This page was last updated on 17.12.1999
Dyslexia. I had not heard of this strange word before, but what it meant would change my life for ever. I was in infant three when my brother, who was at secondary school in his first year, was diagnosed as being dyslexic. This really had nothing to do with me, as far as I was concerned it was just a complicated new word. However, as dyslexia runs in the family, my teachers and parents started to pay more attention to me. This led to them beginning to take note of particular aspects of my learning style and progress that were classic symptoms of dyslexia.
I had an above average IQ but a very low reading and spelling age. They also noticed that I was struggling more with maths than other children. This was part of the reason why they thought I was dyslexic, but the main reason was my learning strategies. For example, I would memorise words in the context of my reading book, when the teacher read with me, but when these words were presented out of context I could not read them. This was a massive achievement for me to be able to do this as dyslexics have short term memory problems.
This strategy was only picked up because outside the experience of my reading book I could not spell or read the same word/s. They also noticed that I used a very unusual strategy to build words. I would take a base word or part of a word from my reading book (e.g. fire) and then ask someone how to spell the rest of the word (e.g. bon) to make the word ‘bonfire’. Despite being able to use these tactics, I could not spell simple words such as ‘it’ and ‘is’, and I confused vowel sounds, and so I wrote things like ‘ a lak t gw fe bonfires, hi seb’ instead of ‘I like to go to bonfires, he said’. Sometimes my spellings were so bizarre that no-one could read them, not even myself! These were classic symptoms of Dyslexia.
I also encountered balancing problems, I frequently wrote letters back to front (B’s as D’s and vice versa) or upside down (e.g. ‘t’ for ‘f’, ‘u’ for ‘n’), had difficulty copying from the board, and when reading I could skip a whole section without noticing! There are several other symptoms, but these are the main ones and the easiest to recognise, and I had them all!
Because my parents were concerned about me, they asked one of the ‘outreach’ teachers who worked in the juniors, to come and give some advice on what she thought I needed. She came over one break-time and we did a few activities together. She said that I was probably dyslexic but could not say for sure because she was not an educational psychologist, however she was almost certain. She told my parents that she thought I had a very severe case of dyslexia. She agreed to help me because she felt I was so bad and that I really needed some immediate help. So twice a week, at morning break, she came over and helped me. This was the only time she could work with me, as she was not supposed to support anybody in the infants at all. This continued for several months until she was moved out of the school to another one. It was a policy of Oldham LEA not to let a teacher stay in one school for too long.
Before she left, she told my parents about a teacher she knew who was training to become a qualified teacher in the area of dyslexia. This teacher needed a young child to teach and asked would my parents be willing for her to teach me. My parents agreed and Mrs Glover came in to school for two hours a week until the end of that year, which was fortunate for me.
Towards the end of infant three I went in school time to a big building in Oldham where I saw lots of doctors and they did a lot more tests. Of this I can remember only a little of what happened, as I was only seven at the time, and as I have stated I have memory difficulties. So most of what I tell you here will be my recollections of what my mother told me. She accompanied me on these visits.
When we got there we had to wait in a kind of reception area with lots of doors off it. One of the things that sticks in my mind was all the toys they had. It was great fun - no school and lots of toys! But then all the tests came. First of all I had a full medical examination, to make sure there was nothing physically wrong that would cause all my problems. I then had optical tests. All these test lasted about three hours, but of course there was the waiting between these examinations and tests, which I did not mind as I had all the toys to play with. However, I know that my mother was not impressed with all the waiting around!
After all the medical examinations I went to see a specialist called an Educational Psychologist. He conducted more tests with me, which I later came to understand were co-ordination tests, writing tests, and reading tests. All these new tests took a further two hours! At this point, you must realise, that some of the time frames may not be accurate. I report it as it seemed to me at the time.
A few weeks later we received a letter from the statementing officer saying that we had been successful in our application for a statement. Now they confirmed that I was dyslexic, but it was not put in my statement, so for official purposes it stated that I had ‘reading, writing and spelling difficulties’. At this point my parents set about researching the subject of dyslexia.
Most books give a very technical definition of dyslexia. I have found a simple and a descriptive definition of dyslexia. It reads as follows:
Dyslexia is a form of reading difficulty which is probably caused by a minor physical impairment, although no one yet understands the exact nature of the problem. Dyslexics (people who have dyslexia) have trouble seeing the differences between words, and will often misread them. They may reverse the letters in a word, for example, substituting saw for was, or find substitutes for the printed word, so that hot may be read as pot. Most dyslexics also have a problem with spelling. Dyslexia tends to run in families, and is more common in males than females.
A dyslexic child may be otherwise perfectly normal and intelligent. For some people dyslexia is no more than a small inconvenience in every day, but for others, dyslexia may be more severe and can cause learning and other difficulties. In general, dyslexics are able to make up for their reading difficulties by relying for information on films, records, television, radio and on what they see and hear around them. Dyslexia is now usually spotted early on in a child’s education, and special reading instructions given which is often effective.
This information was taken from the Children’s Britannica volume 6 1993.
This definition gave a brief overview of some of the problems that dyslexics have, how they are identified, and what dyslexia actually is. But, as the book was published in 1993 some of the information may be outdated. For instance, it says that there are more male dyslexics than female ones. This may be incorrect, it could be an even distribution.
It is generally accepted that dyslexia does run in families, however there is a current debate as to which sex it is inherited from. In the past, it was always thought that dyslexia was passed on via the male sex gene. Recent research suggests that the cause of dyslexia is a faulty gene on chromosome 6 rather than the X chromosome, as was previously thought. If it is no longer linked to a sex gene (chromosome X) then boys and girls should be affected in equal numbers. But it is still true to say that more boys are identified than girls. All this has not been proven and is just another theory. It will take a lot more research before they know for sure, and will be of little help to dyslexics at the present time.
As I said, there are several potential inaccuracies in this 1993 definition, so I have included the definition given by the Department For Education (DFE) in the 1994 Code of Practice (para. 3:60).
“Some children may have significant difficulties in reading, writing, spelling or manipulating number, which are not typical of their general level of performance. They may gain some skills in some subjects quickly and demonstrate a high level of ability orally, yet may encounter sustained difficulty in gaining literacy or numeracy skills. Such children can become severely frustrated and may also have emotional and / or behavioural difficulties.”
These definitions had not been written at the time my statement was issued, and teachers were a lot less enlightened than they are today. There were several problems that I faced at junior school. I could not spell, and I tried my best to hide this fact from other pupils, but as the teachers did spelling tests it became obvious to the whole class that I was terrible at spelling. I was making so little progress, falling further and further behind, and as a result I got more and more frustrated that I could not do certain things. This lead to one of the other things dyslexic children can suffer from, behavioural problems. As I was frustrated, I took out my anger on the teacher, who was in her first year of teaching and inexperienced. She had no idea how to deal with me, however, the headmistress was a very understanding lady. Together with my teachers she tried to help me. I regularly visited her office because I had thrown something at the teacher or ripped up an exercise book in frustration and many other awful things which I now regret! The headmistress Mrs Barnet always managed to calm me down. This was further supported by my special needs teacher who taught me strategies that helped me to cope in the class room.
These were simple things that helped me but one of the main things we tried was a technique for teaching spelling. The idea was to try and associate a picture to a word. This is how it worked. If I could spell ABLE then I could associate it to, say, TABLE. I had to learn to see the connection, so that to make ‘table’ from the word ‘able’ you just add a T. The reverse is also true. These strategies were to help me through the rest of my school life. However, the main problem we dealt with was my behaviour, which was causing my class teacher considerable stress. I could be manageable one minute and not the next. We came up with some strategies to restrain my anger and frustration, but it took a long time for them to become effective. On reflection my attitude and behaviour didn’t help matters and destroyed any chance of a good working relationship with that teacher.
During my two hours support a week we worked on a reading, writing and spelling program. We also looked at how I was to restrain my self in class. We usually spent about half the time on reading and spelling programs. The rest of the time we spent looking at pencil grips to see if we could improve my handwriting. On this point we failed miserably and gave up after a few years of trying! I also felt that the support my class teachers gave to me at my primary school was invaluable. My teachers helped me by being sympathetic and not being critical. They would mark constructively to help me through. Many people do not know that dyslexic children take criticism and change very badly. So you may think you are helping them by marking a piece of work and using lots of red ink. You are not!!!!
I can assure you that each of my teachers have experienced problems brought about by my uncertainty and dislike of change. Until I got used to the change, I could be very difficult and uncooperative. All these problems had to be dealt with, and with the support of all the staff at my primary school, St James East Crompton, I managed it. It was a long and challenging job, but worth while in the end.
One thing it took me several years to fully understand, was what is known as an annual review. It is a meeting between my parents and teachers and also the headmistress, to talk about me. At primary school they had one meeting every year. The staff concerned would meet in the heads office. I was never invited to these meetings despite my protest. The review is a time when things could be changed on my statement. The LEA were invited to these meetings, but never chose to attend. During my primary school years they never took up the offer! Also at these meetings it was reported what progress I had made and what my teachers would plan to achieve in the following year. Because there was no LEA officer present, all proposed amendments were made in writing to the LEA. Although many changes were discussed no amendments suggested by the people at the meeting were ever implemented by the LEA. This was frustrating, as it appeared that Oldham LEA paid no attention to the opinion of all the people who taught me.
When I was in junior four, and planning to go to secondary school, I had a private assessment. Normally one would have to go to Bangor University, but I did not as there was a man who lived near to me who worked for Bangor University. I went to him, and we did lots of tests of co-ordination, reading, writing, spelling and handwriting. Recommendations were made in his report. This was not the only assessment I had privately. I went to Bangor University a few years later. It was felt to be necessary as my GCSE exams were looming and we were trying and get some concessions from the exam board. Lots of recommendations were made, but only a few were carried out. The psychologist thought that I should have more support both inside and outside of class. He also felt I should be given more time in exams, which I did eventually get. He made a lot of other recommendations too, which were not taken up by the LEA.
As stated previously, dyslexic’s find change very difficult. This is a very common phenomenon amongst dyslexic children. It affected the way I behaved with my teachers. When I look back on it, I can remember being very difficult for my new teachers at the beginning. It usually only lasted a few weeks before I got used to my new teacher. However, this was not the case when I moved from primary school to secondary school. The new teacher, who was to provide me with my support, and myself did not get along very well. I did not get used to her after a few weeks. We had a terrible relationship which lasted three whole years!! It upset me many times. I often went to the head of my year, very upset about it, and on some occasions reduced to tears. This was all because we did not get along.
This was unusual, as most dyslexic children get over the change reasonably quickly. I personally believe there are several reasons why I never adjusted to my new teacher, the main reason being she did not know how to deal with my specific problems. As a result, it was difficult to make any progress.
The difference in the quality of the help I received between the primary and the secondary school was enormous. At primary school all my teachers were told how to deal with me, and they gave me all the support they could. Also, the support teacher at primary school was very well qualified. Whilst at secondary school, most of the teachers did not know that I was dyslexic, and as I have already mentioned I had little faith in the support teacher. The Head of Special Needs did not know what to do with a dyslexic child and appeared to resent any help we tried to give him. Although, after a few parent’s evenings, my teachers did have some idea of what my problems were, they still did not know all that they really ought to.
Many of the problems I faced at secondary school were due to the staff not understanding how dyslexia affects access to the curriculum. Dyslexics learn differently! Sometimes, what appears to be carelessness or laziness is in reality part of the learning difficulty. For instance, many of my teachers thought that plastering my work with red ink, when I made spelling mistakes, was doing me a favour. Actually, it did more harm than good. Not only did it make me feel bad about myself, it didn’t help me to learn the correct spellings either!
After speaking to my parents, some of my teachers did change their approach. They tried to do things that were in my best interest, but most of them did not really know how a dyslexic student learns. I acknowledge that in Primary school I had far fewer teachers, who got to know me better, but I was shocked at the new problems a broader timetable and a range of subjects could bring about.
One of the biggest problems I had when I moved to Secondary school was the Head of Special Needs. In my opinion, he did not have any understanding of dyslexia. In fact, he did not seem to believe in it. There was a conflict right from the beginning. On my second day at the school he changed the ‘band’ I was in. As a result of this, his department could not support me in class. He would not consider changing the outreach teacher he had chosen for me, even though we did not get on together.
When we had an annual review, the Head of Special Needs insisted that I did not need a ‘statement’, much to the bewilderment of all concerned. He said that his department could provide the support I needed, but refused to say what form that support would take. The LEA removed my statement or 'rescinded' it, as it is officially known.
Before they could do this, they had to do a lot of tests. All the same tests I had done previously, so there was some familiarity. Over the years I had done almost every standardised test there was on the market! It is important not to over use tests, but here I was being tested about once a month! The best example of this is with the ‘Neale Analysis’ which was used so much that it no longer gave an accurate picture of my reading ability. This happened with most of the tests. Even so, when the school did a reading test I came out surprisingly below average and below what they expected. Despite this, the Head of Special Needs supported the LEA in removing the statement. This, and the fact that he did not follow the correct procedures for holding a review meeting, as laid down by the Code of Practice, led to ill feeling between my parents and himself.
At Secondary school I did not have an annual review for three years and only had one because the LEA wanted to take my statement away. The establishment went about annual reviews in such a manner, that what they did was not allowed by the Code of Practice. This gave us good grounds for an appeal to the Special Needs Tribunal.
The process leading up to the tribunal was a rather complicated thing. At first we thought that we would either have to appeal to the Secretary of State (this can take up to two years!) or take legal action, so we contacted the British Dyslexia Association for help. They put us in touch with a befriender, who has a lot of experience of supporting parents in these matters. He contacted a solicitor, on our behalf, called Mr. Love. Mr. Love wrote all our legal documents and helped us out on points of law. He thought we had a good case and recommended that we took the case to court. The BDA paid for one of the leading barristers in the country, Mr. John Friel, to write to the legal aid board asking for legal aid. However, we were refused. In the end it did not really matter as we were able to go to the tribunal instead. This is how it happened -
When Oldham LEA decided to take my statement away they did not follow the proper procedure. This enabled us to take the matter to the tribunal. The 1993 Act, which allowed us to appeal to the tribunal, came into effect in September 1994. They had already made the decision to rescind before this date, but because they had not followed the correct procedure and my parents had not been informed of their rights, the whole process was delayed and the decision was not finalised until January 1995. By this time Special Needs Tribunals had been set up to listen to cases like ours.
Leading up to the tribunal, a lot of paper work was prepared and sent to the panel, so that they can write up the case before the hearing. I was not allowed to attend the tribunal. I was not too pleased about this but there was nothing I could do. The consequences of this is, that all the information I relate here I learned from other parties.
The tribunal was held in a hotel in Manchester. Three people sat on the panel: a legal expert ( the chairman), a person with knowledge of local government, and an expert in the field of Special Educational Needs. They all read up on dyslexia before the case so that they knew what they are talking about. This was necessary due to the fact that Oldham LEA did not submit any evidence. Perhaps this was because there was none! (At least, compared to our boxes of evidence.) The tribunal were not happy about the situation. At the tribunal, the Head of Special Needs tried to hand out documents containing National Curriculum levels. This is not the correct procedure, as all paper work must be submitted to the board at least two weeks before hand. He was not allowed to do this, so the LEA had no case.
This lead to my statement being reinstated and an amendment made to it saying that I had to have a teacher qualified in dyslexia. It is very rare for a tribunal to make an amendment to a statement.
The result was not known on the day, however. The tribunal went away to decide and then sent out the results ten days later. As it affected me most, we got the result first. When I received this result I took great pride in informing the Head of Special Needs that I had kept my statement and of the amendment to it.
The problems with the Head of Special Needs did not end here. A year later, at my transitional review meeting, once again the correct procedures were not followed. A meeting was set up without my parent’s knowledge, which the Head of Special Needs refused to rearrange. My parents were furious! They had no choice but to write a letter to the Head of the school, to the Director of Education for Oldham, Dave Tweddle (the Special Needs Advisor), and the chairman of the governors. These letters were courteous but highly critical of the way the arrangements had been handled. Dave Tweddle was called out of a meeting and had to come into school to sort out the mess. It also led to the chairman of the governors coming into school to have a word with the Headmaster and the Head of Special Needs.
Fortunately, all this seems to be behind us now. The specialist support I received after the tribunal was very helpful. I had a teacher from the Dyslexia Institute for two hours per week in school, and one hour privately outside school. This lead to me making some progress, which helped a lot. I had made no progress in reading, spelling and handwriting skills since coming to the school!
After two years of specialist help from the Dyslexia Institute teacher I did do fairly well in my exams. I got 7 C’s and a B, at GCSE, but I did not pass English Language. This is the area I am statemented for. In September I entered the sixth form at Crompton House and got a new teacher. So here I am second time round, writing my course work.
Of course, if nothing else my dyslexic trials and tribulations have given me a lot to write about! I hope you have learnt something from my experiences, and remember dyslexics do not always etirw sdrawkcab!
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