Education professionals have identified several areas for improvement in the island’s approach to dyslexia support.
Chrissie Watson, Emma Butler and Olivia Edwards have given evidence to the Select Committee of Tynwald on Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dyspraxia and Dysgraphia.
They highlighted a lack of early diagnosis, inadequate teacher training, and the long-term consequences of inaction, including rising prison populations, linked to undiagnosed learning needs.
Chrissie Watson, an experienced SENCO, told the committee: “If a child is dyslexic, they have these difficulties as part of the way their brain is wired. It’s not going to go away.”
She noted the importance of early intervention, adding: “You need to be taught in a particular way to help you get the basic building blocks on board.”
Funding
Specialist tutor Emma Butler added: “I’m a qualified teacher. I qualified on the island, and I worked in classrooms for several years, experiencing the difficulties of having children in the class who couldn’t access the curriculum because they didn’t have the literacy skills.
“Not being able to help them, I then, subsequently, a good few years later, I started the training in the level five dyslexia qualification so that I would be able to better understand what was going on with these children and help them.”
She explained how this had been self funded as there was no funding available.
Negative
Olivia Edwards, who previously taught English at the prison, reported: “About 80% in each class had a negative school experience, and they all would basically say the same thing, that they struggled with learning.”
She highlighted the need for functional skills qualifications, saying it would be like a GCSE but focuses on “everything that you need for day to day life”.
When asked if function skills were being taught in the prison, she said that it wasn’t but would benefit prisoners.
She said: Last year, they had four students who took the GCSE in English. Only two passed.
“Now with functional skills, they would have been a lot more, achieving their GCSE level and being able to go back into the community with qualifications.”
Discounted
The committee heard that the Isle of Man’s 2011 dyslexia policy was discontinued, but never formally withdrawn.
Ms Watson said: “I think it sort of sort of went further back on the shelf and got a bit dusty.”
She added: “What I’ve heard, again, you’d like to check this information, is that it was too expensive for individual schools to implement.”
Current challenges include limited access to assessments, she noted: “There are no assessors who are advertising at the moment on the island.”
However, she added that a diagnostic assessment report can “cost up to £700”.
Recommendations
The professionals made several recommendations including early screening, improving teacher training and better support for parents navigating the system.
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