BDA's Adult Dyslexia Report 2012

The British Dyslexia Association (BDA) has published a report examining progress on issues facing adults with dyslexia over the past four decades.

Produced to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of the charity’s foundation, the document identifies a range of issues that continue to affect dyslexics negatively.

Access to written information in formats appropriate for those with dyslexia is cited as a prime example of how organisations are still failing those with condition.

While the requirement to provide information in alternative formats was enshrined in law with the Equality Act of 2010, the charity says that not enough businesses take heed of this and provide information in a way that dyslexics can use.

The Report, produced following consultation with over 100 organisations and individuals working with dyslexics, also points to some of the strengths that those with the condition enjoy.

The report says that roughly 20 per cent of our successful entrepreneurs are thought to be dyslexic.

Margaret Malpas, Joint Chair of the BDA, has called for an extension of the collaboration it secured in the production of its Report.

“I think we have a real opportunity here to collaborate to tackle the problems identified and resolve some of them”, she said.

“This would result in less cost and pain for individuals but also significantly reduce to the costs to society which are estimated at £1billion a year to the UK economy."

The BDA’s Adult Dyslexia Report is available here: 

New changes to GCSE 'will penalise dyslexic pupils'

Ministers have been accused of discriminating against dyslexic pupils by announcing plans to award 5% of marks in GCSE exams for spelling, punctuation and grammar as part of a drive to improve communication skills.

Dyslexia experts, educationists and teachers' unions say the new rules on marking, announced by the Department for Education last month, will penalise hundreds of thousands with a genuine spelling disability and make it more difficult for them to reach target grades.

At the same time dyslexia groups have reported mounting disquiet and confusion among parents and pupils, who are concerned at the lack of trained staff available in schools who can help them overcome their disadvantage and guide them on how to gain extra time, or other assistance, in exams.

In a white paper in 2010, the DfE expressed the government's determination to better equip young people for the jobs market by placing a greater emphasis on spelling, punctuation and grammar in GCSE marking.

It stated: "When young people compete for jobs and enter the workplace, they will be expected to communicate precisely and effectively so we think that changes in the last decade to remove the separate assessment of spelling, punctuation and grammar from GCSE mark schemes were a mistake.

"We have asked OfQual [the Office of Examinations and Qualifications Regulation] to advise on how mark schemes could take greater account of the importance of spelling, punctuation and grammar for examinations in all subjects."

Last month, OfQual announced that for GCSE courses beginning in September, 5% of marks would be awarded for performance in spelling, punctuation and grammar in English literature, geography, history and religious studies.

A spokesman for OfQual confirmed there would be no special exemptions from the marking regime for dyslexic pupils.

However, as was the case previously, a pupil with a statement of special educational needs can gain up to 25% of extra time in exams.

This can also be made available for a pupil with an evidence-backed recommendation from a suitably qualified teacher or psychologist. But the process of attaining extra time is difficult for many pupils and parents, particularly when expert help is not on hand in schools.

One headteacher of a large state comprehensive school said the change would mean that a pupil who had shown a good knowledge and understanding of, for example, history – but who had spelling problems due to dyslexia – could well end up with a worse grade than a good speller who had done less well on the history questions.

Dr Kate Saunders, chief executive of the British Dyslexia Association, said: "We are greatly concerned that these changes may penalise dyslexic individuals. We feel that it is discrimination.

Dyslexic candidates are not seeking advantage but merely a level playing field in order to demonstrate their knowledge and skills. Our continuous efforts to improve conditions have now regressed."

In 2009 the then Labour government announced a £10m package to train 4,000 specialist dyslexia teachers over the following two years after a review of services for children with the learning difficulty, published by the education expert Sir Jim Rose.

The BDA says that many of these specially trained teachers are now being made redundant. It has also had its government funding of £107,000 a year for a helpline withdrawn.

Read more of this article here in the Observer

NRRF - Reading Competency Test

NRRF - Reading Competency Test

Online Reading Assessments

Online Reading Programs - Assessments - Reading Horizons

World of Dyslexia January 2011 Newsletter

World of Dyslexia Newsletter

The Orton-Gillingham Language Training System

The Orton-Gillingham approach is described on the Special Education Advisor website as

'.....a unique language training system that was designed by Dr. Samuel Orton and Anna Gillingham.  Dr. Orton, a neuropsychiatrist and pathologist, was a pioneer in focusing attention on reading failure and related language processing difficulties.   

He revolutionized modern thought concerning learning disabilities, determining that language-based disorders were biological and not environmental in origin. 

He brought together neuroscientific information and principles of remediation, having extensively studied children with the kind of language processing difficulties now commonly associated with dyslexia and formulating a set of teaching principles and practices for such children.  

He strongly believed that such disorders would respond to specific training if properly diagnosed and if the proper training methods to meet the needs of each particular case were instituted.

Anna Gillingham was a gifted educator, psychologist, and school administrator.  Working with Dr. Orton, she devised methods of teaching these students based on the principles formulated by Dr. Orton, and she compiled and published instructional materials.  

The Gillingham Manual, which she wrote with Bessie Stillman, still serves as the leading instruction manual of the Orton-Gillingham approach. 

The Orton-Gillingham approach has been the most powerful intervention designed expressly for the remediation of the language processing problems of children and adults with language-based learning disorders such as dyslexia. 

However, due to its design and manner of implementation, research supports that all students can and will benefit from a multisensory, structured, sequential, cumulative, cognitive, flexible, emotionally sound, and diagnostic-prescriptive approach.  

The Orton-Gillingham process places students in position to master the eighty-five percent of the English code that is phonetic.  Further, and most importantly, it allows them to make intelligent choices towards mastering the remaining fifteen percent of the English code that must be analyzed in order to be applied properly.

The Orton-Gillingham approach revolves around the scientifically-based concepts that humans acquire and master language through three distinct neurological pathways:  visual processing (seeing), auditory processing (hearing), and tactile-kinesthetic processing (feeling). 

To read more about the Orton-Gillingham Process click here to go to their website

Widening our perceptions of reading and writing difficulties

2 new studies shed light on different types of dyslexia and dysgraphia

Learning to read and write are complex processes, which can be disrupted in various ways, leading to disorders known as dyslexia and dysgraphia.

Two new studies, published in a recent special issue of Elsevier's Cortex (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00109452) provide evidence of this variety, suggesting that effective treatment needs to take it into account.

A group of researchers from the Universities of Bari and Rome in Italy studied the reading and writing abilities of 33 Italian dyslexic children, comparing their performance with that of children with normal reading ability.

Italian is an "orthographically transparent" language, meaning that letters tend to correspond to the same sounds, whereas many letters in the English alphabet change their sound from word to word (like the "c" in car and city).

However, the new study showed that even in Italian, in which it is relatively straightforward to convert sounds into letters, children still have difficulties in spelling.

Younger children with dyslexia generally performed worse than proficient readers; however, the older ones showed a more selective impairment when spelling words, suggesting that knowledge of vocabulary may be more important in spelling than previously thought.

The other study, from Tel Aviv University, Israel, provided the first systematic description of a type of reading disorder called "attentional dyslexia" in which children identify letters correctly, but the letters jump between words on the page, e.g., "kind wing" is read as "wind king".

Teachers and neuropsychologists often notice that children substitute letters when reading, but in this type of dyslexia the substitutions are not caused by inability to identify letters or convert them to sounds; they result from migrations of letters between words.

The findings showed that letters would mostly migrate to the same position in another word, so the first letter of one word would switch places with the first letter of another word.

Awareness to the existence of this type of dyslexia is important, because it suggests a straightforward way to assist these children in reading - by presenting a ‎single word at a time, e.g., with the help of a word-sized window cut in a piece of cardboard.

More information on this report - Widening our perceptions of reading and writing difficulties

Dyslexia: Simulation Exercises Prepare Teachers

If trying to teach students with the learning disorder of dyslexia is frustrating for most teachers, consider what it must be like from the student’s point of view.

That’s exactly the point of dyslexia simulation exercises that every teacher candidate must experience before graduating with a degree in early childhood, elementary or secondary education at Southeastern Louisiana University.

“The role of an insightful teacher in working with a child with dyslexia is critical, and their perceptions play an important role in learning,” explained Elizabeth Wadlington, professor of teaching and learning in the College of Education and Human Development. She coordinates dyslexia simulation exercises for students at Southeastern every semester.

Dyslexia, the most common language-based learning disability that impairs an individual’s ability to read, write and spell, affects between 17 and 20 percent of the U.S. population. It is not related to intelligence, Wadlington said.

“Dyslexia causes difficulty in language processing,” she added. “The kids may be bright and intelligent and can see and hear just as well as everyone else, but they have a problem processing the information in their brains.”

The simulation exercises she and her colleagues present are designed for the future teachers to feel the frustrations these children feel when they are in the classroom.

After attending lectures on dyslexia to gain a basic understanding of the issue, the students participate in the simulation exercise, rotating through a variety of stations that focus on simulating reading difficulties, writing and visual-motor difficulties, and visual perception and visual processing difficulties while trying to read.

Meanwhile, faculty facilitators play the role of teachers, demonstrating the impatience, exasperation and lack of understanding that Wadlington says are all too common in many classrooms. After each station, the students go through a debriefing session, reflecting on their experiences.

To read the full article click here at NewsWise

Dyslexia: Bullying is a serious issue

Experience
Dyslexia manifests in different ways for every child. But there is one aspect that is bound to be universal: the bullying suffered by the dyslexic child at one point or another during their school years.

The difficulties with reading, writing, and spelling are bad enough, but add bullying on top of all that and the effects can be devastating for the child’s sense of accomplishment and self-esteem.

Fantasy Land
You’ll still hear the occasional teacher insist that bullying isn’t an issue in her school. Ten to one, this means that the teacher is just not aware of what’s going on under her own nose within the classroom, and further afield, on the playground during recess.

Suicidal Tendencies
Bullying is beginning to receive wider notice and has been found to bring on depression and even suicidal tendencies in some children, and there’s always an accompanying drop in the child’s academic performance.

The bullying doesn’t have to be physical to earn its title of dubious distinction. Verbal abuse is also a kind of bullying. In that sense, calling a child by a degrading nickname qualifies as bullying, as does ignoring a child or telling him he smells bad, for instance.

Hurts Everyone
Bullying hurts both the victim and the one who bullies him. The bully may end up with a false sense of his own power over others in his environment. He may end up the bullying adult in the workplace and in his own home.

Low Spirits
If your child has dyslexia and his spirits seem low, or he seems to be spending too much time on his own in the schoolyard, it becomes your duty as his parent to make inquiries and discover if he might have become the victim of bullying.

Children are often afraid to speak out against a fellow classmate. There’s an unspoken code of honour that feels unbreakable. Even if he thinks he has the right to “rat out” his tormentor, your child may also be afraid of retaliation.

Ask Friends
A good way to discover the truth is to ask your child in the presence of a friend or two. Your child won’t talk, but his friends sure will. They have nothing to lose.

This may just allow the whole issue to be brought out into the light. Even before you deal with the school and the bully himself, your child will have experienced a huge sense of relief. Once you, as the parent, know what’s going on, the burden of your child’s secrecy is lifted, at least.

Don’t Ignore!
Now is the time for action. Never tell your child to “just ignore” the bully. This goes beyond the occasional spat between classmates. In the best case scenario your child has an experienced teacher who knows how to deal with this situation. The teacher must speak to the bully, his victim, and to both sets of parents.

Needs Counseling
Once the bully knows that all eyes are upon him, his behavior may well change for the better. At the very least, a firm stance by the school’s administration will tend to put a damper on the bullying behavior and drive it underground.

Even better, the school will suggest to the parents of the bully that their child undergo much-needed counseling, for the sake of all concerned.

Dyscalculia is Maths Dyslexia: Youtube Video

My Dyslexia Life Video Story – By Antonio Farruggia-Bochnak

More at Dyslexic Brian's website

Film Maker donates money to dyslexia charity BDA

Film-maker Dan Evans has completed his first feature - which promises to pull in the pounds for dyslexia charity BDA.

Musik, about a lonely dyslexic student who turns her life around after discovering a latent musical talent, has been months in the making - but is now available to buy online.

Around 20 per cent from each sale will be donated to the British Dyslexia Association.

Dan hopes the 65-minute movie, which stars Gornal singing sensation Natasha Bennett (Taisa), will raise awareness of the condition as well as boosting charity funds.

He said: "The British Dyslexia Association really enjoyed the film and will be featuring the movie in their e-newsletters and magazines, plus their facebook and twitter pages.

“We also hope to show the film in schools as part of an educational awareness day.”

Written by Joanne Naylor from Sedgley - Musik features a wealth of Black Country talent plus a guest appearance by Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett in the Star Wars trilogy).

Available to buy from websites www.musikthefilm.com or www.eapfilms.com - it costs 45p to stream SD, 60p to stream HD, 95p to download the film to a hard drive and £4.50 for the DVD with special features.

Dyslexia: Phonics-based Instruction

New research shows that phonics-based instruction can actually change brain activity in adults with dyslexia, resulting in significant improvements in reading.

The findings from a collaborative study by Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and Georgetown University Medical Center were reported today in the journal Neuron.

“With about 112 hours of phonic-based instruction, adults with dyslexia had significant improvements in reading and changes in brain activity while reading,” said Lynn Flowers, Ph.D., senior researcher, from Wake Forest Baptist.

“We know that dyslexia is not something children outgrow, and our findings suggest that it’s never too late for instruction to overcome this disability.”

This was the first independent research study of whether phonics-based instruction is effective in adults with dyslexia and the first to measure whether the instruction would result in changes in brain activation.

Dyslexia, or difficulty learning to read, has been associated with underactivity in areas of the brain that process language and “decode” words into groups of letters that are associated with meaningful sound patterns.

The research involved 19 adults with dyslexia and 19 typical readers without dyslexia. The mean age of participants, who were mostly from the Winston-Salem area, was 42.5.

Dyslexia is the most common learning disability and affects about 10 percent of the population. “A huge number of adults have this problem, so it’s important to know whether something can be done to treat it,” said Flowers, an assistant professor of neurology.

“Adults with dyslexia can suffer significant financial and emotional consequences.”

The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) – which shows brain activation during a task – to verify whether adults with dyslexia process language differently from typical readers.

The testing – performed while participants completed a phonics task – showed that several areas of the brain, predominantly on the left side, were less active in participants with dyslexia.

These areas are associated with processing phonetic sounds and recognizing familiar objects.

“This verified our findings and those of others and confirms that dyslexia is biologically based,” said Flowers.

The researchers then tested to see if instruction in phonics would improve reading ability and produce changes in brain activation. Half of the participants with dyslexia received phonics-based instruction 15 hours a week for eight weeks.

Before the instruction began, they completed pen-and-paper tests to measure their reading ability and underwent fMRI. After the instruction, they completed a second round of written and fMRI testing.

The written tests showed that participants who received instruction made gains of between six and 23 percent in text reading, phonetic awareness and the ability to “decode” the written word.

fMRI testing revealed that the improvements in reading corresponded to increased activity in areas of the brain associated with phonetic processing, being able to associate a symbol with a sound and being able to recognize whether a string of letters represents a word.

Flowers said the gains in reading ability were significant enough to make a difference in the everyday lives of participants.

The Times Spelling Bee 2011

Click on the picture to visit the Times Spelling Bee 2011 site

UK Entrepreneur to open school for dyslexic children

THE first dedicated centre for youngsters in Wales with dyslexia will open next month. The not for profit Tomorrow’s Generation Trust will initially provide specialist dyslexic teaching during the school holidays and during weekends.

The trust was set up by Swedish-born entrepreneur Anders Hedlund who, like his father and son, also has dyslexia. The school is based at his home in Cardiff, in a 1,400 sq ft environmentally friendly building with solar panels and a rain harvesting system.

Mr Hedlund, the founder of Christmas cracker-to-gift- wrap company International Greetings, said the strategy was to provide specialist teaching, based on dyslexia software such as Lexion, which is used with successful results in 80% of schools in Sweden.

“It has always been my dream to help dyslexic kids in Wales,” he said. “Our aim is to be the number one school for dyslexia in the world. It will take time, but the strategy is also to establish satellite schools in other cities in the UK and potentially overseas.”

Mr Hedlund said many youngsters with dyslexia were wrongly diagnosed with having behaviour problems, and as a result were unfairly labelled as “lazy and stupid”.

“It is therefore not surprising that youngsters with dyslexia suffer from low self-esteem,” he said.
“Our vision is to get the kids back into conventional schools as quickly as we can. And when they do, near the top of the class rather than the bottom.

“It is all about providing them with the right toolkit to be successful back in the mainstream.”

Read More 

Neurological Dysfunction as a Significant Factor in Children Diagnosed with Dyslexia

Dyslexia

Dyslexia has been defined as, "a disorder in children who, despite conventional classroom experience, fail to attain the language skills of reading, writing and spelling commensurate with their intellectual abilities" (World Federation of Neurology 1968). More recently this definition has been expanded and described as, "a complex neurological condition which is constitutional in origin.

The symptoms may affect many areas of learning and function and may be described as a specific difficulty in reading, spelling and written language. One or more of these areas may be affected. Numeracy, notational skills (music), motor function and organisational skills. However, it is particularly related to mastering written language, although oral language may be affected to some degree (British Dyslexia Association, 1998).

Associated Symptoms:

In addition to problems with reading, spelling and written language expression, dyslexic children often manifest problems with motor skills such as hopping and skipping, catching and throwing a ball; learning to ride a bicycle, coordination at gym and sometimes swimming; problems with directionality, such as telling left from right, laying a table correctly and telling the time from an analogue clock.

Problems with fine muscle skills may include difficulties tying shoelaces, doing buttons up and manipulating a writing instrument. Sequencing, visual memory and auditory perception may also be affected and there may be ambiguity of laterality (Ott, 1997). Performance in these areas is dependent upon the maturity of the reflex system which underlies motor learning, vestibular functioning and kinesthetic integration.

Reflex abnormalities affect performance in automatic balance, posture and motor skills. For example, a retained Tonic Labyrinthine Reflex will affect balance and distribution of muscle tone depending on head position in relation to the midplane; If the Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex is retained it will affect hand-eye coordination, ability of the hand and sometimes the eyes to cross the vertical midline and the development of cross pattern movements.

A retained Symmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex can affect both sitting posture and coordination because it creates a horizontal midline barrier within the body which interferes with integration between upper and lower sections of the body. If the Palmar Reflex remains, it will affect the development of fine finger movements, particularly the ability to hold a writing instrument in a tripod grip. These basic motor abilities are fundamental to many of the skills required for academic learning.

Eye movements may also be affected as a result of the links between the labyrinths and the eyes via the vestibular-ocular-reflex arc (VOR). Neurological connections also exist between the vestibular and the auditory systems.

Although these two systems are considered separately, the cochlear and the semi-circular canals of the vestibular apparatus adjoin within the inner ear, they share the same fluid and a common pathway for the transmission of signals to the brain along the 8th cranial nerve. Dysfunction in one system can affect the processing and perception of information from the other.

More.....

British Dyslexia Association: Sept Newsletter

Click on the picture to go to the website.

Response from BDA to the Ofsted Report on SEN Identification

14 September 2010

The arguments against recognising specific learning difficulties were dismissed a decade ago. This is actually, not the thrust of the Ofsted report which encourages early diagnosis of difficulties and personalised learning. The BDA supports the view that the reasons why children are not progressing should be investigated as early as possible and then they should be taught the way they can learn. More....