C youngsters to shine

Dave Gamble, from Caerphilly, believes his son George, 10, who has been attending one day a week since last Christmas, is finally progressing after his learning stalled at primary. He hopes it will help George in time for high school.

“George wasn’t moving forward in a normal school environment because, although it is a good school, they don’t have the facilities to support him,” said Dave.

“George was diagnosed with dyslexia aged nine after we pushed and pushed for an educational psychologist report for it. It took three years from start to diagnosis.

“Since starting at Tomorrow’s Generation he has gone forward in noticeable leaps and bounds and we wish he’d gone earlier.

“Some schools are very good on special needs, but it depends. George is quite clever but he could not do stuff - he is brilliant at maths but could not read the questions so he wasn’t in the top group.”

Teaching assistant Michelle Stoop, whose son Jack has attended for two years, said he now feels he fits in.

“Every single child here means so much to me. They all have their own talents and strengths but dyslexia gives them a common bond. It’s amazing to see how much their confidence grows when they find their niche.”

Schools don’t have the resources for dyslexia, says Helen Grimes.

Sitting in her office filled with dyslexia specific learning tools, including the Ace dictionary for people who can’t spell, lead specialist teacher Helen Grimes says she knows, as a former mainstream primary teacher, just how much pressure schools are under.

She believes many schools do good work but don’t always have resources to concentrate on individual needs of dyslexic children.

“There is very little discussion about dyslexia in the PGCE, yet you are likely to have three pupils in every class of 30 with dyslexia because 10% of the population has dyslexia.

“What we do here also works because it is separate from school. We could have a unit attached to a school and some schools do, but for some of our children this is a bit of respite from the pressures of school.

“Some of our children are school phobic and are terrified of school. I think they feel more relaxed here. A lot of our children are anxious because of their dyslexia.

“It’s not just reading and writing, some of our pupils have low self esteem so we work on that as well.”

English and Welsh is spoken in the school which has revealed some interesting differences in the languages in regard to dyslexia.

“Welsh is more phonetic than English which means Welsh is sometimes easier to decode,” explains Helen.

“We find our Welsh speakers are good at reading decodable words. We have a specialist Welsh language tutor. Often Welsh speaking children find English harder to learn. English can be harder because there are so many inferences and it’s not as transparent as Welsh.”

But nothing in either language can just be taught through words, she says. For that reason the school uses devices like using real money in the play shop, tracing shapes in shaving foam and singing – although not the traditional ABC song, which merges the sounds too much. “Multi-sensory learning is really important because it is a way of getting the learning to stick,” says Helen.

“Mainstream learning is about a teacher explaining. That’s hard for dyslexic children – they have to do it and feel it. We look at pre-literacy skills – understanding sounds and words.

“We learn whether words rhyme or not and how many syllables and long and short vowels and how that links to spelling. Someone with dyslexia processes sounds differently.

“And we use the Ace spelling dictionary. How can you use a dictionary if you don’t know there is an ‘h’ in the word ‘rhino’ for example? Ace dictionary helps find words without having to spell them.

“None of this is specific to us but we do it all in one day. It’s all about best practice and holistic approaches.”

In her former job Helen realised some children in her class had dyslexia, but wasn’t sure how best to help so she took an MA in dyslexia in evening classes, which eventually led her to Tomorrow’s Generation.

“I think most teachers are aware of the children with traits of dyslexia but sometimes it is hard to get a definitive diagnosis because every local authority has a different approach and services are stretched. Some local authorities don’t want to use the term dyslexic and use “learning difficulties”.

“Dyslexia can also be linked to dyscalculia, dyspraxia, ADHD and sometimes the autism spectrum.

“It’s not about eyesight but there can be visual stress where children see the lines keep jumping or words keep moving. It’s not emotional stress but black text on a white background means the glare can interfere with how you process information.

“You can’t “cure” dyslexia and lots of people with dyslexia go on to university and have amazing careers.”

Dyslexia need not stop people achieving, as Lee Byrne proves.

Richard Branson and indeed Anders Hedlund are examples of that. Another close to home is retired Wales and Lions full-back Lee Byrne, a trustee of Tomorrow’s Generation.

He says dyslexia blighted his school days and he hopes there is more awareness in the two decades since he left school.

Lee, 38, said he sometimes played up in lessons at Archbishop McGrath comprehensive in Bridgend so he would be sent out and not have to read in front of the class.

The sportsman was not formally diagnosed with dyslexia until just seven years ago aged 31 when he was playing in France.

Gifted at rugby he poured all his efforts into being the best at the game as he could be, although he had to hide his problems as he battled to understand his team play sheets.

“There was not much awareness of dyslexia when I was in school. I hope there is more now. You are somewhere where you just don’t want to be,” he recalls.

“I would deliberately do something silly and get chucked out of class because I would rather do that than read in front of the class.

“At Tomorrow’s Generation the way of teaching is different. Some of the parents there have children who have been labelled as stupid

“Sport was the one thing I was good at and I was happiest doing sport. It was great for my confidence and I put all my energy into sport and it paid off.

“My thing was sport, but it could be music, drama, or business. Look at Richard Branson. A lot of successful people like him have dyslexia – but they put everything into the one thing.”

Lee has written about his dyslexia in his book The Byrne Identity and hopes his story gives hope to others.

Back at the Launchpad children will learn in a way he never did. Active literacy involves alphabet sounds, short and long vowels sounds, sequencing, days of the week, the calendar and alphabet.

At the end of each session the class looks at emotional literacy, something Helen says is vital.

“At the moment we’re looking at anxiety. What to do and how to know when you are anxious and what strategies to deal with it. Sadly, our children do need that element.

“We try to work quite closely with their schools. We have had positive feedback from schools and a lot visit us to see what we are doing.

“We measure and monitor reading and spelling ability.

“Every child can learn but some will struggle a lot more.

“They are all capable of learning to read and write to a reasonable level – though some may never reach their reading age equivalent.

“Understanding of dyslexia is variable. You can still get teachers who are a bit dismissive of the idea and think the children are lazy or difficult.

“And they can be difficult because school is not working for them.

“You can see after a term or year here how they can start to shine.”