Please find attached the draft Dyslexia Guidance (2012) document to be read in conjunction with the draft Dyslexia Policy (2012). These documents are to replace the existing Policy and Strategy Statement on Children with Dyslexic Difficulties (2002). If you would like to make any comments on the draft Dyslexia Policy or Guidance documents, please send them to Joyce Monroe, Senior Educational Psychologist, Department for Education and Children, by Friday May 11th 2012.

Joyce Monroe Senior Educational Psychologist

Department for Education and Children Hamilton House

Peel Road Douglas

Isle of Man IM1 5EZ

j.monroe@special.sch.im

Tel.: +(44) 1624 686084 Fax: +(44) 1624 686633

Consultation closing date: Friday 11th May 2012

2

Draft

Dyslexia Guidance

Department of Education and Children Rheynn Ynsee as Paitchyn

March 2012

3

CONTENTS

Section

Page

A Checklist of early characteristics that may indicate dyslexia

4

B Checklist of school-age indicators of dyslexia

6

C Graduated Response

8

D Grid 5: Cognition and Learning 9

E Strategies to support the pre-school child

10

F Strategies to support the school-age student

12

G* Resources

18

* In order to reflect the most up-to-date information available about resources,

Section G will be updated regularly, and may be viewed and/or downloaded

from the Special Needs Wiki. Any changes to this document will be

highlighted in yellow to make them easier to locate.

4

Section A Checklist of early characteristics that may* indicate dyslexia

*Words of caution:

The characteristics listed below will be present, to some extent, in all very young

children because skills develop at different rates in different children. It is important

not to read too much into the observations other than to give an indication of areas

that may benefit from some additional support. Strategies to help the development

of these areas may be found in Section E.

1. Family history of dyslexia

2. Speech and language:

Slow speech development.

Word finding difficulties.

Word mispronunciation – e.g. ‘ambliance’ for ‘ambulance’, ‘pasghetti’ for

‘spaghetti’.

Jumbling words.

Difficulties finding words that rhyme.

Difficulties finding words that start with the same letter, e.g. pretty Polly

picked a …….

3. Auditory processing:

Difficulties following a rhythm, e.g. in clapping games.

Difficulties remembering and following instructions, particularly if there is

more than one part to the instruction, e.g. go and get teddy and put him in

the basket.

Difficulties learning nursery rhymes.

Difficulties remembering sequences, e.g. days of the week, months of the

year.

Unable to remember own birthday, address or phone number.

4. Sequencing:

Difficulties fastening buttons, learning to tie laces.

Difficulties learning to dress, i.e. the order in which the clothes have to be

put on.

5

Difficulties sorting beads by shapes.

Putting shoes on the wrong foot.

Difficulties turning taps on and off because of not remembering which way

they have to be turned.

5. Motor skills:

Difficulties learning to use scissors.

Difficulties learning to hold a pencil correctly, and may continue to hold it

awkwardly.

Difficulties maintaining balance (especially when blindfolded), e.g. standing

on one foot.

Clumsiness, e.g. difficulties skipping, hopping, throwing or catching a ball.

Difficulties learning to ride a bike.

6

Section B Checklist of school-age indicators of dyslexia

1. Family history of dyslexia

2. Development of reading skills:

Difficulty learning to recognise words.

Particular difficulty learning to recognise small prepositions, such as ‘to’, ‘by’’,

‘so’, ‘of’, and often omitting these words when reading.

Struggle to learn phonics.

Difficulty using phonics to help decode unfamiliar words.

Poor use of context in reading.

Difficulty retelling what s/he has read.

Confusing words that have similar structure, e.g. reading ‘sheep’ as ‘sleep’,

‘useless’ as ‘unless’, ‘casual’ and ‘causal’.

Dislike of reading.

Reluctance to read for enjoyment, even when the student has age-

appropriate reading skills.

Difficulty interpreting written questions, and a discrepancy between his/her

ability to answer a written question, and when the question is read out.

Verbal/comprehension/intellectual skills considerably in advance of reading

skills.

3. Development of writing skills:

Difficulties learning to spell; not picking up on patterns or rules of spelling.

Able to learn spellings one night, but forgetting them by the following day.

Inconsistent spelling; spelling the same word differently throughout the same

sentence or same piece of work.

Bizarre spellings.

Poor handwriting: poorly formed letters, uneven size, uneven spacing,

inconsistent placement on the lines.

Mixing capitals and lower-case letters.

Poor punctuation.

Lack of quality and quantity in written work.

Verbal/comprehension/imagination/intellectual skills considerably in advance

of writing skills.

7

Very slow speed of handwriting.

Very quick speed of handwriting (and often difficult to read) in the older

student.

Finds it difficult to read back his/her own handwriting, and interpret questions

based on his/her own writing.

4. Working memory deficit:

Difficulty remembering what day of the week it is.

Difficulty understanding the concept of yesterday/today/tomorrow.

Difficulty with sequencing tasks: the alphabet, days of the week, months of

the year, multiplication tables.

Finds simple mental arithmetic very difficult.

Difficulty remembering timetable requirements, e.g. where s/he should be, or

what equipment is required on which day of the week.

Forgets what homework requirements are, or forgets to do homework.

Unable to remember words and phrases that are dictated.

Very slow to copy from the board.

Difficulty remembering instructions given verbally, particularly if they have

more than one part.

NB: When difficulties are first noted, the teacher/SENCo should ensure that

the student has had a recent hearing test to rule out the possibility that

delay/difficulty is the result of a hearing deficit, and a recent eyesight test to

rule out the possibility of any visual problems.

8

Section C Graduated Response

9

Section D Grid 5: Cognition & Learning

Assessments

Teacher based assessment RAP based assessment Teacher observations - discrepancy between verbal and written Dyslexia checklist PM Benchmark (Decoding/Comprehension) Letters & Sounds Writing assessments Parallel Spelling Test

GL Assessment - Dyslexia Screener (online) Lucid LASS - 8-11 years (available on sen assessment laptop) Lucid RAPID - 4-11 years (available on sen assessment laptop) Lucid ABILITY 4-11 years (available on sen assessment laptop) Phonological Assessment Battery (PhAB) Smart Cat Learning - 4-8 years (online) www.smartcatlearning.com

Interventions

ICT Resources

✓ Ten Thumbs (CD) www.tenthumbstyping.com ✓ BBC Dance Mat (online) www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing ✓ Text to speech - (go to system preferences - speech) ✓ Sound Studio ✓ Audio books above decoding level ✓ Kidspiration -mindmapping ✓ Dragon Dictate www.dyslexic.com ✓ Nessy Games Player (CD) www.nessy.com ✓ Nessy Learning programme (CD/downloadable) www.nessy.com ✓ Word Shark (CD) www.wordshark.com

Dyslexia friendly environment & access strategies (pastel paper, reading rulers, limited copying off the board, visual strategies (Read Write Inc/Jolly Phonics) and coloured overlays etc. ✓ Use different ways of recording composition ✓ Join a guided reading group above decoding level/listen to audio

books ✓ Active Literacy (ALK) ✓ Yes We Can Read www.yeswecanread.co.uk ✓ Five Minute Box www.fiveminutebox.co.uk ✓ Mind-Mapping ✓ HFW flashcards (for those with a good visual memory)

ipad applications Reference

✓ Dragon Dictate ✓ Dyslexia Quest ✓ Hairy Letters ✓ Hairy Phonics (due out this spring 2012) ✓ What is dyslexia?

Removing Dyslexia as a Barrier to Achievement Neil MacKay

www.bdadyslexia.org.uk

www.dyslexiaaction.org.uk

10

Section E Strategies to support the child at pre-school

To encourage the development of speech and language:

Play rhyming games, for example, make up nonsense words that rhyme with

a real word, such as happy, clappy, dappy, nappy, mappy, sappy etc.

Learning nursery rhymes.

Playing games of snap with rhyming pairs of picture cards.

Making up alliterative sentences, such as ‘Pretty Polly Perched on the Plastic

Pram’, or ‘Bertie Banana Bent the Branch and Bounded up the Bank’.

Playing I Spy games.

Odd-one-out games with words that start with the same letter, such as ‘Silly

Sam Seen Running Sideways’, and the child has to identify the word that is

the odd-one-out.

Sharing and reading picture/story books to the child.

Talking to the child and using every opportunity to extend his/her vocabulary.

For example, if the child points to and names ‘ball’, the adult could extend

this and say ‘yes, that’s a big yellow ball’.

To encourage the development of auditory processing:

Encourage the child to identify, with eyes closed, familiar noises, e.g. rustling

paper, spoon on a bowl, clink of coins etc.

Sit a group of children in a circle. Choose one child to sit in the centre of the

circle with his/her eyes closed. The teacher points to a child seated round

the edge and this child has to whisper the name of the child who is sitting in

the center. The child in the centre has to guess which child has whispered

his/her name.

Playing games such as ‘When I went shopping I bought a …..’ and the child

has to remember an ever increasing list of items.

Make sure that the speaker has the child’s full attention before giving any

instructions.

Ask the child to repeat back an instruction to encourage deeper processing of

the information.

11

To encourage the development of sequencing skills:

Encourage the child to verbalise the sequence of common actions, such as

‘Look right, look left, look right again’, or ‘First, toothbrush, second, top off

the toothpaste, third, squeeze the toothpaste, fourth, brush teeth, fifth, rinse

with water’.

Give each child in the group a number, and then get the children to line

themselves up in the correct sequence. Extend this by getting the children to

muddle themselves up and then re-order.

Get the children to copy a sequence of actions demonstrated by the teacher.

To encourage the development of motor skills:

Bead threading.

Pegs and peg board.

Constructing out of building blocks.

Cutting-out.

Therapeutic putty.

Drawing, colouring, and painting

Throwing and catching a soft ball.

Skipping.

Ride-along toys, scooters, tricycles.

12

Section F Strategies to support the school-age student

There is no way to predict with any certainty the outcome for a dyslexic student with

respect to the development of his/her lower-order literacy skills (see section 6.2.4 in

the Policy). What is vitally important is that the student’s ability to access the

curriculum and make good progress with his/her learning is not affected by the

specific difficulties s/he has in this area.

All students differ in their unique combination of patterns of strengths and

weaknesses, learning styles, and learning needs, and this difference is further

complicated by the changing demands of the curriculum as the student progresses

through school. Each student will therefore respond to, and benefit from, different

types of support and differentiation at different times in their school career.

Flexibility is therefore a key issue, along with clear learning objectives and a

willingness of the teachers to accept different forms of evidence of success.

Of primary importance is that the dyslexic student’s self-esteem is protected. S/he is

likely to be only too aware of his/her inadequacies, and will need constant

encouragement to build confidence. Encouraging the student to take an active part

in his/her own learning programme will help him/her become aware of what s/he

needs in order to make the best progress with his/her learning possible. The

following suggestions may help:

Learning environment:

Seating position: Encourage a dyslexic student to sit in a position in the

classroom where there is the least distraction (i.e. where there will be the

least pupil traffic), and where s/he is facing the board, rather than sitting side

on, or with his/her back to the board. Do this discretely to avoid

embarrassment.

Grouping: Encourage flexible seating arrangements, for example, allow the

dyslexic student to sit with students who match his/her verbal skills during

activities that require discussion in class. Place the dyslexic student where

support is available for activities in which s/he will require support, e.g. sit by

13

a fluent reader who can read out text when required, or with a support

teacher who can act as a reader, if no electronic text reader is available.

Homework: Homework can be a particularly difficult area for the dyslexic

student. Avoid setting homework that requires a lot of reading and writing.

Make sure that the student has the homework instructions written down fully;

the easiest way to ensure this is to give out a printed sheet of instructions.

Printed instructions are easier to read and complete, and remove the need to

spend time copying, which is a thankless task for a dyslexic student. Make a

note on the homework instructions how much time the student is expected to

spend on the task. Encourage the parents, or student, to contact the teacher

if homework is taking too long to complete to ensure that the student is not

having to spend much longer doing homework than his/her peers.

Organisation: The use of planners, homework books, home-school books,

email, electronic organisers, and timetables, are all likely to help the dyslexic

student to keep track of what s/he needs throughout the school week.

To support reading

Reading for the dyslexic student can be a very stressful activity, and s/he

may be acutely embarrassed if asked to read out loud in front of his/her

peers. To guard against this, the dyslexic student should only ever read out

loud in class if s/he has requested that s/he does so.

Text-readers: Many dyslexic students find it helpful to use the text-to-speech

facility that is included on all school laptops to support his/her reading of

source material used in lessons. More sophisticated, text-reading software is

available, (see Section G), and the DEC is currently looking into the

possibilities of making such software available centrally for the Island schools.

The student should use any text-reading software in conjunction with

headphones so that s/he does not disturb other students. Benefits of using

this software are:

The student will find it much easier to read and understand the text if

s/he listens to the text being read whilst following the printed text (on

screen or on hard copy).

14

The student will be able to access the same complexity of text as

his/her non-dyslexic peers.

The student will be able to see and understand much more complex

words in print than his/her word recognition skills would normally allow.

This will help his/her sight vocabulary to develop, which, in turn, will

help his/her word recognition skills to develop.

The student will develop better listening skills which, s/he will need

should s/he be granted access arrangements that include a reader for

examinations.

Audio books: Reluctant readers should be encouraged to listen to a wide

range of age-appropriate and interesting audio books for the benefits listed in

section 6.2.1.3 in the Policy.

Encourage the dyslexic student to listen to audio books for Guided Reading

tasks or during silent reading times at school.

Paired reading techniques, where a fluent reader reads aloud with the

dyslexic student, can help to build confidence in reading.

To support writing

Give credit for oral responses.

Mark written work on content.

Photocopy notes, and/or print out work from the teacher/s notes for the

dyslexic student to stick in his/her book. Copying from the board or from a

book is a thankless task for a dyslexic student, and the result can be difficult

to read back, inaccurate and incomplete, and the process often causes

frustration.

Be flexible in the type of evidence you will accept to prove that the student

has met the lesson objective. Some students will find it easier to present

written work in bullet points, via a mind-map, using word processing, making

a sound file, or using voice-to-text software to produce hard copy.

15

Touch-typing: If the dyslexic student is able to learn to touch type

proficiently, s/he may find that s/he is able to bypass a persistent spelling

difficulty by learning to, literally, spell with his/her fingers. For this to

happen, it is essential that the student follows the lessons in a typing tutor

without looking at his/her fingers. This is to stimulate the brain into

making new neural pathways in which a word is typed by a pattern in which

the fingers move, rather than being written by which letters are needed.

There are some excellent touch typing tutors available (see Section G), and a

large breakfast cereal box, which has had its long thin sides cut out and the

open end taped shut, is an ideal shape to slip over the keyboard of a laptop

to prevent the student from being able to look at his/her fingers whilst

following the instructions on screen.

Word processing: If the student is able to type more easily than write,

encourage him/her to use a word processor, with predictive text, and spell

checker to compose any written work. The benefits of working in this way

are:

The hard copy produced when working with a word processor is neat

and easy to read back.

Many dyslexic students find that they gain in confidence when they

work on a word processor with predictive text and a spell checker.

The student is able to set their ideas down in any order, and can then

use the edit tools to order the work.

Working on a word processor in this way prepares the student for using

this method of working in any examinations (see section 7 in the Policy)

Voice-recording software: The student may find it helpful to use voice

recording software, such as Sound Studio on the Apple laptops, or other

devices. The benefits of working in this way are:

It enables the student to express his/her knowledge or ideas in a way

that is not hindered by any spelling difficulty.

The student is able to listen back and edit the recording, which means

that the ability to edit the work does not depend on the level of the

student’s reading skills.

16

Having to listen back to the recording will help with the development of

the student’s listening skills.

After learning how to use the software or device, the student is able to

work independently.

Working in this way helps the student to develop oral composition skills,

and this is good preparation for using access arrangements in

examinations (see section 7 in the Policy).

If the student is proficient at touch-typing, s/he could listen to his/her

recording through headphones and type up a hard copy.

Voice-to-text software: The dyslexic student may find it helpful to learn to

use voice-to-text software, such as Dragon Dictate, or Dragon Naturally

Speaking (see Section G). The benefits of working in this way are:

It enables the student to express his/her knowledge or ideas in a

way that is not hindered by any spelling difficulty.

After learning how to use the software or device, the student is

able to work independently.

If the student has poor reading skills, the voice-to-text software

can be used in conjunction with text reading software.

Learning to use these types of software helps the student to

develop the necessary skills s/he will need for working in this way

during examinations (see section 7 in the Policy).

Mind-mapping skills: Many dyslexic students find it helpful to use mind-

mapping as a way of ‘capturing’ and ordering his/her ideas prior to

writing/dictating. Some benefits of using mind-maps are:

The student is less likely to forget what s/he planned to include if

s/he works from the mind-map when writing/dictating.

The complexity of ideas can often be expressed in a way that is

not hindered by the student’s spelling ability.

The student will have more working memory capacity available

once the ideas being held there are put down on paper in the

mind map. This means that there will be more working memory

capacity available for the student to apply to the quality of his/her

composition.

17

Some resources for developing mind-mapping skills may be found in Section G.

To support a working memory deficit:

The student should be encouraged to use any additional time granted in

assessments to write out such aids as multiplication tables, formulae (where

necessary), quotes, names and dates. Once these are captured on paper,

they may then be referred to during the assessment. Because they no longer

have to be remembered, the working memory is emptier and has more

capacity to apply to other tasks.

Protect self-esteem

It is vitally important that the dyslexic student learns to equate his/her

thinking skills, ideas, and creativity, with his/her ability, and does not start to

equate his/her ability with the level of his/her word recognition and spelling

skills.

Take every opportunity to praise the dyslexic student for effort; s/he is likely

to have made considerably more effort than his/her peers, even though s/he

has not achieved the same standard.

Dyslexic students get very tired because of the amount of additional

concentration and effort they have to put in to keep up with a text-based

curriculum. Extra allowances need to be made to take this into account.

18

SECTION G Resources

Useful contacts

Manx Dyslexia Association www.manxdyslexia.org Tel: 07624 315 724

British Dyslexia Association www.bdadyslexia.org.uk

Dyslexia Action www.dyslexiaaction.org.uk

Dyslexia Scotland www.dyslexiascotland.org.uk

Department of Education for Children:

Director of Services for Children

Sally Brookes

Department of Education and Children Hamilton House, Peel Road, Douglas IM1 5EP Tel. 693833

Educational Psychology Service

Joanna Fisher Judith Hedges Joyce Monroe Cheryl Smith

Senior Educational Psychologists

Department of Education and Children, Hamilton House, Peel Road, Douglas IM1 5EP Tel: 686271

Advisory Teachers

Lizzie Corrin Sue Marriott

SEN Advisors

Department of Education and Children, Hamilton House, Peel Road, Douglas

IM1 5EP Tel: 686271

Helen Newbery Advisory teachers for SENCo development

Laxey Primary School, Quarry Road Laxey Tel: 861373

Julie Owen Ramsey Grammar School, Lezayre Road, Ramsey, IM8 2RG Tel: 811100

Julie Wilsdon Advisory teacher ICT Department of Education and Children, Hamilton House, Peel Road, Douglas IM1 5EP Tel: 686389

19

Resources:

To support reading

Further information

Features

Kurzweil 3000

www.sightandsound.co.uk. Advanced text-reading software with many other features to help students access and express themselves through text. Many other features available, such as mind-mapping tools, bubble notes, voice notes, highlighting facility. May be used in conjunction with Dragon Dictate so that the student can dictate work and then have the text-reader read it back to them.

Texthelp Read & Write Gold

www.sightandsound.co.uk Software that reads out loud as the student types. Provides full screen reading for any document on the laptop or computer. This also has other features to help with reading and writing.

Textease www.textease.com Easy to use click-to-read facility.

Text-to-speech IT Department Easy to use, slightly robotic voices – on all DEC Apple laptops.

Wordtalk www.wordtalk.org.uk Free Windows text-to-speech plugin for Microsoft Word. This software will speak the text on a document and highlight each word as it is read.

Speak it App for iPad www.apple.com Text-to-speech app for iPad or iPad.

20

To support writing

Further information

Features

Dragon Dictate for Mac; Dragon Naturally Speaking for PCs

www.dyslexic.com Speech-to-text software. Requires voice training that can be tricky for young voices to be recognised.

Dragon Dictation www.apple.com Free app for iPad or iPod. Very easy to use – requires no voice training.

Textease www.textease.com Write anywhere facility; voice recording, easy to use.

Clicker 5 www.cricksoft.co/uk Text-to-speech working with Clicker grids.

Writeonline www.cricksoft.co.uk Word processing software that provides text-to-speech, predictive words, & wordbars to help the student to write without being hindered by spelling difficulties

To support mind-mapping

Inspiration www.dyslexic.com Mind mapping software for the older student. Very good templates for many types of written requirements for all subject areas.

Kidspiration www.dyslexic.com Mind mapping software for the younger student. All text and pictures spoken aloud; voice recording facility; can import pictures to make personalised dictionaries.

Novamind www.novamind.com Mind mapping software.

iMindmap www.thinkbuzan.com/uk Mind mapping software.

Mind-mapping in Primary Classrooms Introducing Mind Mapping to Children

Books by Eva Hoffman

Excellent classroom resources for teaching students to mind map.

Mind Mapping for Kids Max Your Memory and Concentration Rev up for Revision

Books by Tony Buzan

Resources for teaching mind mapping and revision skills.

21

Touch typing

Further information

Features

Englishtype Junior or Senior

www.dyslexiaaction.org.uk Programme written with dyslexic students in mind. Very well organised, quiet, reinforces all the right areas, low levels of time stress.

Ten Thumbs

www.tenthumbstypingtutor.com This programme saves each child’s progress and gives feedback in terms of % success.

BBC Dancemat

www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing

Free to use but very noisy and busy

programme. Liked by some children.

Mavis Beacon www.mavisbeacon.com Good established touch typing programme that has been around for a long time.

Audio Books

May be borrowed from local libraries

e.g. Children’s Library,

Westmorland Road, Douglas.

May be borrowed from on-line libraries:

e.g.

www.listening-books.org.uk

For an annual subscription (which they may waive for cases of financial hardship) books can be streamed to laptop or computer. Can also be downloaded for a limited time, or sent out as MP3 discs to your home. Excerpts of books may be listened to on site. This site has many school text books on audio. As yet, this site only works with PCs but will be making the service available to Mac users in the future.

www.calibre.org.uk Calibre audio library is a charity that will send out for free 3 MP3 discs of your choice to your home with a return

envelope. They will send more discs when the first are returned. Excerpts of books may be listened to on site.

May be bought and downloaded from on-line bookstores.

e.g. www.audible.co.uk

www.apple.com/itunes www.amazon.co.uk

www.waterstones.com

Audio books can be bought and downloaded onto a laptop or computer and then transferred to an MP3 or MP4 player, such as an iPod, for ease of listening. Excerpts of books may be listened to on site.

22

Resources for improving reading and spelling

Further information

Features

Various resources that can be bought online for students to engage with at home.

www.nessy.com Fun games for the laptop aimed at improving spelling and reading skills.

Coloured overlays www.crossboweducation.com

www.dyslexic.com

Some students find it easier to read text if it is covered with a coloured plastic overlay.