Highland Council Psychological Service Practice Paper
Introduction
Definition
Aims and Principles
Perspectives on reading and spelling
Identification, Assessment and Intervention
What schools should be able to provide
What the Psychological Service should provide.
Assessment, diagnosis and the role of the educational psychologist.
References
The purpose of this practice paper is to outline The Highland Council Psychological Service approach to meeting the needs of children and young people with dyslexia. It provides a definition of dyslexia, describes responsibilities of The Psychological Service and offers guidance on the roles and responsibilities of schools.
As a commonly occurring type of additional support need (affecting 4-15% of the population including children of all abilities, from all social classes, and from all linguistic backgrounds) dyslexia is recognised as a fundamental barrier to achievement for some children in our schools.
It is recognised that there are many definitions of dyslexia. Within Highland Council Psychological Service the following definition of dyslexia is used.
Dyslexia is evident when accurate and fluent word reading and/or spelling develops very incompletely or with great difficulty. This focuses on literacy learning at the ‘word level’ and implies that the problem is severe and persistent despite appropriate learning opportunities. It provides the basis for a staged process of assessment through teaching. (British Psychological Society, 1999)
Highland Council Psychological Service has adopted this definition in order to provide clarity for parents/carers, professionals and all others with an interest in the achievement and well-being of children. This definition is supported by current research evidence (BPS 1999).
This definition is used for the following reasons:
- It focuses on observed and observable difficulties, rather than possible underlying causes, which reflects the ongoing debate concerning literacy development and dyslexia, and the absence of an agreed single causal explanation.
- Current research evidence does not suggest that a particular profile of cognitive or thinking skills needs to be identified in order to classify a child/young person as having dyslexia.
- Current research evidence suggests that dyslexia can occur in children/young people of all abilities. The definition does not rely on identifying a supposed discrepancy between a child’s abilities in one area and his/her abilities in other areas. Most investigators agree that severe reading problems arise due to the failure to recognise context free word recognition skills. Research clearly indicates that discrepancy defined “dyslexics” and non discrepancy defined i.e. low IQ readers; do not differ in the cognitive sub skills that underlie the development of word recognition ability. Moreover there is no evidence suggesting that discrepancy defined and non discrepancy defined poor readers respond differently to educational interventions. (Stanovich and Siegel, 1994). Educational Psychologists’ practice should be evidence based.
With regard to teaching and learning within the curriculum, dyslexia is defined as severe and persistent difficulties with “word level” work – i.e. reading and spelling of individual words, rather than comprehension of text.
Current research evidence (BPS 1999) states that dyslexic difficulties can occur in children of all abilities. In following this evidence, we recognise that whilst dyslexia can occur as a specific learning difficulty, it is not, however, necessarily a specific learning difficulty; because a child/young person may have a range of learning difficulties and also have dyslexia. However, it should be recognised that children/young people with dyslexia can demonstrate marked differences between their abilities in different areas – particularly oral versus text based skills – and that recognising their strengths can increase their success and engagement with learning.
The definition used does not rely on identifying a particular profile of cognitive skills. However, positive indicators would include: difficulty in processing the sounds in speech and linking them to written letters, and in short term or working memory; since these ‘phonological processing’ difficulties are core to most scientific hypotheses about the causes of dyslexia.
All learning difficulties, including dyslexia, are complex and interactive in their nature and so can only be fully understood with reference to a range of contexts in which they occur.
In adopting this definition we also recognise the particular links there can be between dyslexia, low self esteem and the development of emotional and behavioural difficulties in some children/young people. Every child/young person has an entitlement to early and effective support in overcoming the barriers to achievement presented by dyslexia and it is recognised that this is essential in securing children’s social and emotional adjustment, as well as supporting their measured attainment.
All schools operate within the current legislative framework of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 which requires schools to meet the needs of all children. The Act requires that:
- Schools should be in a position to help parents/carers and pupils with dyslexia understand their strengths and difficulties and support their learning.
- Interventions should be evidence based, that is, have a proven track record of success and allow ongoing evaluation. These interventions should use structured systematic and multi-sensory methods for teaching word level work and be delivered with regularity and consistency.
- Teachers should be able to use various strategies to help children/young people with dyslexic difficulties access the curriculum, making sure that their difficulties in reading and/or spelling do not hold them back in other subject areas.
- Teachers should continue to monitor and support pupils (particularly at secondary school level) who have made progress with ‘word level’ attainment, but still have persistent difficulties with fluency, speed of accessing information, organisational skills and generalisation of skills to the classroom.
Reading and spelling are complex skills that do not necessarily develop naturally. They need to be taught and children need to learn and practise the skills involved.
Parents/carers, as well as teachers and other school staff, play a vital role in helping their child to master the skills involved in reading and spelling.
If a child does not make progress with the development of reading and spelling skills in school this implies that, as a first step, the teaching and support the child experiences should be reviewed and possibly modified.
Highland Council Psychological Service assessment and intervention is informed by the Professional Development Programme for Educational Psychologists in Scotland (SDEP, ASPEP 2005) guidance document, ‘Educational Psychology Assessment in Scotland’. The Service also operates within the current legislative framework of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004.
All children have an equal entitlement to access a broad and balanced curriculum. This involves effective teaching to enable them to develop literacy skills, with support tailored to their needs, based on a cycle of assessment, intervention and review.
All schools should be able to identify early those children who are experiencing difficulties in phonological processing and early word reading and/or spelling.
For children whose difficulties persist after reasonable adjustments have been made by the class teacher and/or parents/carers, the school should be able to take and document school action, in partnership with parent/carers within the authority’s staged intervention process.
The staged intervention approach to identification, assessment and intervention is rooted in sound educational practice – teachers plan teaching approaches based on assessment, implement those approaches and review the outcomes in terms of progress made by the child/young person. The needs of the great majority of children can be met by teachers, using, where necessary, differentiated approaches to curriculum delivery. If a child/young person fails to make progress despite the school setting appropriate targets and implementing a focused programme of support over time, schools may request the assistance of professionals from outside the school in the cycle of assessment, planning, intervention and review. In the case of severe literacy difficulties, such professionals are likely to include an educational psychologist.
In promoting the development of reading and spelling schools should be:
- Involving parents and children at an early stage in identification, planning and intervention so that they are fully engaged with the process.
- Utilising structured reading and spelling programmes and multi-sensory teaching strategies.
- Capitalising on the potential of innovative teaching appropriate to the pupils’ different learning styles, as these are often of particular benefit to children with dyslexia – for example, strategies for visual learners such as mind-mapping.
- Exploring the possible benefits of appropriate information technology and, where practicable, securing access for the child, for example, word processing facilities and spellcheckers, providing training in the use of that technology for the child, his or her parents/carers and staff.
- Providing help in sequencing, organisational and study skills.
- Planning strategies to make sure the child’s difficulties do not hold them back in other areas – for example alternatives to pencil and paper tasks and providing other methods of presenting information.
- Ensuring that the child and all who work with them are aware of the child’s strengths as well as their difficulties.
- Providing access to pastoral, personal and social support so as to provide opportunities to discuss anxieties and frustrations and improve self-esteem.
- Where schools have undertaken assessments of individual children, schools should provide written feedback on these assessments and information to parents/carers.
- Involving the pupils themselves in appropriate discussion about their difficulties and how these are to be addressed.
Provision should, in all areas across the curriculum, recognise the strengths and talents of the child. In overcoming areas of weakness, the child should have access to multi-sensory and flexible approaches to classroom learning. Schools should be able to record and document progress over time whilst taking the planned school action
The Psychological Service can:
Have a role in making specialist advice available to schools. This may include:
- more detailed assessments
- advice on programme planning,
- modelling of appropriate teaching approaches,
- advice on resources and technology, and
- advice in relation to emotional and behavioural difficulties which may arise as a consequence of dyslexic difficulties.
Continue to support the skills development of those undertaking front line assessments through training and consultation.
Because dyslexia affects such a high percentage (between 4 and 15%) of all children, the skills necessary to identify children with dyslexia should be available within the school, rather than rely on ‘diagnoses’ by a small number of specialists such as educational psychologists. Teachers can identify children with dyslexia: this does not have to be done by other ‘experts’.
Highland Council Psychological Service can provide information and training to school staff on how they can identify dyslexia early on – for example, by using standardised literacy assessments to measure rates of progress, alongside checklists of common indicators of dyslexia, and simple assessments of phonological processing skills. The results and implications of any formal observations or standardised assessments undertaken by school staff should be fed back to parents and the child/young person. This may take the form of a meeting, with brief minutes provided, or a more formal written report.
Educational Psychologists can become involved in a consultation with school staff when children are not making adequate progress as a result of school based action. They will work with the school staff (not necessarily directly with the child) to achieve a better understanding of the factors that may be helping or hindering progress and to identify ways forward.
In a very few cases a detailed assessment from an educational psychologist may be required in order to achieve this understanding. In understanding such assessments, Highland Council educational psychologists will be examining the interaction between the cognitive processes in the child and the learning opportunities and teaching methods which have been available.
Psychologists undertaking any detailed assessment will make use of the most recent professional guidelines to them on appropriate assessment tools – currently the 1999 report of the British Psychological Society working party ‘Dyslexia, Literacy and Psychological Assessment’ and the ASPEP and Scottish Division of Educational Psychology guidance document, ‘Educational Psychology Assessment in Scotland’ (2005).
Psychological assessment will:
- Ideally be conducted over time and in relation to different contexts.
- Be formative in nature
- Involve parents/carers as essential contributors to the process.
- Consider the young person’s strengths and difficulties and generate a number of hypotheses that consider the range of issues.
- Incorporate the child’s understanding of his/her world.
- Consider the role that social and emotional responses, including the child’s self perception and self-esteem, may be playing in contributing to the literacy difficulties.
- Draw, where appropriate, on views of other professionals.
- Be reported back formally in writing to the pupil, parents, school staff, and other relevant professionals where appropriate.
The primary purpose of a psychological assessment will be to make a positive difference to the child’s experience in school across the curriculum rather than simply arrive at a diagnosis. It should also inform and guide teaching.
Any assessment undertaken either by teaching staff or an educational psychologist will, however, clarify difficulties by evaluating the three sections of the definition. If it is clear from the information gathered that the child/young person has difficulties that show these three conditions exist, a diagnosis can be made by either school staff or an educational psychologist:-
- That the pupil is learning/has learnt accurate and fluent word reading and/orspelling very incompletely or (in older children) continues to have difficulties in applying learnt skills in a classroom context.
- That appropriate learning opportunities have been provided.
- That progress has been made only as a result of much additional effort/instruction and that difficulties have, nevertheless, persisted.
This practice paper should be read in conjunction with the Highland Council Education Culture and Sport Dyslexia Policy.
Association of Scottish Principal Educational Psychologists (ASPEP), British Psychological Society, Scottish Division of Educational Psychologists (BPS:SDEP) 2005, Professional Development Programme for Educational Psychologists in Scotland: Educational Psychology Assessment in Scotland, Glasgow
British Psychological Society (1999: reprint 2005) Dyslexia, Literacy and Psychological Assessment: Report by the Working Party of the Division of Educational and Child Psychology of the British psychological Society, BPS, Leicester
Scottish Executive (2004) Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 Scottish Executive, Edinburgh
Stanovich, K. E. and Siegel, L. S (1994) Phenotypic Performance Profile of Children with Reading Disabilities: A Regression-Based Test of the Phonological-Core Variable-Difference Model. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 86, No. 1, 24-53