[SENco-forum] A call for thoughts: headings

Education and learning is not just 5-21 as Jean's grandson has just found
out. Early years and foundation stages mean children are monitored and
measured in pre-school or nursery as they are by health visitors from birth
to 3.  It is all about ticking boxes or noting variation from 'norm' and
hopefully will become the way to see barriers to learning whatever they may
be to remove or minimise them, rather than just a lot of interfering by the
state.

Learning is lifelong and why SpLD remains apt lifelong.  One of my daughters
will always have trouble learning anything - 24 hour clock for bus
timetables, or just getting from A to B without getting lost (no sense of
direction and poor visual memory).  She will need help with organisational
skills that go beyond being in the right class with the right equipment to
remembering to make dentist appointments, how to cook (even having been
shown a recipe for the nth time) or late not to leave her baby somewhere
inappropriate (my mother left me in a sink of water 3 times and outside
TESCO's in my pram all the while pondering what she had forgotten
shoppingwise!)

I am not so bothered what it is called as long as it is picked up and
supported.  I thought being labelled as 'having severe dyslexia as rare as
1:10,000 peers' would magically open doors, but it has been nothing but a 15
year slog so far to try and get my 4 children supported to a point where
they are achieving the best they can.

The best thing I have seen is the course on offer at my local college -
'Dyslexia Taster Day'.  Try it and see if you would like it perhaps?
Sharon

PS  Jean -
RE: Spelling reform - I might eventually get used to losing the useless
'ph/f' but I cannot 'see' the use of using 'u/you' unless you use U.  When I
see 'u' it does not say 'you' to me -if you know what I mean. What do you do
about 'ewe'? Does it become a 'U' homophone that is reliant on context?

 I am probably a compensated dyslexic.  Having learned all the rules I need
to spell I cannot work any other way.  I was hopeless at shorthand as I
could not let go of what I had learned to rely on fonics (!) Text messages
may as well be in Arabic. As for 'fase' it took me a while to realise it was
'phase' and I could feel a jolt in my brain as it struggled to make sense of
what it was looking at as it tends to 'regularise' what it thinks are
non-words.

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk]On Behalf Of Jean
Hutchins
Sent: 04 August 2007 16:24
To: senco-forum
Subject: Re: RE: [SENco-forum] A call for thoughts: headings

The dyslexia label has been much debated over the years.
It worries the non-dyslexics more than the dyslexics,
and there is no agreement, but individual preferences!

Yesterday my daughter had a questionnaire
from the Local Authority about the quality of
my grandson's last fase of education
as he is about to transfer.
(Seemed a bit odd anyway, as Dominic is rising 5
and has not been in compulsory education yet.)
I asked her whether the form was available
in electronic format for dyslexic parents,
or in other languages.
No, but it did ask if Dominic had a long list of
disabilities, including dyslexia.
I said I was pleased it said 'dyslexia' not
Specific Learning Difficulties.
My daughter (ex-teacher) agreed,
as no parent would know what SpLD meant.

SpLD is not a good term, even if u change the D
into Differences.
Dyslexia does not go away when u stop 'learning'.
An adult, unless he is a mature student,
is no longer a 'learner', but he is still dyslexic.

We went along with SpLD because it was in the
1981 Education Act, and dyslexia was not in the Act.
If u use SpLD, u have to say what kind of SpLD.
And yes, if u say dyslexia, u have to say
what kind of dyslexia, as there is such a range
of characteristics, causes and severity.

People concerned with Assistive Technology
(another difficult frase) make this mistake too.
Those who are orientated to students,
persist in saying 'dyslexic learners'
rather than 'dyslexic users'.
A group of dyslexic adults, attending
a talk and demonstration about spellcheckers,
are not 'dyslexic learners';
they are 'dyslexic users'.

Jean
-----------------------------------------
Jean Hutchins, SE Surrey DA.
RSA Dip SpLD, AMBDA, retired.
E-mail: jeanhutchins1 at ntlworld.com
British Dyslexia Association Web: www.bdadyslexia.org.uk
Also into spelling reform. Web: www.spellingsociety.org
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