Introduction

I chose to complete these two modules because I have several students who display learning behaviours commonly associated with dyslexia. I plan to support the teachers at one of my liaison schools to implement a school-wide project to address the short and long-term learning needs of students who have not yet gained reading automaticity despite quality structured literacy programmes. 

Initial stance

My understanding of dyslexia before commencing these modules is that dyslexia is an identified natural functional variation within a range of neurodiversity, that may result in literacy challenges for some students. Neural plasticity means that many individuals are able to overcome these challenges through a structured, cumulative, multi-sensory explicit teaching of literacy, with opportunity for multi-sensory overlay. Structured literacy is currently the best evidence based approach for teaching all students to read, and especially students with dyslexia. Early identification is essential so that additional and timely support can be provided. In order to provide equal access and opportunity, teachers may need to make changes to their practice to ensure the needs of all learners are met. 

I have previously used dyslexia assessment tools (Pearson's dyslexia kit, Lucid suite) and a range of literacy assessment tools to determine if a student  has dyslexic tendencies. Close observation and analysis of this information can lead to a recommendation for referral, if appropriate, but does not change practice recommendations. I have preferred to use the literacy assessment tools as these are more informative of an individual's next learning steps. 

The two questions that I hope to answer by the conclusion of these modules are:

1. What is the best technological support available for students to enable them to access the curriculum and demonstrate their knowledge and understanding, so that they can succeed at school without becoming disengaged?

2. How to know when to change teaching focus from decoding and encoding skills to digital skills. Do you ever stop teaching encoding/decoding skills?

History and research

In 1878, Dr Kussmaul used the term 'reading blindness' to describe an inability to read despite intelligence and education. Subsequently coined 'dyslexia' (Dr Berlin, 1987) derived from the Greek 'diskolia' meaning ‘difficulty with words’. The definition: "a significant, unexplained delay in reading in a child of average, or above average, intelligence", has not changed since its original inception.

Much of the history of dyslexic research follows deficit medical model theories of 'word blindness', investigating eyesight , injury and brain defect as possible causes. Burt & Lewis (1946) marked the change of thinking about dyslexia as they commented that with "adequate and appropriate teaching" all students with word blindness could be taught to read. This change in thinking culminated in the establishment of the Word Blind Centre for Dyslexic Children in 1963 and the beginning of modern day research aimed at understanding the causes of dyslexia and identifying what constitutes 'adequate and appropriate teaching'. Early criticisms, still iterated today, centre on definition,  whether dyslexia is merely a construct of worried parents anxious to pathologise their child's learning disability, to reassure themselves their child is of 'normal' intelligence, to access special education, and over diagnosis particularly in wealthy populations.

With more and more students being identified as dyslexic, the focus has definitely shifted and it is now a well recognised neurodiversity affecting approximately one in five students. It is the most common learning difficulty. Dyslexia may occur on its own or associated with one or more learning challenges, such as dyspraxia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia.

Issues

The main issue related to dyslexia is that of inclusion. Many students feel ostracised because of literacy challenges and are often marginalised as a result. Disengagement from learning is a natural and unfortunately extremely common consequence of dyslexic students' feelings of inadequacy.

Should we be identifying specific learning difficulties at all? The problem of labelling is again at the fore of the issues regarding neurodiversity. Some argue that being diagnosed provides an explanation for a child's learning difficulties and therefore removes fault from both student and whānau. In addition, it opens up dialogue about supports, still imbedded in deficit model thinking, that require a label to access. In the case of dyslexia, there is a wealth of information to support understanding and so the disadvantages that come with labelling can be overcome by education and creating a culture of inclusivity and tolerance. The high level of interest and understanding about dyslexia promulgated in the media has helped to break down barriers. It is a shame that this isn't reflected in other areas of neurodiversity, perhaps because it is more acceptable given that dyslexic children are otherwise considered 'normal'.

Assessment tools

Before an assessment can be undertaken, it is essential to rule out other possible factors that might affect an individual's progress. These may include sensory and motor impairments, hearing and sight for example, as well as environmental disadvantages, such as inadequate teaching and high absenteeism. Typical assessments include a phonological awareness tool, decoding, reading fluency and comprehension and rapid naming.

I have included the newsletter and email as an artefact because it evidences the beginning of the schoolwide inquiry process to ensure all learners receive systematic, structured literacy teaching, good for all students and essential for dyslexic students. In the past, there has been much debate about whole language teaching of literacy versus structured, phonics based literacy. It is now accepted that while 60% of students will learn to read  with a whole language approach, the other 40% will ONLY learn to read with a phonics approach. The School's SENCO was concerned that there were a large number of students across the school experiencing difficulty with literacy. In particular, the Y2/3 class has a cohort of approximately 12 students struggling with the precursors to reading (rhyming, onset rime, syllabification, phonological awareness). Further inquiry and discussions with staff highlighted the need for a structured literacy plan across the school, beginning in the NE/Y1 classroom. This class has a 'play based learning' pedagogy, and while phonics was being taught, it was not yet taught in a structured way. 

Following many discussions the school decided that the first step was consulting with the community. To this end, they ran a 'Reading Evening' to share their thoughts with the school community about a change of approach to literacy. This included thoughtful discussions as well as sharing ideas of what parents can do at home to support literacy development. Feedback from the evening was positive and the School decided they will hold another session, this time in a more central location as on reflection, holding it at the school which is rather isolated, presented a barrier to community participation.

Our next action was to introduce a structured literacy programme. We shared and discussed different programmes to make planning easier and selected the one that worked best for everyone, was easy to implement, and broad enough to be used from new entrants through to Year 6 students. The Y7/8 class opted for a different programme more suited to their needs. An extra daily 'phonological awareness' session was established for 2 groups of students in the Y2/3 class, to give them additional exposure to rich early language experiences. The first one each week is run by the teacher with the two groups combined, to model the new activities for the TA, who would then take the groups separately each day for the rest of the week. 

Samantha Copolla, in the Tedtalk 'Dyslexia and Privilege', not only illustrates the inherent inequities of socioeconomic status, she also mentions that dyslexia is for life. Early support is essential. I have heard the phrase 'if they're eight its too late' in many of the dyslexia resources. How do we support older students who have been failed by the system, perhaps because they haven't been identified, perhaps because their families don't have the resources to pay for private assessments and tutors, perhaps because they live in Northland, where the waiting time for a formal diagnosis can be more than a year. I know from my experiences as a teacher and as an RTLB, that many secondary schools only offer reader writers and/or extra time and are not proactively teaching dyslexic students how to be good learners. By the time they are in secondary school it is often too late. Students who have not had the benefit of appropriate supports from an early age are often lagging behind their peers across the curriculum. Add disengagement to the mix. Because there is an inherent bias in some subjects, some students will perceive they have fewer subject choices at high school unless they have the tools and skills to be able to show what they know. This has to be addressed in a timely way so that students have opportunity to develop confidence and competence in digital tools before they become disengaged from learning.

With this in mind, the Y5/6 teacher and I discussed options and decided to apply for funding to trial teaching the class how to use digital technology as a tool for learning that would support all students including dyslexic learners. Success would be measured by student presentations and the teacher's confidence to teach digital technology. The funding was used for teacher release to learn how to use simple and available apps in an education setting. We used the UDL framework (refer to UDL module) to plan for the term, and included teaching the whole class about neurodiversity and metacognition. We selected a range of technologies that would overcome the challenges of reading and writing (Read&Write), and technologies that gave choice in ways to share their understanding. Time was given to develop expertise using the apps, and a typing tutor programme was added to spelling routine. Celebrations around the world is the topic of inquiry. 

I hope to share the outcome of project with the rest of the cluster at the next opportunity.

Reflections

The main learning I've taken from these modules are the resources that I'll be able to add to my kete and share with others. Literacy has been a major focus of mine since becoming an RTLB. The reason for this being that I've spent most of my teaching career as a specialist teacher in secondary schools as well as some time in intermediates. One of my first cases as an RTLB was a Y1 student. I felt I had been dropped in the deep end and felt truly out of my depth. Discussions about colour wheels and Jolly Phonics were another language to me. I did not know how to teach 5 year old's and I definitely did not know how to teach 5 year old's how to read. I signed up for every course available and read everything I could about literacy development and structured literacy. I read about barriers to decoding/encoding, including dyslexia, which I took a particular interest in. I learned so much that I was confident to share my learning with my team at team meetings and have planned a workshop for our next cluster day. This module reinforced what I already know and more importantly, focussed my casework on answering my two questions:

1. What is the best technological support available for students to enable them to access the curriculum and demonstrate their knowledge and understanding, so that they can succeed at school without becoming disengaged?

2. How to know when to change teaching focus from decoding and encoding skills to digital skills. Do you ever stop teaching encoding/decoding skills?

Benchmark - Where you are at as an Educational Institution / in your school/ as a practitioner? 

Capture - your stakeholders’ observations against international research

My next steps: Continue to support implementation, data collection and evaluation of the digital technology intervention. To present a workshop on this topic at our next cluster event.

References