[SENco-forum] Explaining GCSE in exams -oral modifier

So stand by to be deluged by students with dyslexia, as well as those with
valid or imaginary late claims.

Students with dyslexia often need to have questions or requests re-phrased
for the very reason that they did not recognise what was being asked of them
the first time.  Some teachers do this automatically early on when they see
that not all children are responding straightaway and in the same way that
parents speak to toddlers ( or perhaps that was just my coping strategy!)
Most children soon learn to recognise or understand a request in whatever
form it is couched - others do not.  It is similar to the sponge method of
reading/spelling for some and the lack of absorption for others.

For example -at school after a warning to stop talking a note is made in the
child's planner.  This way parents and other teachers are aware if it is an
ongoing problem.  Next stage would be a detention.  Last week my son was
talking and was warned by the TA. He continued talking so the cover
supervisor said "We need to get our planner out, don't we?"  My son's
response was to do nothing as he did not need to get his planner out for
anything (such as looking up or writing down set homework).  She repeated
the phrase twice with growing impatience and he still did nothing and by now
presumably looking as if he were doing it deliberately.  The other boys were
whispering " She wants your planner/Give her your planner" but he was
bewildered.  He handed over the planner and was very upset that he did not
understand what she wanted.  All she had to say was " Give me your planner"
or 'you have been told to stop talking so now I need to write a note in your
planner' and he would have understood.

He is not autistic but has dyslexia, short term auditory memory and
pragmatic/semantic language problems.  He does not do 'escalating tension'
in speech or 'between the lines' and has to be taught the meaning of phrases
or the art of dissembling etc.,.  All he does is literal or literal truth
when speaking.  I had to write a note back in the planner and the SENco
kindly sent out a memo asking for him to be spoken to bluntly and directly -
he doesn't 'hear' what we might otherwise consider rude or outspoken.

Similarly in exams the language might not be direct enough.  One university
is currently looking at rephrasing exam questions and trying them out on
people with dyslexia to see if there is a preferred way to phrase the
questions to maximise student response.  It is not spoon feeding, but making
up for skills that were not recognised, taught or addressed when the student
was younger and so now has to be a 'reasonable adjustment' for this earlier
failure in the education system.

Sharon

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