Teaching children and young people with dyslexia and literacy difficulties
June 2009
a summary by
Dr Valerie Muter &
Dr Helen Likierman
What is the rose report?
- A fantastic new Government report by Sir Jim Rose has outlined the future for children with dyslexia and literacy difficulties.
- It covers the need for early identification, assessing and monitoring children with literacy difficulties, how they should be taught and how parents should be involved with school.
- Ed Balls, the Minister for Education, has accepted its findings and recommendations.
- The Dyslexia-SpLD Trust has been set up to put the recommendations into practise and millions of pounds have been promised for teacher training.
Parents and schools
working together
- Teachers will involve parents more in plans to help their child.
- Teachers will listen to parents’ concerns and work with them.
- Parents will be kept informed of plans and progress on an ongoing basis.
- Parents will be helped to understand the process of assistance the school provides to children with literacy difficulties.
- Provision will be given in three teaching waves.
Understanding the waves of provision
- Wave 1 Teaching is ‘quality’ classroom teaching which all children get; this includes phonics.
- Wave 2 Teaching (was School Action) is for children where Wave 1 is not enough; this includes small group (and some one-to-one) teaching by school staff and SENCo using short-term pre-set programmes.
- Wave 3 Teaching (was School Action +) is for children who continue to have difficulties after following several Wave 2 programmes; the child is given individually tailored one-to-one programmes given by specially trained staff.
What will be in a
literacy teaching Programme
- Phoneme awareness training – to help children learn to analyse and process the sounds in spoken words.
- Phonic decoding training – learning to ‘sound out’ individual printed letters.
- Multisensory learning – learning to ‘look at’, ‘say’ and ‘write out’ words.
- Learning in small, gradual steps.
- ‘Overlearning’ by repetition, rehearsing and revisiting what has already been learned.
Identifying problems early
- Children at risk of literacy problems should be identified in Reception from a slow response to pre- and early-literacy activities.
- Teachers will be expected to pick up literacy problems by the end of Year 1.
- Slow progress means that the child will be moved to Wave 2 provision.
Building good self-esteem
- Rose recognises the importance of good self-esteem for motivation to learn, preventing behaviour problems and for general happiness.
- Schools and parents to help by:
- Giving positive reinforcement (praise and rewards).
- Offering different curriculum if needed.
- Using alternative materials and presentation (e.g. audiotapes and handouts).
- Offering peer support (‘buddies’ and mentors).
- Allowing alternative recording methods instead of writing (laptops, scribes and dictating machines).
- Helping the child to develop good coping strategies.
Practical implications for Parents
our suggestions (1)
- Look out for early signs (delayed speech, family history of literacy difficulties, slow to learn letters).
- Help develop good spoken language (do lots of word games, talking about pictures and surroundings, daily reading to your child).
- Help develop phonological awareness through lots of sound games (like ‘I Spy’, rhyming).
- Help develop listening comprehension (by telling back stories, discussing and and answering questions about what’s been read).
- Encourage your child (at every age) to read daily.
Practical implications for Parents
our suggestions (2)
- Look out for other learning problems that often occur alongside literacy problems (attention difficulties, poor motor co-ordination, maths problems).
- Build in ‘action plans’ at home to improve motivation and to develop good homework, study & organisation skills.
- Don’t just focus on the problems – develop your children’s strengths and interests so they feel they are doing well.
- Take action – and so reduce your own stress and anxiety levels.
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