is ‘I’m dyslexic, I’m terrific’. He learns how to mind-map. They do reading out loud, confidence-building and huge amounts of IT skills. They chat with them about high-achieving people with dyslexia.”

Andrea and husband Ralph got Dylan into swimming – he swims with Sunday’s Well Club – because it was “somewhere he could be really good at something”. He tells his mum he loves swimming because ‘it’s quiet under the water’.

Andrea recommends anyone with concerns about their child to get help. “Having a dyslexia label is not a problem. It’s a help. Everyone – including the child – needs to understand children with dyslexia just learn differently.”