Addressing Dyslexia in Ireland

Dyslexia in Ireland

Purcell (2001) notes that nearly 50% of the adult population in Ireland are parents with more women working than ever before. As a result, children are provided more materially in today’s Irish society compared to any other previous generation. However, what parents do for their children remains a major issue that is shaped by what society actually wants, encourages, and approves (Leach, 1989). While more women are working in modern Ireland, one of the major issues in modern Irish society is childcare. Caring for children, especially those with dyslexia remains a major problem. The number of children with dyslexia has continued to grow resulting in an ever-increasing need to provide special care services to those children. This paper examines the problem of dyslexia in Ireland with a view of providing recommendations on how it can be addressed.

Overview of the Additional Need

Dyslexia is essentially a learning difficulty that affects how quickly and accurately an individual can read and spell (Dyslexia Association of Ireland, 2020). By its nature, this condition presents itself as a series of various strengths and weaknesses in people with mild to severe challenges. It is estimated that one in every 10 people in Ireland including children are affected by dyslexia (Dyslexia Association of Ireland, 2020). While some people are born with a mild form of the condition, others have severe dyslexia. According to the National Council for Special Education (2020), learning difficulties like dyslexia generate poor emotional outcomes among children including a lack of confidence and low self-esteem. Children suffering from dyslexia are also likely to be victims of physical and emotional abuse, underestimate their own knowledge and skills, and are afraid to take risks. These emotional outcomes are attributable to difficulties in developing effective strategies and skills in some areas of the curriculum.

Over the past few years, teachers in Ireland have improved their knowledge regarding this learning difficulty and provide support to children (Holden, 2013). The improvements have come despite the lack of adequate information and training for teachers to support children with this condition. Children in Irish medium schools do not need to have a formal diagnosis of dyslexia in order to access extra teaching supports. While teachers can provide an array of additional supports to their children, existing research shows that current models do not suit all children with special educational needs including those suffering from dyslexia. There is a need for more information and knowledge for teachers to provide suitable additional support to learners with dyslexia. Holden (2013) notes that the small amount of training on this learning difficulty remains a major problem. Moreover, the special-education resource infrastructure in Ireland is eroded and can be quite challenging to access. Therefore, additional training and continuing professional development, as well as improved access to special education resources, are required to enhance the ability of teachers to provide appropriate support to dyslexic learners.

Difficulties that May Be Encountered

As noted by Curry (2001), children with special educational needs in Ireland have various educational options and resources available to them. The special-education resource infrastructure exists to ensure that children with special educational needs receive additional support in their learning. These resources are availed as part of the focus on children’s rights and equality, which has become critical in the modern childcare sector (Donohoe & Gaynor, 2003). For children with dyslexia, some of the existing educational resources include additional teaching support, financial help for the purchase of equipment, language exemptions, Disability Access Route to Education (DARE), Reasonable Accommodations in Certificate Examinations (RACE), and CAO courses (McCormack, 2018). However, these children still encounter some difficulties including challenges in readability of text, inadequate policies to promote dyslexia-friendly teaching, ineffective teaching strategies, and lack of fairness in teaching approaches.

Integration and Inclusion Issues

Integration and inclusion are two terms that have become common in today’s learning environment given the increased focus on meeting the needs of special education learners. Integration and inclusion have become common as they represent various aspects of inclusion of special education learners in general education classrooms. The National Council for Special Education (2020) reports that it is increasingly important to establish the fundamental differences between these two concepts. An understanding of the differences between these two concepts helps to adopt appropriate strategies to meet the needs of all learners, particularly those with special education needs. In relation to the education of students with SEN, inclusion entails creating a learning environment that is conducive for all learners as special education learners are placed in regular classrooms and the education structure tweaked to meet their needs. With regards to integration, the education of students with SEN involves providing additional supports and educational options to meet their needs.

Inclusion basically refers to the actual combination of regular education and special education based on the belief that children learn differently and should fully access the same curriculum. A successfully inclusive school is one that provides a caring and trusting learning environment in which the pupil and school move towards each other for easy adaptation. An inclusive school provides equal opportunities to all learners through challenging prejudice and stereotypes, especially relating to special education learners. In this case, such a learning environment creates awareness of special needs in the context of the familiar rather than approaching it as something that takes place out there. One of the benefits of inclusion is that it enables all students to have access to the full curriculum regardless of their educational needs and learning capabilities. Additionally, inclusion is associated with the benefits of increased awareness of personal and social responsibility in dealing with stereotypes regarding special education and creating a positive climate of achievement for all learners. These benefits emerge from the fact that through inclusion students are not expected to adapt to a fixed education structure. The education structure is tweaked to meet the needs of all learners as barriers to learning are removed and learners to permitted to participate fully in the curriculum as they are made to feel equally valued. However, the challenge of inclusion is its expectation that students will adapt to the changes made to the existing education structure.

On the contrary, integration is creating a learning environment in which students with disabilities or special education needs learn alongside their peers without disabilities (Bridgeway Education, 2021). Theoretically, integration is a positive approach that seeks learners with disabilities to be part of the larger group in the classroom. Efforts to promote integration involves providing additional supports to learners to adapt to the regular curriculum. In some cases, integration is achieved by the establishment of special education programs within the regular classroom or pull-out services. The benefit of integration is the fact that it ensures the current educational system adapts to the needs of each student. However, it can be less effective because of the differences in how people learn. Additionally, providing additional supports and educational options can be challenging to teachers.

In Ireland, the inclusion of people with special educational needs is supported by existing legislation such as the EPSEN Act of 2004. This legislation is important with regards to the inclusion of learners with special education needs as it provides a comprehensive framework for the education of such individuals. The comprehensive framework includes an outline of the responsibilities and duties of the schools’ board of management and teachers in relation to providing education to students with special needs (European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, 2022). However, achieving inclusive education for children with dyslexia remains challenging because of inadequate general teacher training on this learning difficulty. General education teachers do not have adequate continuing professional development to enhance their ability to provide effective additional supports to such children in general classrooms. The concept of inclusive education can be challenging as its full implementation depends on care, personality, trust, and commitment. Implementing the concept of inclusive education requires the collaboration of nearly all stakeholders, which can be difficult to achieve.

Available Educational Options and Supports

Educational options and supports available to children suffering from dyslexia in Ireland have increased over the past 50 years. Some of the available options and supports include the introduction of accommodations for exams, new entry routes into the third level, and exemptions from Irish (2013). Additional supports include financial help for the purchase of equipment, Disability Access Route to Education (DARE), Reasonable Accommodations in Certificate Examinations (RACE), and CAO courses (McCormack, 2018). Additional teaching support to learners with dyslexia is achieved through the allocation of special education teachers. The allocation process ensures that all students requiring support have access to special education teaching support. Exemptions from the study of Irish are granted to learners diagnosed with specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia. The exemption is granted based on specific criteria and in line with the outcomes of the educational psychological assessment. Exemptions granted to these learners at primary school is recognized at post-primary levels. RACE refers to supports given to dyslexic learners in Junior and Leaving Certificate exams including the use of the exam reader, the use of a computer/word processor, a scribe, and the use of a tape recorder (McCormack, 2018). DARE refers to third level alternative admission programs for learners whose difficulties have negatively affected their second level education. On the other hand, financial assistance is granted for the purchase of assistive technology or computers for personal or home use.

Educational supports for learners with dyslexia in Ireland include subject choice, which refers to individual preferences for subjects. Unlike students with no learning difficulties, dyslexic students may perform better in some subjects than others because of their uneven profile of ability. The uneven profile of ability is the basis upon which dyslexic students are granted subject choice as an educational support. These students also have choices after the second level as DARE offers them help through the reduction of points to some students when applying to college. Additionally, the National Council for Special Education collaborates with the National Disability Authority to publish an information booklet relating to educational supports and options for students with learning difficulties like dyslexia.

These educational options and supports are largely supported by the 2004 EPSEN Act. The provision of these educational supports has been influenced by the enactment of various legislation over the past few decades. Some laws that have been enacted to enhance access to education of special education learners include the EPSEN Act of 2004, the 1998 Education Act, Education Welfare Act of 2000, and The Disability Act (2005). Existing laws have created educational bodies like NEP, SENO, and NCSE, which have specific roles in helping children access education. NEP processes applications for reasonable accommodations for children with special education needs while NSCE sets out the framework for schools’ management boards to ensure inclusion. On the other hand, SENO ensures that learners with special education needs receive the necessary supports they are entitled to (National Council for Special Education, n.d.).

Students with dyslexia are supported by different stakeholders in the learning environment including teaching and non-teaching staff. One of the stakeholders who provide support to these learners are special education teachers. Special education teachers provide teaching care and educational supports to these learners. In Ireland, a school’s educational profile and size influences the number of special education teachers it is allocated. The school’s educational profile is largely based on the number of students with complex SEN, the social context of the school in consideration of gender and disadvantage, and the standardized tests’ results. This process is followed to help ensure that a fairer allocation of special education teachers to every school is achieved (National Council for Special Education, 2021).

Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) support children with dyslexia by providing non-teaching care support. These professionals are allocated to schools in order to work with children with specific learning and/or care needs. On the other hand, learning support teachers provide supplementary teaching to students who require extra help such as those with dyslexia. They offer their services either one-to-one or in groups and in a learning support room or a regular classroom. School staff offer support by collaborating with teachers and other professionals to ensure students with dyslexia have the necessary educational and non-teaching care and support. They essentially make it easier for teaching and non-teaching staff to provide support and care to learners with difficulties like dyslexia. Through the support offered by special education teachers, special needs assistants, school staff, and learning support teachers, students with dyslexia have the resources and support required to ensure their optimal learning.

Skills and Strategies Relevant to Curriculum Implementation

Differentiation is an important part of creating an inclusive classroom as it involves customizing instruction to meet the individual needs of learners. When implementing differentiation, teachers can differentiate products, processes, content, or the learning environment. Some of the ways differentiation can be used in the classroom include multiple intelligences and group work. Group work primarily entails dividing students into different groups in the classroom and giving them learning activities that enhance their learning and development. On the other hand, multiple intelligences is based on the idea that people have varying levels of intelligence. It is implemented in the classroom through various measures including customizing lessons, assignments, and classroom layouts. The National Council for Special Education establishes different guidelines relating to implementing differentiation in the classroom. Some of these guidelines include developing individual education plans, assessing and reviewing educational resources in relation to the needs of special education learners, coordinating the provision of education and support services to SEN learners, and assessing learners (European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, 2022).

The National Council for Special Education has established a Task Force to help develop outlines and measures to help meet the needs of special education learners. The Task Force established guidelines that are centered on concerns regarding the lack of a dedicated system for coordinating and supporting the work of learning support teachers among other stakeholders. In this regard, the Task Force recommends speedy implementation of Learning Support Guidelines. The Task Force also recommends the establishment of a national learning-support coordinator and regional learning-support coordinators by the Department of Education and Science (National Council for Special Education, 2020). With regards to skills, teaching staff offering support and services to students with dyslexia need to possess certain skills that are relevant to curriculum implementation. These include a degree of learning disability, skills in writing, reading or mathematics, and be of average intelligence or higher.

An Individual Education Plan is a written educational outline or program to meet the individual needs of a child. It includes learning goals/objectives, teaching strategies, and necessary accommodations/adjustments. It is created by the teacher in collaboration with the special educational needs organizers, and parents. These stakeholders are also responsible for the implementation of the IEP. Special education teachers are the front-line stakeholders in the implementation of an IEP given their role in providing educational or teaching care to learners with difficulties like dyslexia. Special educational needs organizers play a role in implementation of IEP by providing insights regarding the educational and care needs of learners with disabilities or learning difficulties. The role of learning support teachers in this process is offering additional teaching to these learners. The additional teaching should be provided in line with the learning needs, strategies, and plans stipulated in the IEP. SNAs play a role in this process by providing relevant non-teaching care support to learners with difficulties or disabilities. Parents help in implementing the IEP by creating a suitable home environment to support the child’s learning. Given the distinctive roles of these stakeholders in the learning process, the involvement of each of them is critical for the successful design and implementation of an IEP.

Interventions and Behavior Management Techniques

Since dyslexia is a learning difficulty, specific interventions are required to help children with this condition experience optimal learning and educational achievement. Some of these interventions include phoneme awareness, training in letter sounds, multisensory methods like color coding, and combining letters and phonemes through writing and reading texts. These interventions help to enhance the ability of these learners to decode and comprehend what is taught in the classroom (Snowling, 2013). The interventions are implemented as part of a structured approach to support students with learning difficulties or disabilities. A structured approach is required to take care of the individual learning needs and abilities of these learners. As part of the structured approach, the interventions are implemented in a manner that one lesson builds upon the previously learned material (Orpi, 2019).

This learning difficulty can also be addressed using an array of behavioral management techniques like social stories, parental involvement, and positive behavioral support. Parental involvement is a critical behavioral management technique for learners with difficulties like dyslexia because of the role parents play in their child’s upbringing. Parents can help their children model the desired behaviors in school by reinforcing the desired behaviors while at home. This involves creating a suitable home environment that supports the desired behaviors within the home setting. Moreover, parents also play an important role by modeling the desired behaviors to their children, which creates positive reinforcement. Social stories basically include graphical material that presents relevant information to students. Social stories could be informal and are used to provide visual information that shape students’ learning and behavior in the classroom (Vicker, 2021). Positive behavioral support is used to encourage students to model the desired behaviors within and outside the classroom environment. Similar to parental involvement, positive behavioral support provides positive reinforcement of desired behaviors. These techniques help to reinforce appropriate learning behaviors and activities among children with this disability. It also provides a means for various stakeholders to collaborate in providing necessary additional support to the learners.

A special needs assistant (SNA) plays an important role in assisting teachers to develop and implement monitoring systems, the IEP, and teacher’s instruction. SNAs achieve this by providing recommendations based on their assessment and understanding of the learning needs of individual students. Generally, SNAs play a crucial role in helping teachers to support students with special education and care needs. They do this by providing non-teaching support given that many students with special educational needs require special care. Since they are not qualified teachers, SNAs are not allocated to teach students or to offer any kind of educational support or services. Their role in assisting in the learning and development of students with disabilities includes conducting observations and assessments and working with other teaching and non-teaching staff in the learning environment. During this process, they use different kinds of observations and assessments that enhance understanding of the students’ learning and care needs. Direct observation of classroom performance and functional behavior assessment are some types of observations that may be used to evaluate behavior. When implementing the IEP, teachers can carry out tasks like writing and reading activities and group tasks. These activities help to improve comprehension and the reading/writing skills of students with disabilities while meeting the learning needs and objectives.