1.3 Dyslexia and inclusive practice

What are Dyslexia Friendly Schools?

Neil Mackay developed the ‘Dyslexia Friendly Schools’ concept in 1998. The key aims of Dyslexia Friendly Schools were to enhance the impact of learning and teaching on the child in the classroom and to ensure that teaching was multi-sensory and benefited all children, not just those with dyslexia. The approach has developed over the years and is inclusive and holistic, reflecting current research on effective positive learning for children with literacy difficulties.

Key features of Dyslexia Friendly Schools are

• Effective leadership and management
• Multi-sensory teaching approaches
• Effective early identification
• Effective transition support
• Learner engagement
• Parental engagement
• Learning and teaching resources which can accessed by dyslexia learners