4.5. The process of identification

Starting the process

Modules 1 and 2 have highlighted that the family or class teacher may not be the only people who can highlight concerns that a child or young person may be dyslexic. Irrespective of who raises the concern, it is recommended that the class teacher starts the process by considering the learner and looking at the Scottish working definition of dyslexia which provides support for all involved as it highlights the range of characteristics to focus on. These can be used as a framework for identification. When a concern is first highlighted it is helpful to consider the range of reflective questions highlighted. These are applicable for all levels within Curriculum for Excellence and can be adapted to the age and stage of the learner.

A range of templates are available to support this stage of the process and are available on the Addressing Dyslexia Toolkit – look at the sections ‘Assessing and Planning’ and also ‘Resources’

Considerations for teaching – (or you may be observing the learner being taught by another teacher)

• Did I present this in a clear manner?
• Did I talk too quickly?
• Did I gain the child’s attention?
• Did I make assumptions about the child’s prior knowledge?
• Developmentally, was the child ready for this?
• Did I talk beyond the child’s concentration span?
• Was the child interrupted or distracted by anything or anyone?

If there are ways in which you or the teacher can change the language used in class and/or teaching to support the child’s learning, then this is probably the first course of action.

The classroom

• When I am talking, are children seated so that they can all see me without having to turn their heads?
• Is the classroom welcoming?
• Are children aware of where their individual coat pegs are? Can they recognise their own peg easily?
• Is there an appropriate place to change shoes and store belongings tidily?
• Can I make the walls more dyslexia friendly? (Too much visual material can be confusing if the child doesn’t understand what it is about.)
• Do I consider the social mix of children within groups so that children can feel supported without feeling that their abilities are underestimated?
• Do I encourage a range of metacognitive styles?
• Are there appropriate consistent daily routines so that the child knows what to expect?
• Is the visual stimulation in the classroom at the appropriate level? Visual impact is improved when there is clear organisation within the classroom, including the classroom walls.
• Children with difficulties are often easily disorientated so require consideration to be given to aspects of seating. It is important that they are able to receive attention without having to turn around to see the board or the teacher.

The curriculum

• Can the learner access the curriculum?
• Is the curriculum appropriately differentiated?
• Do the parents have opportunities to understand what is being taught and how they can help at home?

Class teachers/early years staff working with ASN/SfL staff

• Consider all transition information when appropriate.
• Discuss the child's learning with parents sensitively. They will know their child but where there is no family history of dyslexia this may not have been considered. In the early learning settings, it is not appropriate to label or to be emphatic about the child's learning as all children develop at different paces, and some children are just developmentally a little slower than others. However, it is important to try to ensure that the child is learning effectively whatever level they are at.
• Close collaboration with family and/or carers should be continuous and central to the ongoing support through the staged process which may or may not lead to fuller assessment if required. Your reports back to family and colleagues should not cause concern, but should be supportive and helpful pointing the way to how working together can benefit the child.
• Working with the child and his/her parents, discuss and complete the "What to look for" checklist. Note: Your local authority may already have appropriate paperwork for noting concerns, so you should check first.
• Reflect on the ‘Other factors to consider’ and keep these in mind as you build your understanding of the child.
• Consider if more detailed classroom observation is appropriate and think about your own teaching approaches.
• Consider the child's previous medical and developmental history.

What to look for

A range of templates are available to support this stage of the process and are available on the Addressing Dyslexia Toolkit – look at the sections ‘Assessing and Planning’ and also ‘Resources’

Other factors to consider

Module 2 highlighted that when starting the process of identification of dyslexia, particularly if the concern has arisen due to difficulties in the acquisition of literacy and language skills practitioners need to explore or rule out other possible factors which can impact on the development of literacy skills, some of which are highlighted in figure 11. Conversely as with the characteristics used in the Scottish working definition, these factors may be areas of strength.

Maximise

Figure 15 Other factors

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This diagram provides an overview of the range of factors to be considered when identifying dyslexia

Figure 15 Other factors

Audio

Audio Processing Difficulties (APD) are one of the associated characteristics for dyslexia and may manifest as difficulties in processing and distinguishing sounds/ syllables/words and identifying where they heard them in words/sentences may have an auditory processing difficulty.

(APD) can affect people in many different ways. A child or young person with APD may appear to have a hearing impairment, but this isn't usually the case and testing often shows that their hearing is normal. However APD can affect a child or young person’s ability to:

• understand speech – particularly if there's background noise, more than one person speaking, the person is speaking quickly, or the sound quality is poor
• distinguish similar sounds from one another – such as "shoulder versus soldier" or "cold versus called"
• concentrate when there's background noise – this can lead to difficulty understanding and remembering instructions, as well as difficulty speaking clearly and problems with reading and spelling
• enjoy music

If APD is suspected, then it is important that the family consult with a medical practitioner. This should be discussed sensitively with the family.

Motivational factors

Linking very much with health and wellbeing there may be reasons why the child or young person does not appear to be motivated to engage in particular aspects, or most aspects of learning.

• Health and wellbeing aspects
• Disengagement - not wishing to appear to be working at a lower level than their peers
• The reading/topic subject matter does not enthuse the learner to persevere – they may have no interest in the topic of the reading book/scheme

This is a very important area because tapping into the child or young person’s motivational interests and strengths can provide a way forward in developing appropriate support and strategies.

Interrupted learning

Learners who miss a significant amount of schooling at important stages for learning, or who have limited language experience, may exhibit signs of literacy difficulties. This can be due to having lost out on the teaching and learning of specific parts of phonics that are essential for reading, spelling and writing. If this has not been compensated for at home or in later schooling, then this may explain why their difficulties are growing. Lack of ability to read often means that the child does not try to read, and therefore loses out on new learning. This then sets off a downward spiral of poor school experiences that is self-perpetuating.

It will be important to ensure that such factors are taken into account in the observation and assessment process at this stage, and that steps taken to ensure that any gaps are identified. This means that young people can receive appropriate teaching to make up for the missed areas, or when this is unlikely to be possible to circumvent by providing for example, a text reader that the child can use with earphones on the computer to access whatever text the rest of the class is working on. Specific focused teaching of phonics is not easily embarked on at this stage, so circumvention strategies that will help the child avoid the failure they have become used to, are vital.

Information should have been recorded regarding attendance and gaps in learning on SEEMiS which is the management information system used by all 32 local authorities in Scotland. Effective tracking and monitoring of this data will support schools and practitioners to put in place any necessary steps so that detailed assessment can take place.

Speech and Language

Although not all young children with dyslexia have early speech and language difficulties, there is evidence that many do. Early speech and language difficulties may be indicative of later difficulties in acquiring literacy. Dyslexia can also co-occur with ongoing speech and language problems. Furthermore, ongoing language problems may also be associated with reading comprehension difficulties. Practitioners need to be aware of these associations and if there are problems with a child’s speech and language, then early intervention is likely to produce the best outcome for the child.

Children and young people may have difficulty in sounding out words and have problems with phonological awareness. A case history of early development and information about early/previous/ongoing input from Speech and Language Therapy is helpful.

Children and young people with dyslexia may be able to say a word but not be able to break it down into syllables and/or sounds. They may have difficulty working out the constituent sounds in a word e.g. they are unable to blend d-o-g to make ‘dog’. For others, their auditory awareness of sounds is impaired, so they are unable to say where in the word a sound comes e.g. they are not aware that the /b/ sound in ‘boy’ comes at the start. For these learners training in auditory discrimination is vital if they are to be able to learn phonics successfully.

If there are concerns over elements of speech and language development, then referral to a speech and language therapist is advised for advice and appropriate management. Speech and Language Therapy involvement may be at Stage 1 where there are early speech, language or communication difficulties. Advice regarding Speech and Language Therapy in association with ongoing concerns regarding literacy development may be sought at Stage 2 or 3 of the Staged Intervention process, depending on supports available locally. Referrals can come from a range of different sources but must always be done with the parent’s consent.

Emotional and behavioural factors

There are many factors that will influence how a child or young person adapts and responds to the learning environment and how their distressed behaviour manifests. Feelings of failure will affect the child’s learning, so it is important to consider possible reasons for distressed behaviour and try to find ways for the child to succeed.

Understanding behavioural and relationship approaches is an extremely important aspect of anyone working with children and young people.

Creating a positive learning environment through positive relationships and behaviour is seen as the responsibility of everyone within each community of learning, with interventions fostering the development of multiple skills.

Close liaison with parents and carers is so important and will be required to establish if there are factors that we need to be aware of, and take account of in teaching – e.g., in what circumstances does the child respond well? –Do they like to be given responsibility? Who are their role models?

When considering dyslexia assessment, it is important to ask yourself why the child or young person is behaving in the way they are as this is not always obvious. Sometimes it may be due to the frustrations the child feels when not learning as they feel they should and seeing a gap between what they can do and what others can achieve. This will be particularly frustrating if that gap is also growing. It is important not to rule out dyslexia because of seemingly “bad behaviour” but to consider learning in a variety of contexts. What is distressing the child or young person? If they learn well at some times and not at others, or in some subject areas and not in literacy, and there is no other obvious reason for this, then consider the possibility of dyslexia.

It is also important to work with families on achieving success in some aspects of learning so that their child sees the rewards for their efforts as well as achievement. Parents and carers can generally give information on how the child is behaving at home, and this may help you decide on the most appropriate strategies to employ to tackle the difficulties. More detail on the types of behaviours that may be observed are considered under the three headings of:

Disappearing strategies

Children and young people who have a quiet disposition may adopt the strategy of becoming a ‘Disappearing Child’ in the classroom, by being exceptionally quiet and not drawing attention to themselves at all. They avoid eye contact with the teacher and do not put up their hands to ask or answer questions. Many will perfect a performance that makes it seem as if they are engaging in a task appropriately. They will appear to be writing or reading even though they may have a poor grasp of what the task entails or may not have the skills to accomplish the task. In a busy classroom such children may be difficult to identify for a considerable time which means that they may be lagging far behind peers once they are identified.

In some cases, a child or young person will develop a strategy that means they are physically not in the classroom when a particular task occurs, (most often reading aloud), which dyslexic children find one of the most frightening aspect of the classroom. This strategy may take the form of being particularly helpful, they may volunteer to take the register to the office or to take messages around the school to other teachers. They will perhaps take rather longer than is necessary to complete such tasks in the hope that the activity that they are trying to avoid will be finished by the time they return. Some children and young people may use the pretext of frequent and extended trips to the toilet to achieve the same aim. Teachers should be alert to the timing of these activities. Is there a pattern for example in a child or young person’s behaviour that suggests that they are concerned about a particular task? At the extreme of the continuum of ‘disappearing’ strategies a child or young person may use illness as a mechanism for avoidance. A pattern of absence related to the timetable may alert either teachers or parents to the child or young person’s underlying difficulty.

Distracting strategies

For dyslexic children and young people who have good verbal skills the preferred strategy is often that of becoming ‘The Class Clown’ – the child who is always ready with a quip or a joke. On the face of it this behaviour is not likely to endear the child or young person to their teachers but it is likely to result in a high level of peer approval. For and a child or young person who feels unable to do what the teacher requires, being popular with peers may seem a worthwhile alternative. This strategy also distracts everyone from the task that the child or young person may fear and is an attempt to avoid being seen to fail by the peer group.

If a dyslexic child or young person is skilled at sport, then a focus on that activity may also serve to distract teachers from the child or young person’s difficulties with classroom tasks. Such children often maintain high self-esteem and peer group approval despite having difficulties with text based tasks so there is a possibility that engagement in the sporting activity may lead to difficulties in other areas being overlooked.

Disruptive strategies

If a child or young person does not have the verbal confidence to become the ‘Class Clown’, or the sporting prowess to aim for ‘Team Captain’ status, then being a ‘Disruptive Child’ may seem a reasonable alternative. Again, as adults we recognise that all behaviour is communication and can see how misplaced a strategy this is and how this can be used to mask distress. Children and young people however, may not have this insight and do not have such a long-term perspective and focus mostly on resolving their immediate difficulties. If the dilemma is how to avoid failing at a particular task, especially in front of friends, then standing outside the door of the classroom as a result of obnoxious behaviour is actually a reasonable solution to the immediate problem. Again, children and young people who adopt such behaviour may well be popular with their peers as watching someone else get into trouble is entertaining but presents no personal risk to members of the ‘audience’.

At the extreme of the continuum of disruptive strategies are the children and young people whose behaviour leads to them being excluded or those who play truant in order to avoid the stress of facing tasks in the classroom that they cannot complete, or in a classroom which is not an inclusive environment. This of course means that they have also, quite literally, ‘disappeared’. Such extreme strategies tend to occur if some of the other strategies have not elicited the recognition and support that the child needs. By this time the child or young person is likely to have developed ‘learned helplessness’ which is a state in which an inability to undertake particular activities undermines confidence in all tasks, even those that could be accomplished successfully. Such cases , though not common, are at this stage of significant risk of being ‘lost’ to education as they feel no sense of engagement or ‘belonging’ in a system that has failed to meet their needs.

Children and young people tend to be pragmatic creatures. In reality, their day to day life in the classroom would be easier if they simply undertook the tasks presented so we must conclude that if a child or young person could engage with and complete text related tasks, they would - simply because it is easier to do so. If a child persists in not engaging with and completing tasks successfully in the classroom then we should assume that there is likely to be an underlying reason for such behaviour. One possible explanation is that the child is dyslexic and therefore needs additional support in order to develop the text related skills required.

By now, the young person will be only too aware that their learning is not as they would like it to be, and it might be expected that dyslexia will have been discussed. If, however, the child has not been formally assessed then it is best not to delay any longer as the assessment may help the child’s understanding of their difficulties, and hopefully behaviour will improve as a result. It is not unusual for behaviour problems at this stage to be considered as the problem rather than embarking on the pathway to full assessment. However, assessment is important for the young person and their parents or carers. This will give a reason for the young person’s problems and also a focus for discussing what can be done to improve both the behaviour and the learning.

Motor skills/co-ordination and organisation

Not all children with dyslexia will have obvious difficulties with motor skills, but even a slight lack of co-ordination may influence the child’s ability to cope well with handwriting. When motor skills are affected, this often affects self-esteem as the child has difficulty with sports and physical games. Spatial awareness can be a problem resulting in the child being unaware of where on a page to start for writing or reading until this skill has been overlearned.

Organisational skills are often weak in children with dyslexia. This may or may not be related to sequencing abilities, but these also are often affected, meaning that the children have difficulty in recognising order in days of the week, months etc. If the child or young person is disorganised, and/or untidy this may have a negative impact with their teachers or their peers. Thankfully strategies for organisation and sequencing can be learned and the sooner the better for the sake of the child’s self-esteem and confidence.

If there are concerns over elements of physical co-ordination or motor skills development, referral to an occupational therapist is advised for advice and possible exercises. Referrals can come from a range of different sources but must always be done with the parent or carer’s consent.

Social and cultural factors

• Are there social factors that might help explain the child’s difficulty with literacy development?
• Do you know what the child’s experience is of books in the home?
• Do they have the opportunity and/or encouragement to do schoolwork at home at all?
• Is the family supportive of the learner’s schooling, or uninterested/ antagonistic?

Sometimes illiteracy that derives from environmental and social factors will mimic dyslexia: poor literacy, impatience with written learning, poor attention, chaotic organisation, attention seeking, etc.

It may make no real difference to the support you provide at school as a learner with literacy needs will require support whatever the cause of these needs’ - whether the causes are intrinsic or extrinsic. They can come from - the learner and their environment. In any case it will be useful to be as clear as possible in your own mind what the balance of factors might be.

Visual problems

Poor readers may have motor and/or perceptual problems with vision. Improving vision can have a very positive effect on accuracy, fluency and understanding of text. Though visual problems are not likely to be a causal factor of dyslexia, if they are present they will certainly aggravate pre-existing difficulties. Examples of the types of problems that may be present are:

Visual Stress/Meares-Irlen Syndrome

• poor vergence control
• scanning/tracking problems and poor binocular vision

Symptoms of visual problems may include:

• eye strain under fluorescent or bright lights glare
• same word may seem different, or words may seem to move
• headaches when reading, watching TV or computer monitor
• covering one eye when reading
• difficulty tracking along line of print causing hesitant and slow reading

If visual problems, such as those above, are suspected, treatment should be sought from a qualified professional orthomotrist. There are clinics at most main hospitals and referral can be made through the child or young persons’ GP, educational psychologist or the community paediatrician. Treatment may involve eye exercises and/or the use of colour – either tinted glasses or the use of a coloured overlay.

Further information on visual issues is available in these Dyslexia Scotland leaflets

• ‘Dyslexia and visual issues’
• ‘Visual Issues - Frequently Asked Questions’

Theses can be found at https://www.dyslexiascotland.org.uk/ our-leaflets

English as an additional language

For children who speak languages other than English at home, the assessment process will require very careful consideration, to accommodate the child’s first language as well as English. This may require assistance from a professional who shares the same language as the child.

It must be remembered that the phonology of the child’s first language is likely to be different from English, and scripts too may be different. As an example, Polish children who have wholly developed literacy skills will have experience of decoding in alphabetic script but in the case of children exposed to logographic scripts, the relationship between sounds and symbols will be markedly different. Even although children may not have learned to read in their first language they will have been exposed to environmental print. The issue for teachers is to consider whether the children’s difficulties with language extend beyond them having English as another language.

See ‘other factors to consider’ to access further information and resources to support English as an additional language and dyslexia