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I have been looking at the DCFS Inclusion development plan 'criteria' for spotting dyslexic children with a view to seeing whether there are alternative explanations for the behaviours listed. Alternative to that elusive and all embracing condition known as 'dyslexia' that is. Most of the criteria can be equally well explained by poor teaching.
On the whole, it is a fine checklist for spotting struggling readers but it leaves me none the wiser as to what makes one reader a 'struggler' and another a 'dyslexic'.
By this checklist I'd say that at least 30% of our pupils are 'dyslexic'!
I'd be interested in other's comments/additions, do feel free to contradict me.
N.B This is the secondary checklist. I haven't looked at the Primary one.
Inclusion Development Plan DCFS 2007
Identification of pupils on the dyslexic continuum – Secondary
Focus
General: Slow to process instructions. This is a nice vague statement. Does it mean slow to carry out instructions or slow to understand instructions (which could be a receptive language problem).
Problems with sequencing, e.g. does not know the alphabet. Child may not have had sufficient practice in saying the alphabet to ‘know’ it. Or, may never have been taught it.
Does not retain concepts from one lesson to the next. Child wasn’t listening or interested, didn’t have sufficient opportunities for overlearning in lesson. Child has a memory problem. We have loads of children who don’t ‘retain concepts... :-(
Problems with fine or gross motor skills: This has no bearing on acquisition of reading or writing skills. Would indicate dyspraxia, not dyslexia (thought I note that the two are tending to be conflated nowadays)
Writing:
Content does not reflect ability
Good at thinking of ideas but cannot get them down on paper. Child is unable to spell, so finds written communication difficult. Child has not learnt to construct sentences as has had work written for it (which is bound to include help, but not instruction, with wording sentences) at previous Key Stage. Child finds physical act of writing very tiring. Child is disengaged. Possibly could be a genuine difficulty.
Uses simple ideas and vocabulary that do not reflect verbal ability. Any of the above. May also find writing boring so does minimum required.
Written work often not completed. Any of the above.
Reluctant to write. Any of the above
Difficulties with structuring written work:
Problems with grammar, e.g. tenses or words muddled. Child has not been taught grammar. Child writing as they speak. Child has not been taught sentence structuring.
Problems sequencing ideas when writing. This is another skill which has to be taught, and taught from an early stage. Could apply to any child. Any child who has problems with writing will not have been able to write a sufficient amount to require ordering of ideas.
Ideas not logically linked together – rambling style. This could apply to any child who has not been taught/learned to sequence ideas.
Inaccurate punctuation. Another thing which could be equally due to poor teaching.
Poor handwriting:
Reverses some letters when writing, e.g. b/d, p/q, m/w (I’ve never encountered the last). Poor teaching of letter formation. Lack of practice to achieve automaticity in correct letter formation.
Does not write cursively: Well, by that definition half the children in our school have ‘dyslexic’ tendencies! What has cursive writing to do with dyslexia? Can also be ascribed to poor teaching of handwriting.
Writing badly arranged on page. Poor spatial awareness. Dyspraxia? Poor fine motor skills?
No spaces between words. As above, plus poor teaching.
Slow writing speed. Poor spelling, dyspraxia, poor pen/pencil grip makes hands tired, lack of concentration, perfectionism, lack of ideas to write...
Problems copying from the board. This is another delightfully vague one. What sort of problems? Can’t read (so can’t recognise last word copied & can’t return to correct place). Poor short term memory, can’t hold letter sequence in mind while writing them (though many ‘copiers’ teach themselves to write while keeping their eyes fixed on what they are copying)
Inaccurate spelling:
Omits letters within words
Errors in discriminating individual sounds, e.g middle sounds
Letters in words in the wrong order
Bizarre spelling
All of these can be directly linked to insufficient good, structured, phonics teaching and use of Cover, Say, Write & check type of spelling instruction. Child is unaware, or only dimly aware, that the letters represent sounds or child does not have sufficient knowledge of alternative PGCs
Cannot recognise spelling errors. Has not read the word sufficiently often to be able to ‘see’ it is wrong. Has not been trained to check by sounding out the words they have written. Can’t spell.
Reading:
Problems choosing a book at a suitable reading level. Yet another vague criteria. Who has the problems choosing books? The child or the teacher? What is a ‘suitable reading level’ and who decides it? I still like reading ‘children’s books’. Does that make me a possible ‘dyslexic’?
Does not read for pleasure. So what?! Lots of very skilled readers don’t read for pleasure. And, of course, if you are struggling with reading it is no pleasure.
Reluctant to read out loud. Are children expected to be happy to read out loud when they know they can’t read competently? Or is this supposed to be an indicator of poor reading ability. Some children are just extremely self-conscious and don’t like reading in front of their peers, whatever their actual level of reading ability.
Inaccurate reading:
Unable to read high frequency words as well as peers. Most likely because they have poor memories and have been unable to ‘learn’ the HFWs as ‘wholes’ (though, in my experience, 6 years of learning nothing but HFWs means that they know them and not a lot else). Poor phonics teaching, as most of the HFWs are easily decodeable.
Confuses words that are visually similar (e.g. was/saw). Child has not been taught to read from left to right all through the word.
Omits words when reading. Child has not been rigorously monitored reading aloud and made to read accurately. Reading for meaning has taken precedence during instruction.
Poor tracking along words and lines when reading. Tracking is a learned skill. This would indicate insufficient reading practice or instruction which taught child to look for ‘words within words’, or to look for initial, final and medial sounds, as a word attack strategy.
Lack of reading fluency:
Sounding out each word. Lack of word reading practice. Could indicate a real difficulty if child sounds out words they have read very many times before.
Needs time to process visual information. I have never encountered this, either in practice or in my reading. I can’t comment on it. I think if I did have a child like this I would be looking for something a bit more specific than ‘dyslexia’.
Cannot summarise what has happened. Most children I work with have very little problem with this if they have read accurately (even if slowly), but, I have a feeling that a child who has struggled with reading for a long time, or has been allowed to substitute words or make it up as they go along, very often doesn’t expect what they are reading to make any particular sense and so aren’t really attending to the story at all. Perhaps this might be a manifestation of that elusive phenomenon ‘barking at print’.
Needs to read several times to understand meaning . Not the most elegantly phrased sentence! I would think this is probably related to the above. I’ve rarely encountered this.
There is more on maths, concept of time, organisation and behaviour and motivation. All the ‘motivation’ points are obvious consequences of poor reading skills.
Last edited by maizie on Sun Jan 11, 2009 3:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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