Dyslexia in Ireland: Education, Inclusion, and Support

Introduction

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 for more materially in today's Irish society than in any previous generation. However, what parents do for their children remains a major issue shaped by what society wants, encourages, and approves (Leach, 1989). While more women are working in modern Ireland, childcare remains one of the major concerns in Irish society. Caring for children — especially those with dyslexia — remains a significant challenge. 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 to providing recommendations on how it can be addressed.

Overview of Dyslexia as an 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, with people experiencing mild to severe challenges. It is estimated that one in every ten people in Ireland, including children, is 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, to underestimate their own knowledge and skills, and to be 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 have increased the support they provide to children (Holden, 2013). These improvements have come despite the lack of adequate information and teacher training to support children with this condition. Children in Irish-medium schools do not need a formal diagnosis of dyslexia in order to access extra teaching supports. While teachers can provide an array of additional supports, existing research shows that current models do not suit all children with special educational needs, including those with dyslexia. There is a need for more information and knowledge to enable teachers to provide suitable additional support to dyslexic learners. Holden (2013) notes that the small amount of training available on this learning difficulty remains a major problem. Moreover, the special education resource infrastructure in Ireland is under strain 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.

Integration and Inclusion in Special Education

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 provided 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, the Disability Access Route to Education (DARE), Reasonable Accommodations in Certificate Examinations (RACE), and CAO courses (McCormack, 2018). However, these children still encounter difficulties including challenges in the readability of text, inadequate policies to promote dyslexia-friendly teaching, ineffective teaching strategies, and a lack of fairness in teaching approaches.

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. 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 those differences helps in adopting appropriate strategies to meet the needs of all learners, particularly those with special educational needs. In relation to the education of students with SEN, inclusion entails creating a learning environment that is conducive for all learners: special education learners are placed in regular classrooms and the education structure is adjusted to meet their needs. With regard to integration, the education of students with SEN involves providing additional supports and educational options to meet their needs within a structure that remains largely unchanged.

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 the school move towards each other to enable easy adaptation. An inclusive school provides equal opportunities to all learners by challenging prejudice and stereotypes, particularly those relating to special education learners. Such a learning environment creates awareness of special needs in the context of the familiar, rather than treating it as something that happens elsewhere. One of the benefits of inclusion is that it enables all students to access the full curriculum regardless of their educational needs and learning capabilities. Additionally, inclusion is associated with increased awareness of personal and social responsibility, challenges stereotypes regarding special education, and creates 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 — rather, the structure is adjusted to meet the needs of all learners, barriers to learning are removed, and learners are permitted to participate fully in the curriculum as equally valued members. However, a challenge of inclusion is the expectation it places on all stakeholders to adapt consistently to ongoing structural changes.

By contrast, integration involves creating a learning environment in which students with disabilities or special educational needs learn alongside their peers without disabilities (Bridgeway Education, 2021). Theoretically, integration is a positive approach that seeks to make learners with disabilities part of the larger classroom group. Efforts to promote integration involve providing additional supports to help learners adapt to the regular curriculum. In some cases, integration is achieved through the establishment of special education programs within the regular classroom or through pull-out services. The benefit of integration is that it ensures the existing educational system adapts to the needs of each student. However, it can be less effective because of the differences in how people learn, and providing additional supports and educational options can be challenging for 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 regard to inclusion as it provides a comprehensive framework for the education of individuals with special educational needs. The framework includes an outline of the responsibilities and duties of schools' boards 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. Furthermore, the concept of inclusive education can be challenging as its full implementation depends on care, personality, trust, and commitment. Implementing 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 with dyslexia in Ireland have increased over the past 50 years. Some of the available options include the introduction of accommodations for examinations, new entry routes into third-level education, and exemptions from Irish (Holden, 2013). Additional supports include financial help for the purchase of equipment, the Disability Access Route to Education (DARE), Reasonable Accommodations in Certificate Examinations (RACE), and CAO courses (McCormack, 2018). Additional teaching support for 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. Exemptions from the study of Irish are granted to learners diagnosed with specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia, based on specific criteria and in line with the outcomes of an educational psychological assessment. Exemptions granted at primary school level are recognized at post-primary level. RACE refers to supports provided to dyslexic learners in Junior and Leaving Certificate examinations, including the use of an exam reader, a computer or word processor, a scribe, or a tape recorder (McCormack, 2018). DARE refers to third-level alternative admission programs for learners whose difficulties have negatively affected their second-level education. Financial assistance is also available 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 without learning difficulties, dyslexic students may perform better in some subjects than others because of their uneven profile of ability. This uneven profile forms the basis upon which dyslexic students are granted subject choice as an educational support. Students also have options after second level, as DARE offers help through the reduction of points required for college entry for some students. Additionally, the National Council for Special Education collaborates with the National Disability Authority to publish an information booklet on educational supports and options for students with learning difficulties like dyslexia.

These educational options and supports are largely underpinned by the 2004 EPSEN Act. Their provision has been shaped by various pieces of legislation enacted over the past few decades, including the 1998 Education Act, the Education Welfare Act of 2000, and the Disability Act of 2005. Existing laws have created educational bodies such as NEP, SENO, and NCSE, each with specific roles in helping children access education. NEP processes applications for reasonable accommodations for children with special educational needs, while NCSE sets out the framework for schools' management boards to ensure inclusion. SENO ensures that learners with special educational needs receive the necessary supports to which they are entitled (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. Special education teachers provide teaching care and educational supports to these learners. In Ireland, a school's educational profile and size influence the number of special education teachers it is allocated. The school's profile is largely based on the number of students with complex SEN, the social context of the school (including gender and disadvantage), and the results of standardized tests. This process helps to ensure a fairer allocation of special education teachers to every school (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 to work with children with specific learning and/or care needs. Learning support teachers provide supplementary teaching to students who require extra help, offering their services either one-to-one or in groups, whether 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, making it easier for all staff to provide assistance to learners with difficulties like dyslexia. Through the combined support of special education teachers, Special Needs Assistants, school staff, and learning support teachers, students with dyslexia are provided with the resources required to ensure their optimal learning.