[SSC] [Norton AntiSpam] Communications, assessment and disability

Mon Jul 2 19:19:04 UTC 2012

Hi all

It was delightful to have Grace take part, with her quiet wisdom and careful listening.  I am so pleased that she felt able to be part of us.

Thanks Alan for a really useful insight into dyslexia.  I love the ZPD theory and get more from it every time I study it.  It's one of those truly intuitive models, for me.

You make the very valuable point that dealing with people as individuals is what really matters.  I hope that's what the SSC will excel at.

Sandie
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Alan Gurbutt 
  To: ssc at lists.aktivix.org 
  Sent: Sunday, July 01, 2012 9:16 PM
  Subject: [Norton AntiSpam][SSC] Communications, assessment and disability

  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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