Several teachers at Red Bay Primary
School are raising funds to pay for a distance learning course in teaching
children with dyslexia.
Red Bay Primary plans to screen every
new child entering the school in the fall of 2011.
Wayne Roberts, a teacher at the
school, says the course will send roughly 40 per cent of the school staff to be
trained in dyslexia teaching methods.
“This course requires approximately
100 hours study and will better equip our teachers’ work with children
identified as having a specific learning deficit,” he said. “Further to this, we are purchasing resources
which will enable RBPS to begin screening children in our school from January
for dyslexia and other learning barriers.”
Mr. Roberts and other school staff
talked about a particular Year 6 student who could potentially be
dyslexic. This began a search for a way
to intervene and screen children for dyslexic tendencies.
Amy Hunt, a counsellor at the
school, says that they are filling a need within the school that would
otherwise be handled by another professional.
“There are some resources there,
but there aren’t enough to meet the needs of all the children,” she said.
The deputy principal at Red Bay
Primary, Monique Roberts, said the program focuses on early detection.
“We could catch it at much earlier
age, rather than be on a waiting list to see an education psychologist,” she
said. “We could actually be trained in
helping them until they could get an official diagnosis. We can help them to ensure that they’re
learning the most that they can.”
Software for screening
Part of the money raised will go to
specific screening software that allows a child to take a test yielding results
that give teachers an indication of learning strengths and deficiencies. The distance learning course costs $400 US
per teacher. The Caledonian Group has
already donated enough for two of the teachers.
“As a teacher, you feel frustrated
when you know there are children in your class who are intelligent, but you
can’t reach them,” Mr. Roberts said.
“You know they need help and it’s really hard to get them the specialist
help that they need sometimes, and it’s tough.”
“But it’s not just tough for the
teachers, but it’s tough for the parents and kids too.”
The International Dyslexia
Association defines dyslexia as a specific learning disability that is characterized
by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor
spelling and decoding abilities.
These difficulties typically result
from a deficit in the phonological component of language. Other results include problems in reading
comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede the growth of
vocabulary.
The IDA estimates that as many as
20 per cent of the world’s population has some symptoms of dyslexia.
Dyslexia is a life-long condition,
but people with dyslexia can be taught to read and write well by using a
systematic and explicit method that involves several senses — hearing, seeing,
touching — at the same time.
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