Sana is Dyslexic. When the Standard Four teacher approached me with an example of Sana’s work; there was no denying that she was a classic dyslexic.  As the Head of Learning Difficulties, my first line of action was to check the child’s school records. 

I checked the school files and the copies of reports. Sana appeared to be a good student, with straight A’s in English – which included reading and writing! She had been in the school since Pre-KG. This meant she had gone through Pre-KG, Lower KG, Upper KG, Standard One, Standard Two and Standard Three.  That represented six years of schooling and no one, anywhere, had picked up on her difficulties, until now; this was very disturbing and a serious situation.

On careful investigation of the history of the school faculty, it was discovered that the KG staffing, at that time, was going through change and that unqualified staff were employed during Sana’s time in those classes. When she moved up into Standard One, her experience was with a newly qualified teacher, who loved guitar playing and singing to the children; good extra curricula activity at this level, but not at the expense of learning! The teacher didn’t seem to realise this and after complaints from the parents, she was dismissed for failing to teach the children anything during the first 4 months of Standard One!

Towards the end of Standard One, Sana had an experienced teacher, but her difficulties were still not recognised. Sana was a clever child who concealed her difficulties through strategies of copying and working with partners. Orally she was extremely capable. In Standard Two she had a good teacher, good that is, at teaching children with a few difficulties, but who did not understand this particular child’s problems and chose to ignore the widening gap in her basic skills. Unfortunately, the school authorities decided that the Standard Two teacher would ‘go up’ with the children to Standard Three, to enable continuity. This was the worst thing that could have happened to Sana. The gap widened and she was unable to read even the simplest words composed of vowel-consonant-vowel. She could not identify the sounds of the alphabet.

Why the Standard Two/Three teacher never reported this child’s deficits was a complete mystery. In fact when asked about it, she totally denied that the child had any difficulty whatsoever! (Some teachers feel that they themselves have failed, when children cannot learn in their classroom environment and they themselves go into denial!)  

By the time she reached Standard Four, an experienced teacher joined the school and within the first week, this teacher had come into my room with a set of queries. She showed me an example of Sana’s writing. She explained to me that Sana’s was a real problem and difficult to pin-point in the class because she was employing delaying tactics and opting-out attitudes to work.

The Standard 4 teacher’s anxieties and my own experience made me suspect that Sana was dyslexic. After checking her school records, the next course of action was the accurate assessment test. Teachers, with specialist qualifications need to be involved in testing for dyslexia. Small children often display the same characteristics as dyslexic children when they are learning to read and write: Reversals, inability to decode words. That is the reason that a professionally trained individual needs to diagnose this condition.  In some cases, an eye test and a hearing test may be advisable to rule out any physical impairment.  Meares Irlen Syndrome is a condition, which impairs reading ability. Many dyslexics have this condition.

Tests which are given to children to diagnose dyslexia

generally include:  cognitive tests of ability, auditory and visual memory, auditory and visual discrimination, and speed of processing, verbal fluency and orientation tests. These tests should only be undertaken by an experienced, qualified, Specific Learning Difficulties teacher.

Diagnosis by a psychologist is also possible in centres in big cities throughout India, but this can be expensive. 

Remember Dyslexia cannot be cured. Children need to be taught strategies to cope with it. So what is dyslexia? Dyslexia is a Specific Learning Difficulty (SpLD) which means that a person might have normal or above average intelligence but have great difficulties acquiring the specific skills of reading and writing. It is a condition affecting processing skills.

Dyslexia affects people in different ways. Some indicators might include: inability to learn to read and write, lack of confidence with written or printed words, stress when reading and writing under pressure, misreading and misunderstanding questions and instructions. They might confuse letters or words: m/w, n/u, b/d, off/of. Their writing might be littered indiscriminately with capital letters. Comprehension skills might be weak for their age and ability. Handwriting might indicate letter reversal with persistent b/d reversals. Oral skills and writing skills indicate significant discrepancy.

Short term memory might be impaired, sequencing thoughts a nightmare, and handwriting is often difficult to read. The standard of writing is erratic and there are lapses when using punctuation. Words chosen might be inappropriate, reversals might be apparent, letter transportations might be evident, spellings might be purely phonetic, plurals, endings and past tense ‘ed’ might be omitted. With older pupils, note-taking, essay planning and general organisation are major issues.

Dyslexic children are often judged as being lazy, unmotivated, sloppy and careless. In fact nothing could be further from the truth. Research has discovered that the dyslexic student works five times harder, mentally, than the average non-dyslexic student. The work of a dyslexic will never reflect the amount of time and effort that has gone into it.