[SSC] Communications, assessment and disability

[Alan Gurbutt]

Dear All,

 

It was good to meet you all yesterday. Thank you for allowing my daughter to
stay. I wanted her to experience learning set aside from schooling. She's
been busy with GCSEs which is leaving little time for reading more widely.
It must have worked; she is full of enthusiasm and is now busy transferring
the creative projects tree to a computer representation.

 

We enjoyed the communications workshop, looking at speaking and listening
for personalised accessible learning.

 

Regarding disability and special education needs, I'm conscious that I was
asked to write a short paper about my experience with dyslexia. Please
accept my apologies for not having time to do this hence being ill prepared
for yesterday.  

 

To the best of my knowledge I am the only member of my family to have been
affected by dyslexia and by a twist of fate it hasn't been passed down to my
children. However, it should be noted that the word 'dyslexia' is a very
broad term which can have implications beyond genetic transmission, for
intergenerational learning. This can be compounded by compulsory education
where standardisation can fail to capture creativity of the young and/or
disabled. 

 

Some describe dyslexia as a specific learning disability (SpLD) whilst
others see it as a gift of neurological diversity. I guess, where
adjustments are made to learning it becomes less of a disability, where they
are not the opposite may apply. It is doubtful however to be clear-cut
because for some the effects can be severe. For example, dyslexia is
associated with conditions such as ADHD. 

 

Then there's the issue of how society constructs disability. Some argue for
inclusion, for equality of opportunity, whilst others see inclusion as a
dumbing down of excellence or cheating. State education in England has
provided few favours. It has been in a state of flux since the 1944
Education Act on how to divide children. Recent amendments to state
education around admissions and academies will mean it will only get worse
for those who don't fit the mould. What this essentially means is that
Higher Education will become a distant dream for many.      

 

There are legal protections in the Equality Act 2010. Basically, if a
condition is expected to last for more than 12 months reasonable adjustments
must be made. I'll revisit this at some point.

 

The Scottish Government have produced a working definition of dyslexia which
is quite useful    

 

Dyslexia can be described as a continuum of difficulties in learning to
read, write and/or spell, which persist despite the provision of appropriate
learning opportunities. These difficulties often do not reflect an
individual's cognitive abilities and may not be typical of performance in
other areas. The impact of dyslexia as a barrier to learning varies in
degree according to the learning and teaching environment, as there are
often associated difficulties such as:

 

.         auditory and /or visual processing of language-based information

.         phonological awareness

.         oral language skills and reading fluency

.         short-term and working memory

.         sequencing and directionality

.         number skills

.         organisational ability

.         Motor skills and co-ordination may also be affected.

Dyslexia exists in all cultures and across the range of abilities and
socio-economic backgrounds. It is a hereditary, life-long,
neuro-developmental condition. Unidentified, dyslexia is likely to result in
low self esteem, high stress, atypical behaviour, and low achievement.

Learners with dyslexia will benefit from early identification, appropriate
intervention and targeted effective teaching, enabling them to become
successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and
responsible citizens.

My extreme view for what it is worth is based on retrospection combined with
what I have learnt at the University of Lincoln on a child studies
programme. Everything we become, our ability to process language, with the
exception of profound and unrelated illness, relates to our attachment to
our primary caregiver and our culture: social interactions with other people
and institutions.    

 

The work of Russian educational psychologist and revolutionary Lev Vygotsky
has had a profound influence on me, but not in the usual sense. As is common
to many dyslexics I often miss chunks of text, transpose meaning and arrive
at a different place. I misread Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development
(ZPD) meant I would need to analyse gaps in my own skills in order to find
additional support for my children's homework. Anyway, all was not lost by
failing to realise that teachers are intended to provide support within the
zone of consolidated knowledge and potential ability. At this point I had
spent three years campaigning for the underlying deficits associated with
premature birth to be passed from health into education so knew Vygotsky had
been at work here too (long story). It also became apparent that
interventions such as REAL (Raising Early Achievement in Literacy) use his
theories of ZPD and language development. Moreover, the correct
interpretation of Vygotsky's work was he rejected the notion that children
have to first meet a particular stage of maturation in order to move on to
the next stage of learning. With the right support learning could take place
through effective use of language. Most importantly, he had noted learning
can precede child development. He was ahead of his time. Current fMRI
studies are noting that brain development occurs in spurts and the brain is
far more plastic than was previously thought, particularly in teenage years.
Professor Price (UCL) recently said: "We have to be careful not to write off
poorer performers at an early age when in fact their IQ may improve
significantly given a few more years". 

 

Why am I waffling on about brain development and how does it relate to
dyslexia?

 

Allen Schore et al. have provided a multi disciplinary synthesis of
neuroscience from which they have determined sensitive periods of brain
development, particularly in the first 6 months, 24 months and adolescence
(up to 21/25 years of age). Most importantly, this type of research
reinforces the influence of the environment on the brain throughout life -
on human potential. Furthermore, it is now generally noted that when damage
occurs to one area of the brain, the problem can be mediated by making
another area of the brain accessible for that activity. 

 

This is why we need to make reasonable adjustments for students with
disabilities in the assessment process. We need to move away from
standardisation and state control.  

 

Best wishes,

 

Alan 

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