Dyslexia and expectations with changing your teaching methods

[Tauranga]

Hello, I wondered if any teachers from high school/ secondary school would be able to help me. My boy is extremely dyslexic and I have had to have various meetings about him. The school reacts by saying yes to changing the way they teach him. However the changes they are making to the teaching is only applied to my son. Ten percent, or probably more, kids have dyslexia but they literally ignore this fact unless a parent becomes involved. I was wondering if any of you are in a school which has a generic dyslexia friendly way of teaching which has been rolled out to all teachers? In our case, homework is presented through many ways but one way emails the parents to let them know the child has homework. This helps disorganised kids as their parents can remind them. Easy to use but only a handful of teachers use it. Another is writing on a whiteboard. White with black writing is the worst for reading for dyslexics, and as it is a processing disorder it is hard to copy words down from a board, especially if the words are jigging about.....however most teachers keep doing this, using black pens etc. We are a fully ipad friendly school and the teachers could use this to present all materials electronically but instead some take pictures of book pages as jpegs which means children cannot use immersive reader....I could go on. I am trying to get a standard way to present information to the pupils which includes dyslexic children, and wondered if any school already has this in place. I would really appreciate any tips and help from the professionals! Ps all the teachers I have approached are wonderful, and try very hard to help my son. However i have to go through this every year, and it seems bonkers that the school doesn't implement a system of teaching which includes all the children. Thank you for any comments x

I think you need to focus on what works for your child and ensuring that his teachers are implementing the strategies that work for him. There are many many needs in a classroom - some classes have pupils who need to work in a very quiet, ordered predictable way in the same class as pupils
who need to verbalise their thoughts to a peer before writing them down and who need frequent in-class sensory breaks. Satisfying these sometimes conflicting needs is the job of the teacher. Looking out for the needs of your son is what you should focus on.

Thanks for taking the time to reply, much appreciated.
I have to disagree however as I am asking for strategies which do not impact other kids at all, eg using a different colour pen on whiteboard, or putting homework in satchel consistently.
I am interested in teachers perspectives to being asked to make these changes, thanks

You are assuming that what works for your child won't impact others. That's unlikely. I once had a class with 3 dyslexic children - one who wanted a pink background, one who wanted blue and one who wanted turquoise. Which colour should my PowerPoint backgrounds have been?! My decision to do it in pink has an impact on blue and turquoise. Children are in a class, not receiving private tutoring. Sometimes, activities will be less than ideal for the dyslexic mind but will suit others learning styles perfectly. I can't think of a class where everything I do is ideally suited to everyone all of the time. It's mix and match, I guess, trying to balance the learning for everyone.

It is fine to ask and I would be happy to be reminded regularly because I teach over 150 kids a week and with the best will in the world, I sometimes forget. I am happy to photocopy worksheets or things to stick in in the right colour, I am happy to give dyslexic children text to stick in rather than have them copy it, and I will put homework on the system where parents can see it. I also use a dyslexic font on PowerPoint or worksheets.

However, what I do object to is a parent telling me thst my using a different coloured pen, for example, won't impact another child when that parent has no idea of the needs of each individual member of the class. You want orange/red/blue when I know that the colourblind child can't see that colour? What then?

Hello, I understand what you are saying and if any suggestions impacted other children then that would be taken into account.

A teaching style 'not suiting a dyslexic mind' is not the problem...the problem is they have no access to their education in many instances in a very basic manner. They need to access their education along with their peers. In most cases, changing teaching styles to allow for their differences makes no difference to kids without dyslexia and can help many.

An example may be the teacher telling the kids to read the next few pages of a book with their partner. If instead they suggest they can read or listen to the pages then this is a change which normalises dyslexic learning and does not affect other children who would prefer to read. Of course, in this case, the book has to be accessible in electronic format.

I certainly would not be telling teachers to do anything. I know some schools are 'dyslexic friendly' around my area and get many children enrolling because of the way they try to help ( ie normalising using noise cancelling headphones and having some headphones available and accessible for all the children). I just wondered how teachers react to working in these schools and what teachers may think about making these kind of changes in their schools, if it doesn't currently.

You have confused me as your later post seems to contradict your OP.

Basically the school my child attends makes no allowances for dyslexic children when they could make some tiny changes which would not affect anyone and these changes would make a huge impact on the kids with dyslexia.

Dyslexic children are leaving in droves but those who cannot afford the local private school are trying to get some of the tiny changes implemented across the school so that each parent doesn't have to attend the school and have individual meetings to basically ask for the same tiny changes.

I wanted teachers opinions on this. I wondered if anyone worked in a school which cared and took dyslexics I to account. I wondered if any teachers had any thoughts. I appreciate any feedback at all, and thank you for your replies.

Do these children have individual learning plans or similar? Whilst there are generic strategies that we happily adopt, a child who is extremely dyslexic is likely to need more bespoke provision. Which is why I suggested focusing on the needs of your child rather than trying to implement broader strategies. However, I am not sure that I am being helpful.

I'm not sure it is useful to view people with dyslexia (or any other condition) as a homogeneous group with the same needs. I would be doing my students a disservice if I didn't do my SEND assess, plan, do, review and meet with parents and child to discuss their individual need every term. As a previous poster has said, what what child finds useful, another doesn't.
Within one class, different adjustments might be made for dyslexic children to make progress. There are sometime co-morbidities to also consider.
You might find it useful to look at the SEND code of practice to understand what the school should be doing.

@wonderpants that would be wonderful, if each child was assessed and helped individually. However nothing is done for any child unless the parents have meetings which they have to push for and these usually happen part way through the year, and even then the changes are mostly not implemented.

There is one extra learning teacher! She is lovely and trys but has so many children who need her, she can't do everything. In our school dyslexic children do not get plans.

I certainly do not view dyslexic children as homogeneous but some of the changes we are after are very small, like putting all homework on satchel one. ( this would help all the kids as currently homework is put in lots of different folders, changing all the time). Like not giving jpegs to learn from but electronic formatted information so if they need to the children can listen to the information.

I will look for the SEND code, thank-you so much for this. I'm not sure what co morbidity is, is that when a change to help one child hinders another?

You sound such a supportive teacher, and I have come across so many wonderful teachers. Thank you for replying. Can I say that every child you help who is dyslexic or needs extra help, you make such a difference, and thank you for that.

@Newrumpus the kids do not get individual learning plans, although I have asked. My son is on the extreme end of dyslexia and has processing disorder and iren lens etc etc I have managed to get him a meeting with an educational psychologist which might help.
However each term I email all his teachers and the majority are so lovely and help but some do not. The teachers who do not help him by using methods which he can't learn from do so from a place of lack of understanding about dyslexia.

I have found a group of mums who have sons who are being written off as stupid and badly behaved when we know it is not that case. It's like going back in time in this school.

Thanks for all your replies.

Co-morbidities are those diagnoses which often go alongside the main diagnosis (such as processing difficulties, in this case).

It is good news that the EP is getting involved. Ask him/her to make an IEP or action plan and then arrange to meet the SENDCo very early in the year (not half way through). At the end of the meeting, ask for a date to review the strategies - see what has worked and what needs changing - set this date for 6/8 weeks time (half a term) and insist that it is reviewed regularly. Most adaptations for dyslexia are not huge or onerous so shouldn’t be a problem within most mainstream classrooms.

Do you have a good relationship with the SENDCo?

www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-guide-for-parents-and-carers

You might find this useful!

I teach at a dyslexia-friendly school and we have many dyslexia-friendly strategies in place as a matter of course. They support the dyslexic children in school, including those who don't yet know that they're dyslexic of course, and do not negatively impact the other children or create extra work for the teacher. Is this the sort of thing you mean?

You will be aware that coloured overlays and veils have been discredited now but they are readily available for those pupils with visual disorders such as irlens.

We use sans serif fonts on whiteboards and worksheets.

We minimise any requirement to 'copy from the board.'

Instructions are given verbally and also displayed.

Organisational tools such as visual timetables, writing frames, phoneme frames etc are in all classrooms.

Skills such as note-taking, touch typing, mind maps are taught and encouraged.

Spellings are only corrected if they have been taught, and only 1-2 spelling corrections in any piece of work, personalised spelling lists, strategies to support the acquisition of spelling skills and rules are taught. Dictionaries and spellcheckers are on every table.

These are some of the things we do, and they feature in most reports from assessors and ed psychs.

Interventions are provided for those children who need even more support of course.

OP, you are right that all of these things help every child, and I bet most teachers are already doing a lot of them without thinking about them. Do you have a report from your child's assessor? I expect it lists all of the ways the school could support him. Could you meet with the SENCO to discuss the fact that many of these strategies would benefit every pupil? She is not going to change the culture of the school overnight but it would be a start.

@justfiveminutes thank you so much for taking the time to reply, I just saw it now. What you are saying is exactly what I mean. Tiny changes which can become habits for everyone. Thank-you.

There us really no help in this school. The 2 support teachers have their hands full with high need kids and the kids who just quietly fail have to just do so, quietly.

We had some specific dyslexia training organised last year in my secondary school. Some of the strategies were really simple so I now ensure every PowerPoint has a coloured background and use a sans serif font. All PowerPoints are copied onto the class' OneNote notebook and I believe this has text to speech capability. Making them available to all also helps kids who are disorganised or forgetful.

I teach a practical subject so never have copying from the board. We are encouraged to give verbal and written instructions and feedback. It takes hardly any more time to sort, so it's a no-brainer for me to do it.

@Malbecfan thank you for replying. This is exactly the type of info I am looking for.... thank you!

The formatting though could be the only format the teacher has the information in. I have to screenshot a lot of stuff as jpegs because using the original source would be impossible or screw up the actual display formatting of the page.

With the coloured backgrounds, I have at least 3 non dyslexic students with other needs that mean they can only see black and white. Who do you prioritise? A coloured background would disadvantage those children.

Uploading every homework (if not a school expectation) is more work for teaching staff. We introduced it last year and I have to set aside an hour a week to upload and set it per class.

I'm genuinely interested in why some of your pupils prefer black text on a white background. I've never come across that before. Personally, I would have thought black on cream would work best here for the majority of the class. Of course, if photocopying worksheets, you can copy onto the individual colours that help each student.

I don't think anyone would expect you to adapt screenshots. Re typing screenshots wouldn't be a reasonable adjustment.

Uploading your PowerPoints shouldn't take you an hour. I do it at the end of each day, ready for the next day, and it takes minutes. It helps all of the children, not just those with dyslexia. If the system at your school is overly complicated could you raise that, to see if it could be made simpler?

They don't prefer it, they have medical conditions that mean they can only see black and white. Photocopying onto lots of different colours comes with its own time cost. One class had 4 colours and white.

The uploading that takes you a few minutes per day (say 12...) is an hour a week over 5 days. To set homework like this does take an hour a week for the classes I teach. The system isn't bad, but pdf documents are the only format all students can reliably open, so everything has to be saved in that format, all answers etc removed, then uploaded. We are a deprived area with students on a variety of devices (mostly phones). Previously I only had to print the sheet, now I have to do that as well.

There are lots of reasons.

Some students refuse to use any differentiation, even if they need it or it benefits them. They don't like to be different to their peers.

Contrasting needs. I teach 11 different classes per week of 34 students each. An average class will have about 7 children with SEN. My bottom sets might have upwards of 25. This year I will have a class with a dyslexic child who needs everything with a blue background, and a colourblind student who cannot see blue and will need a white background. I usually have 1 student with ASD who needs a calm environment, but I'll have the parent of the ADHD student complaining that my lessons need to include more games, to then have the ASD student have a meltdown, so SLT tell me I need to have no games in my lessons as student with ASD needs quiet. Meanwhile (and this is true) I have the student with SEMH complaining to SENCo that the ticks from student with ASD is making them anxious. So how can you win when dealing with this?

Next, and I hate myself for saying this, but time and resources. We use a black pen because they are the cheapest and budgets are stretched. Pdfs go online rather than copying it up because I don't have the time to copy it up. I can't email every parent of every dyslexic child their homework, because I don't have that kind of time. I will upload it to the vle though and expect the parent to keep on top of that system if they need to prompt. Planning takes a massive chunk of time, but when you have the sheer number of needs that we are dealing with, I could literally be spending all my time planning and creating differentiated materials. But in the 10 hours per week I have after school I need to: run detentions, mark 3 classes of books per week to keep on top of the marking policy, attend meetings, parent's evenings, open days, plan lessons, call back parents, keep on top of my displays, create and update schemes of learning, run revision classes, intervention sessions with students who had covid/were sick so missed loads of learning and now can't keep up, mark assessments, analyse results, transfer results to central system, etc. If we ignore the outlier classes with 25+ SEN and say an average of 7 students with SEN across 11 classes, that's 77 adjustments I need to put into place into every single activity I do, plus homework. That's not sustainable, and as PP has said, all dyslexic students are not the same and their needs can vary massively. So we try and do the little things like upload the slides and homework to vle, I make the font comic sans, I have written as well as verbal instructions but it usually isn't enough.

Rather than saying "why aren't teachers doing more?" You need to be saying "why aren't governments funding more?". But parents know it's easier to get teachers to work longer and longer than it is to get fight for the funding schools desperately need to make classes smaller, to provide professional training by experts rather than Mr Harris in geography who once got a grade 8 out a dyslexic student some years ago, to hire more support assistants, to buy software and devices such as tablets, laptops and reading pens to support learning, and to retain more experienced staff so new teachers can learn from them. Even things like money for overlays, coloured paper and printing needs to be considered.

This isn't just a problem impacting dyslexic students, it impacts everyone in the room.

@Hercisback I don't understand why it takes so long. I type my powerpoint then copy it into our Teacher OneNote notebook, which takes a few seconds. From there it takes around 10 seconds to copy it to the class OneNote book. It goes into the section where they cannot annotate it. I don't have the range of needs that @TheNefariousOrange does but it is really quick to change the background colour on every slide so I would save both versions clearly labelled then copy the main one for the class as I've just described but for any student needing adaptations, send them the other version.

We do almost everything digitally and all students have a school laptop running Teams. The only time I have issues is when it comes to mock exams where we have to remember to get resources printed on the correct coloured paper of the correct size.

We do very little digitally, there's the difference. Homework is paper and digital (as in we have to do both). We don't use teams or one note. I barely use ppt as most lessons are a visualiser so uploading that would be a right faff.

I set 14 pieces of homework a week. Even at 4 mins per class that's an hour to set.

You are clearly in quite an affluent area. What do you do when the student hasn't got a device to get the materials? The only option is to print off the resources.

I'm not making excuses, we do do this, but that is only a small piece of the picture. You've got everything else to plan along with it like some students need prompts, some need a vocab bank, if I'm using the textbooks I will have to book a reading pen, some may have forgotten the info that that lesson builds on, so might need a quick activity revising that before moving on, there might be a definition test, so one dyslexic student with very poor recall might need a match the definition and term test, whereas another might just want a little prompt, another might remember the terms perfectly but need marking leniency with the spellings of the terms. What if during AfL you are not convinced they've fully grasped an area so you decide to do some further exercises just one that one area, but on the spot? You won't have them printed off because teaching sometimes does require a bit of spontaneity.

Supporting dyslexic students properly is a lot more than changing the background.

"They don't prefer it, they have medical conditions that mean they can only see black and white."

What medical conditions please? I'm genuinely interested as have never heard of this before.

"Some students refuse to use any differentiation, even if they need it or it benefits them. They don't like to be different to their peers."

I completely understand this. That's why I like 'differentiation' provided for the whole class - supports those with SEN and those without too (or at least doesn't disadvantage them).