Dyslexia Friendly Schools

This is the face that we see almost daily when we tell Riley it is time to do his reading. I don't blame him, because it is really hard for him. Dyslexia is tough.

The UK, USA and New Zealand have all embraced the concept of dyslexia friendly schools. It is not such a hard thing to do and is based on the belief that “changing practice to accommodate dyslexic individuals often results in good practice for everyone”.

The British Dyslexia Association have a produced a Dyslexia Friendly School's Information Pack and the strategies and practices outlined just seem like good teaching practice to me. They require teachers to identify and repsond to the diverse needs of their students and to participate in relevant professional development. They demand excellence and have a zero tolerance of failure. They believe that if a student doesn't learn the way that they teach, then teachers should teach the way students learn.

The words in my mind are not the same as the words in my
hand, or at least my pen.William Dyslexia Friendly School's Information Pack

They outline some practical approaches such as sitting a dyslexic child next to a well motivated non dyslexic student so that they can work as study buddies, teaching continuous cursive writing (dyslexic kids make fewer mistakes this way and don't lose their place) and not getting a dyslexic child to read aloud in class.

Using reader friendly fonts such as Verdana, Comic Sans or Dyslexie, the new font developed to aid dyslexic readers, will benefit not only the dyslexic readers, but all children in the classroom.

Learning should be multisensory, providing children with lots of different ways to learn, cement and master knowledge.

There is so much assistive technology available to help a dyslexic reader and it is hard to believe that in a world where most schools have laptops, or iPads available for student use, that schools can't afford to purchase this technology.

There are many, many more things that a school can implement to assist dyslexic children, the British Dyslexia Association and The New Zealand 4 Dyslexia sites are brilliant for lots of ideas.

What I really do not get is why it is taking Australian governments so long to see that there is a real geniune need for dyslexia friendly schools. The only real reason I can think of for the delay is that by introducing dyslexia friendly schools, each govenment would have to acknowledge that dyslexia is an actual learning disability. Believe me, when I see Riley's very sad face and the way that he struggles to read I have no doubt that dyslexia is a very real learning disability.

If you haven't signed the petition to get dyslexia recognised as a learning disability in WA, please do, the link is below. If you don't live in WA, why not start your own petition.

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/support-dyslexia-as-a-recognised-learning-disability-in.html