Identification of dyslexia in Scottish Schools

In module 2, activity 2 [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] you considered some of the broader factors which contribute towards the process of achieving inclusion and equality for all learners. You may wish to revisit your notes.

Activity 2 – Reflective Task

In your Reflective Log:

  • Evaluate your understanding of the support and identification process for dyslexia
  • Include the perspectives of all stakeholders – the learner, family members and practitioners
  • Outline how comfortable you are currently participating in the identification process for dyslexia
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Figure 2 Identification and Scottish context
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This diagram provides and overview of identifying learners needs within the Scottish context.

Figure 2 Identification and Scottish context

Identification of dyslexia within the Scottish Context.

Modules 1 and 2 highlighted the key role and entitlements inclusive practice has within the Scottish context for education and provided you with an opportunity to explore what is meant by additional support needs. (Refresh your memory of sections 1.1 and your Reflective Log for each module). This module will focus on identification within the Scottish context and this section aims to help you explore the following questions:

  1. Why do we need to identify dyslexia?
  2. How is the information to identify dyslexia gathered within the collaborative identification process?
  3. In your setting, what evidence do you have that there is an understanding that the process of monitoring and assessment, as part of Curriculum for Excellence, is used to identify and support additional support needs?

Section 2 provides further detailed information on the identification and assessment process for dyslexia and literacy difficulties.

1 Why do we need to identify dyslexia?

The identification of dyslexia is not a matter of choice for schools and local authorities. The legislation is clear that in Scotland there is a legal framework which underpins the system for identifying, making provision for and also reviewing the provision for the additional support needs of children and young people who face a barrier to learning. This includes the identification of dyslexia. Whilst additional support needs can arise for any reason, the legislation is focussed on addressing their impact on learning. Education authorities have a duty to identify and assess additional support needs arising from the barriers to learning and to make provision to meet individual support needs of all children and young people.

The ‘learning’ takes place within the context of the school curriculum. As highlighted on Education Scotland’s website the term curriculum is understood to mean:

‘Everything that is planned for children and young people throughout their education, not just what happens in the classroom’.

This totality of experiences is not specific to subject areas but applies to and includes the ethos and life of the school as a community, curriculum areas and subjects, interdisciplinary learning and opportunities for achievement.

Section 4.1 will provide further details on specific legislation, policies and professional duties in relation to the support for and identification of dyslexia.

Activity 3

1

Can you recall what four factors give rise to ‘barriers for learning?

Answer

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Figure 3
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This is diagram highlights the four factors which give rise to additional support needs

Figure 3

2

In your Reflective Log complete column 2 in the table ‘Factors giving rise to additional support needs’.

Factors giving rise to additional support needsPossible Barriers
Learning environment 
Family circumstances 
Disability or health need 
Social and emotional factors 

Answer

Factors giving rise to additional support needs Possible Barriers
Learning environment

At nursery, school, home and extra curricular settings. Learners may experience barriers to their learning, achievement and full participation in the life of the school. These barriers may be created as the result of factors such as

  • Ethos and relationships in the nursery/school
  • Physical environment in the nursery/school
  • Inaccessible Learning and teaching content and materials
  • Inflexible curricular arrangements and approaches to learning and teaching which are inappropriate because they fail to take account of additional support needs e.g. the need for additional challenge, flexible curriculum and appropriate differentiation.
Family circumstances

Circumstances within the learner’s home and family life can influence and impact on their health and wellbeing and their ability to actively participate in the full range of opportunities that school and the curriculum can provide. Factors may give rise to additional support needs; e.g.

  • Home life is disrupted by poverty
  • Family breakdown
  • Bereavement
  • Parental alcohol or drug misuse
  • Parental mental or physical health problems
  • Families who are who are homeless or move home often
  • Learners who are young carers or parents or siblings with health problems or disabilities
  • Learners who have become young parents themselves
  • The learner may be being looked after by the local authority or have recently left care or be in need of measures to secure their care and protection. In these circumstances support from social work services may be needed to ensure that the child or young person is able to benefit from education.

 

Note - All looked after children are considered to have additional support needs, unless assessments find that support is not needed.

Disability or health need

This may mean that additional support is required; for example, where a learner has a

  • Motor or sensory impairment
  • Specific language impairment
  • Hidden disability e.g. autism spectrum disorder, significant dyslexia
  • Learning difficulties
  • Mental health problems such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, depression and acute anxiety can disrupt learning and may lead to additional support being required from Child and Adolescent Mental Health services to ensure the child or young person benefits from school education.

Social and emotional factors

This may include:

  • Being bullied or bullying may need additional support
  • Experiencing racial discrimination which may need additional support
  • Behavioural difficulties may require additional support to develop positive behaviour in school and to stop offending in the community.

The above four factors may impact on the learner with dyslexia

3

The barriers to learning are not defined as being within the child. As highlighted in question 1 the barriers arise from such factors as the learning environment, health and disability, social and emotional factors and family circumstance. There are a range of support strategies and approaches which can be implemented to help reduce the impact; these strategies do not always require resources to be purchased.

In your Reflective Log consider the supports and approaches you use and recommend to colleagues then complete the third column in the table below: Possible Support Approaches/Strategies.

 Possible Impact Possible Support Approaches/Strategies

Learning Environment

(This can include

Nursery, School , Home, school activities , out of school activities)

 

Physical environment

 

Learning and teaching materials

 

  • Environment overly stimulating e.g. too loud, too large, too colourful
  • Environment visually distracting

 

 Difficulty in demonstrating their cognitive ability – discrepancy between what they know verbally and what they can write down
 
  • Difficulty following instructions given to class

 

 
  • Difficulty concentrating for extended periods of time

 

 
  • Copying from the board/flip chart

 

 
  • Poor organisational skills

 

 
  • Poor organisational skills – Homework

 

 
  • Working Memory

 

Family Circumstances
  • Parents have dyslexia / literacy difficulties so can have difficulty supporting homework for pupils/supporting their education

 

 
 
  • Homework can become a point of stress

 

  • If the dyslexic learner is a young carers – family support with homework, time available to focus on school

 

 

  • High levels of anxiety within the home in relation to school

 

 
  • Increased likelihood of siblings being dyslexic.
  • Close family members are dyslexic

 

 

 
  • Difficulties when young siblings ‘over take’ their older sibling who has dyslexia

 

 
  • Accessibility of the curriculum
  • Co-occurring difficulties e.g. motor skill difficulties, sensory impairments, print disability

 

Disability or Health Need
  • Anxiety – mental health difficulties including depression

 

  • Stress related illness e.g. chronic eczema, panic attacks,

 

Social and Emotional Factors
  • Low self-esteem and widening gaps in learning as pupil finds it too difficult to ask for help as they don’t want to stand out

 

  • Low self-esteem leading to low attainment, feelings of isolation, withdrawal, anger or inappropriate behaviour and disengagement from learning

 

  • Exclusion from classes, activities and potentially school

 

  • Disengagement from and avoidance of learning, leading to low attainment and achievement

 

Answer

Please note these lists are not exhaustive.

 Possible Impact Possible Support Approaches/Strategies

Learning Environment

(This can include

Nursery, School , Home, school activities , out of school activities)

 

Physical environment

 

Learning and teaching materials

 

  • Environment overly stimulating e.g. too loud, too large, too colourful
  • Environment visually distracting

 

  • Use of ear defenders or classroom volume control. Some local authorities have a recommended amount of time which ear defenders should be used for each day.
  • Ensure space between displays, keep a consistent/neutral colour scheme to keep the focus on the content of displays
  • Ensure the wall displays are not too brightly coloured, overly busy and that they are in an appropriate font
  • Avoid the use of yellow and red text
  • Avoid the use of Word Art –it is not an image which text recognition can access immediately it will need to be scanned first.

 

 Difficulty in demonstrating their cognitive ability – discrepancy between what they know verbally and what they can write down
  • Discuss support strategies with the pupil
  • Differentiate appropriately
  • Place learners with tasks and in groups based on their cognitive ability
  • Provide opportunities for knowledge and understanding to be demonstrated in ways other than hand written –audio recordings, use of ICT , speech recognition software
  • Mark written work on content
  • Provide more time for tasks that involve reading and writing and use ICT e.g.

Free text and speech recognition software, Scottish voice – access CALL Scotland’s website and the technology section within the Addressing Dyslexia Toolkit

  • Texts at appropriate reading age
  • Homework policy – consider differentiation, volume and accessibility for all subject areas across the school

 

 
  • Difficulty following instructions given to class

 

  • Ensure instructions are not overly print heavy
  • Wait for class attention before giving instructions or consider using pupil name as prompt to ensure listening
  • No more than 2 instructions at a time, sometimes 1 is enough
  • Check understanding of instructions/ask them to repeat back
  • Chunk instructions
  • Use of images to support instructions
  • Have written versions available to refer back to.

 

 
  • Difficulty concentrating for extended periods of time

 

  • Chunk work
  • Use timers to break tasks up into manageable smaller tasks
  • Allow for brain breaks

 

 
  • Copying from the board/flip chart

 

  • Keep copying from the board to a minimum
  • use a copying buddy
  • When you can provide written copies for those who require it
  • Provide digital copies of the text – word documents are suitable
 
  • Poor organisational skills

 

  • Structure and routine
  • Practise and rehearsal
  • Visual timetable if required – spare copies for home as well
  • Spare copies of the time table
  • Organisational systems put in place for the learner
  • Have a supply of vital equipment
  • Demonstrate the setting out of written work try a range of scaffolding techniques to help the learner use the ones which work for them.
  • Demonstrate scaffolding for as long as needed
  • Use timers to help the learner keep track of how long they have to complete tasks
  • Use checklists to aid memory
  • Break tasks down into individual components
  • Display deadlines on times lines for important assignments/ assessments

 

 
  • Poor organisational skills – Homework

 

  • Develop an organisational system for the learner to ensure they know the homework task, understand it and completion date
  • Use checklists to aid memory
  • Explain homework at the start of the lesson, checking method and provide time limit
  • Email copy of homework task to learner and home if possible
  • Let them record the home work task on their phone/tablet if applicable
  • Encourage a homework routine- set place, time etc.
  • Set time limits for homework tasks
  • Give plenty of notice of bigger tasks
  • Provide homework over a week to allow it to be spread out over the week
  • Don’t ask learners to copy homework from the board if this can be avoided
  • Differentiate tasks

 

 
  • Working Memory

 

  • Additional processing time, additional thinking time before asking for answer
  • Use visual reminders of key facts/concepts – on the board, on a keyring, attached to learner’s desk e.g. alphabet strip, mini 100 square, multiplication grid
  • Let them record/take pictures of tasks on their phone/tablet if applicable

 

Family Circumstances
  • Parents have dyslexia / literacy difficulties so can have difficulty supporting homework for pupils/supporting their education

 

  • Be sensitive to the situation
  • Family learning opportunities,
  • Shared starts and finishes (nursery/primary)
  • Homework workshops,
  • Homework lunch clubs,
  • Use of ICT support such as MS Classroom/GLOW 365 which allows pupils online support from peers and teacher from home,
  • Use of colour coding for target setting during meetings to reduce barrier of reading for parents following paperwork during discussions,
  • Accessible communication with home e.g. phone rather than letter or texts that can be referred back to if memory is affected

 

 
  • Homework can become a point of stress

 

  • If the dyslexic learner is a young carers – family support with homework, time available to focus on school

 

 

  • High levels of anxiety within the home in relation to school

 

  • Email copy of homework task to learner and home if possible
  • Encourage a homework routine - set place, time etc.
  • Set time limits for homework tasks
  • Give plenty of notice of bigger tasks
  • Provide homework over a week to allow it to be spread out over the week
  • Consider offering homework to be handed in on a Monday rather than a Friday as pupils may have clubs or parents may be working and find it difficult to support through the week
  • Don’t ask learners to copy homework from the board if this can be avoided
  • Differentiate tasks
  • Provide opportunities for parents to contact Class teacher about homework if confusion arises – email, communication note book, phone call.

 

 
  • Increased likelihood of siblings being dyslexic.
  • Close family members are dyslexic

 

 

  • Listen to parental concerns and engage in effective communication as early as possible – this could be in nursery.
  • Explain the identification pathway process – even at nursery stage. Ensure that parents understand how the evidence is gathered to support a collaborative identification.
  • Do not automatically dismiss parental concerns or information of dyslexia within the family. It does not automatically mean that the learner is dyslexic but it will increase the possibility of this being the case.
  • Ensure parents understand you are listening to them and taking their concern seriously
  • Keep in touch, share strategies which are working at school with home.

 

 
  • Difficulties when young siblings ‘over take’ their older sibling who has dyslexia

 

  • Support the learner to understand their strengths.
  • Ensure text is age appropriate and not only reading age appropriate
  • Encourage the use of audio books
  • Support the family to understand dyslexia – signpost to Dyslexia Scotland’s website and Dyslexia Unwrapped for the learner.
 
  • Accessibility of the curriculum
  • Co-occurring difficulties e.g. motor skill difficulties, sensory impairments, print disability

 

  • SQA Assessment Arrangements
  • Utilising advice from Call Scotland
  • Make use of ICT to make the curriculum more accessible e.g. speech to text software
  • Physical adaptations e.g. sloping desks, magnification of texts
  • Make appropriate use of the free ‘Books for All’ website
  • Flexibility of curriculum planning and design – e.g. appropriate course choices and opportunities

 

Disability or Health Need
  • Anxiety – mental health difficulties including depression

 

  • Stress related illness e.g. chronic eczema, panic attacks,

 

  • Space for privacy/quiet areas where the learner can retreat to have ‘down time’ or engage in smaller group activities.
  • Flexibility of curriculum planning and design – e.g. appropriate course choices and opportunities
  • Key worker who can build a level of trust with the learner
  • Effective communication with parents
  • SQA Assessment Arrangements
Social and Emotional Factors
  • Low self-esteem and widening gaps in learning as pupil finds it too difficult to ask for help as they don’t want to stand out

 

  • Low self-esteem leading to low attainment, feelings of isolation, withdrawal, anger or inappropriate behaviour and disengagement from learning

 

  • Exclusion from classes, activities and potentially school

 

  • Disengagement from and avoidance of learning, leading to low attainment and achievement

 

  • Have supports accessible and available to all pupils e.g. resources in a class support box, word banks included in displays, pupil passports
  • Set challenging but achievable tasks
  • Teach to level of ability, not to level of literacy
  • Mark for content
  • Offer opportunities for learning that cater to strengths
  • Praise effort and perseverance
  • Ask the learner what works for them and for their ideas on how you can help them
  • Find out what motivates the pupil and use this to engage them e.g. reading farming magazines, focusing on learning the Highway Code if they are motivated to learn to drive
  • Alternative curricular approaches e.g. outdoor learning
  • Alternative methods of sharing knowledge e.g. mind mapping
  • Encourage reading for enjoyment by providing reading of interest to individual e.g. farming magazines, newspaper,
  • Use audio and ebooks books

1.1 Identification within the Scottish Context

Positive aspects of dyslexia − Strengths of dyslexia providing a positive impact on the four factors