Government action on dyslexia

07/05/2008 by Tony Attwood.

Here’s a summary of what the government says it is doing in this field, in its most recent pronoucements.

• Providing funding of around £1m over three years to the No to Failure project. No to Failure is trailblazing and evaluating the impact of specialist training for teachers and specialist tuition for children with dyslexia in some schools in 3 local authority areas.

• Through the National Strategies, rolling out to all areas this year an Inclusion Development Programme (IDP) designed to increase knowledge and awareness of dyslexia and communication difficulties amongst the schools and early years workforce and improve learning outcomes for this particular group of children

• Providing £150K over two financial years to enable the British Dyslexia Association to develop their helpline, which provides advice about dyslexia – including to teachers and parents.

• Providing £250K over three financial years to enable Dyslexia Action to run further Partnership for Literacy pilots.

Sir Jim Rose has been asked to make recommendations on the identification and teaching of children with dyslexia, and on how best to take forward the commitment in the Children’s Plan to establish a pilot scheme in which children with dyslexia will receive Reading Recovery support or one-to-one tuition from specialist dyslexia teachers.

Sir Jim is being asked include the following sources of evidence in developing his recommendations:

• a summary of published research on the impact of specialist dyslexia teaching and Reading Recovery on progression and outcomes for children with dyslexia, currently being prepared by Dr Chris Singleton of Hull University;

• evaluations of Every Child a Reader, including Reading Recovery, carried out by the Every Child a Chance Trust and the Institute of Education;

• a recently published interim evaluation of the No to Failure Project’s identification of children at risk of dyslexia/ specific learning difficulties;

• No to Failure Project’s final evaluation of the progress made by children identified as being at risk of dyslexia/ specific learning difficulties who have received specialist dyslexia teaching, which the Project expects to publish at the end of this year.

Sir Jim Rose will also consult with the No to Failure Project and other dyslexia organisations in considering his recommendations. He has agreed to prepare a report containing his recommendations early in 2009.

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Tony Attwood

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