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Let your heart and brain do the changing for you
What you need: support at school
The best schools provide effective teaching and support
"Response to Intervention" approaches
When a child displays an ongoing reading or learning difficulty, most departments of education have a three-step "wave" approach for helping.
The idea is to identify and give extra support to struggling students as soon as possible, before they fall too far behind, and it should work.
Reading difficulties can definitely be overcome using only this
three step approach, but dyslexia is more than a reading difficulty.
It's important to :
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clarify the difference between dyslexia and a reading difficulty
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realise that not everyone with reading and writing difficulties has dyslexia.
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know the accepted definition of dyslexia says it persists despite effective teaching
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acknowledge that dyslexia needs more than effective teaching.
Individuals with Dyslexia do not improve sufficiently with effective teaching alone, because their underlying neurobiological differences are usually not dealt with at school and it's an ongoing problem.
In Australia (May 15 2023) about 25% of Australian Secondary School students and (2022), about 44% of adults were reported have major difficulties with literacy.
Over time the reading gap continues to increase ... unless the underlying neurobiological causes are dealt with
What can you check at your child's school?
Ask:
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how do they define dyslexia and what do they include as part of "effective teaching"
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how do they identify and help those children who....
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display, for example, "cute" speech, monotone voices, or words blurred together. These can be signs of auditory processing difficulties and lead to phonological/auditory dyslexia
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appear unable to look at a page of print for long or at all. These can be signs of visual stress due do poor visual processing and lead to visual or orthographic dyslexia.
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appear to be inattentive with behavioural issues, but actually are having difficulty managing visual and auditory distractions in the classroom. They may be seen as having a "double deficit" dyslexia.
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have other skills and capacities
which can build self esteem.
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them to refer children who are not improving,
even at Wave 3, for intervention!
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Schools should be able to tell whether it's dyslexia and need intervention as well as good teaching.
If the school hasn't referred, contact us
because - the bad news is...
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Poor reading prevents many people from achieving their goals or to their potential.
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If untreated, reading problems don’t go away. They get worse.
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The emotional cost of ongoing poor reading is very high for the person, their families and the community.
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Those with poor reading at school are more likely to skip school, be excluded from school, or leave school early.
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Adults with poor reading may find it harder to get work, to work in areas that they prefer, to get promoted at work or do further study.