Teachers learn about dyslexia
In the typical Belizean classroom, there can be as many as forty or more students to one teacher. Getting all of them to behave and pay attention at the same time might seem like mission impossible. But are the “trouble makers” acting out of mischief or do some students have a real problem understanding what they’re suppose to be doing? This week, parents and teachers are joining forces with education experts to discuss a learning disorder called dyslexia.
Lucas Gonzalez, Teacher, James Garbutt School
“The teacher thinks that the child is just trying to get the other way and that gets you frustrated and at the same time it gets the child frustrated. But what I have learnt here and I’ve seen much, is that many a time the child simply does not understand. And if the child doesn’t understand what you are saying, he or she cannot do the work. And if he or she doesn’t understand then it’s like being in another country not knowing the language, not knowing the place. So they are in another world, completely by themselves.”
Yvonne Spencer, Coordinator
“It manifests itself in several ways, mostly in confusion of letters, reorganization of words like see for saw and for for from and that kind of thing. Mixing up the P’s and the B’s. But on top of that, it’s person’s that have difficulty with the left and the right spatial, it’s visual, it’s processing information. Dyslexia is something that can be overcome, you learn to accommodate it, you learn strategies and once the child is given the opportunity to understand what is happening in their learning style, they’re able to reach for the stars. Dyslexia needs a different methodology of teaching we call it multi-sensory teaching. And by using all the senses, we reinforce any structure that is being thought, any word building sentences. Dyslexic children have problems with their letter sounds, they have problems with their vowels with their blends, so we have then to go back and build a foundation because they have missed out on the basic foundation of learning which is the alphabet.”
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
“Is this different methodology difficult for teachers and parents to learn?”
Marilyn Monaghan, Consultant, Education Practitioner
“Quite the reverse, because what the teachers, I believe are becoming aware of, is that doing what we call multi-sensory teaching, so giving a whole activity, doing something with concrete manipulatives rather than just the abstract idea. Using games to reinforce the concept or to explain a concept. Using paired reading, a better reader with a slower reader. They have already been doing it, all we have done is come in and give them some fancy names and ideas and skills for what they have already seen in their classroom and have been using their intuition, their experience, their ingenuity to actually deal with already. So I hope its given them confidence that they are doing the right things. Maybe what they need are more of the resources that would help them to do it in a more structured way, to give them that security.”
Anyone wishing to be tested for dyslexia can do so at the Special Education Unit on Freetown Road. According to Yvonne Spencer, as much as ten percent of the population of every Caribbean country could be affected by dyslexia.
