People with learning difficulties like dyslexia. Has your primary or secondary school let you down?

It has only been in the last few weeks that I have turned my thinking around from saying I failed high school, to the school failed me.

I left high school having not passed form 5, I did not learn to read until I was 14, and that was due to a dedicated teacher Mr Dean, who made sure a few other students and I learnt to read, he encouraged us to read, with his dedication and patience. The odd thing was I could write fairly well, but for the life of me I could not read, the words appeared to move around, merge etc.

When my daughter started to show she had similar problems, although some what opposite of me, she could read, but had major problems with writing. I pushed for testing, thankfully the school agreed. After a thorough assessment, with an Educational Psychologist, and a Irlens clinician both diagnosed her as being dyslexic, I was diagnosed as dyslexic at the same time by the Irlens clinician. I was 30 my daughter was 9.

Unfortunately there was little or no known way to support the dyslexic student, so I had to develop some strategies to support my daughter, then encourage her teachers to help, It was only in high school that they started to really support her correctly, following the strategies I found worked.

Teachers should be taught what dyslexia is, and what to look for in a child who is clearly struggling, and have a number of strategies and supports in place to support their student. Many people do not realize that dyslexia affects all aspects of learning, not just reading, but it can also affect one specific area, such as maths (dyscalculia), and no two persons are the same, my daughter can read better than I, but her hand writing is shocking, but I can write fairly well.

Having learnt the reason for my learning problems, I used the same strategies that was used on my daughter for myself, I am now a qualified Youth & Disability support worker, Workplace Trainer & Assessor, and currently studying to be a Allied Health Assistant (thankfully nearly complete once I have done my work placement).

I have been a strong advocate for people learning disorders, especially dyslexia, and often have teachers asking for help, and or strategies, as well as reputable web sites for information, computer programs etc. Simple things such as the teacher write each paragraph in a different colour, when writing on the board, use larger font and ideally Comic Sans size 14, class handout or notes on light coloured paper (teacher needs to ask the student which colour is best suited to them).

Yes I agree with you. The knowledge most people have of Dyslexia - and other forms - is very limited. I am amazed at the ignorance some people have of it, be it teachers, doctor's even! I never got diagnosed with my learning difficulties - Dyslexia included - until 18 months ago and my education life has been a real let down to say the least. There are so many basic things I have trouble with as nobody would help. At 24, i'm still not getting much help, most of the 'clinics' so to speak only really cater for children. I've been to my doctor about this but have had no success with getting help. I get a bit of help from my University, mainly extensions on hand in deadlines. I will have to go private to get help with my speech and other things but at this point in my life I can no way afford to do so. Teachers need A LOT more education themselves on learning disorders so less children will slip through the net. The earlier it is picked up, the better the persons quality of life will be later. Also families of people with difficulties and/or disabilities need to be as supportive as possible.

My daughter has CP due to a brain injury at birth. The evil school psychiatrist told me that she would "most likely never be able to read or write or do basic math"; that they were going to teach her to tie her shoes, make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and give her the "life skills" necessary to be able to live, though she would most likely wind up in a home. Then the bas/tard told me to accept it. Sure thing, doc.

I had no choice to enroll her in the school, and her teachers were angels, but their classes were way over -- what's the word? -- crowded, I guess. My baby was too high functioning for one class, too low functioning for the other class, and she always looked lost.

After Evil Doctor told me to "accept it." I went home and my husband and I started researching on where we could move to that would teach our baby something other than nothing. It took six months, but we found the state to move to, and now my daughter is learning to read, can copy write, and is learning to do all the things that SOB said she could never do.

In the meantime, the Shriner's Club had donated a day at the state fair to the sped students and the principal of that school tried to give that field trip to her exceptional students, because "they deserved it," and the "sped kids don't know what's going on anyway." To the credit of the sped teachers, they told us parents and we went in there great guns, so to speak, and our children got the field trip.

Moving out of that horrendous state was the best thing we could have done for our children, and especially for our oldest.

I guess to answer your question: Yes, the school let us down as parents, but we knew if they were the worst (to us) there had to be a best. And we found it.

I quit teaching last year for three reasons:

1) It's not Education any more. It's a business. Each department has its own budget, the higher number of students enrolled, the higher the budget. The larger the school, higher budget and bigger salary for the principal.

2) In the schools I taught the parents didn't support the school, the teachers, nor their own students. Their attitude was: I hated school & it didn't do me any good, so why should I put my kid through it too?!

3) They don't teach general knowledge- they either teach abstract, or directly influenced by the community. For example, in the last school I taught in a rural community, the head of department said: "Look. These kids live out here and the only thing expected of them is to work the farm or in the meat processing factory. They don't "need" dreams!" (referring to literature I wanted to use instead of those old boring To Kill A Mockingbird, Shakespeare, To Sir With Love, etc. They're great books, but are out of time, and written by non-Australians. I wanted to use Australian books for Australian themes)

I taught in Special Needs and had a dedicated, intelligent student whom only needed support and encouragement to study mainstream. When I told the head to let him back into mainstream she said she needed the funding his enrolment provided. She didn't give a damn about this child's education! And she was the one who decided WHAT to teach, so you can imagine her students' lack of knowledge!

Most schools now-a-days just provide labour for the growing amount of factory operators needed. Others create admin staff, and others just see what the community "needs" (as if they knew!) and educates accordingly. The private schools are a whole different ballgame!

If I were a parent of a disabled child, I'd do my darnest to home-school him/her. Why put them through the torture of a system that was created in 1938 by a scientist studying rats! "esteemed psychologist BF Skinner, who puts rats and pigeons in experimental boxes to study their behaviour" Skinner's daughter in The Guardian newspaper. No wonder that's what we felt like in schools!

I hope you can come up with a better way, because only those with a disability truly know how they learn- not a scientist!

Yes-I had LD and the school let me down,I am not going to give years it only gives away my age,so I will say long ago there was no help or understanding of LD and

the teachers and principal said I could do better if I just buckled down and try harder.

We know there is nothing further from the truth,it goes deeper than that. I went

to reading specialist and she told me to give up on myself. I think it was a miracle

I passed the GED on the first try. People said I was wasting my time.

Schools would be doing dyslexics an _appalling_ disservice if they did what you suggest and assumed they were stupid and incapable of learning academic subjects.

Dyslexia is a specific problem. It does not mean a child is stupid and should be removed from the education level they'll need if they want to get qualifications and go on to university.

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