Learning Support in Further Education

I work in a College of Higher Education as a Learning Support Co-ordinator with adult learners – teenagers and older. I have tried to look at the good practice in our own College, and how we try to build and improve our dyslexic learners' confidence.

Many of the students who come to our College have endured a lifetime of being told – or simply telling themselves – that they are hopeless or are failures. Teachers at school have been driven mad by exploding school bags or lost homework. At home even the best intentioned of families can all too easily lose patience with misplaced belongings and missed or forgotten arrangements.

Frequently the odd one out

Frequently the young person will find himself or herself the odd one out in a high achieving family. And sadly, sometimes parents can be the worst people to help their child with reading or homework. Instead of the home being a refuge from the pressures of school, Mom becomes the “teacher” and all the school related problems and tensions reappear at home, exacerbated by the parents' own anxieties and insecurities. Accumulations of small failures and humiliations both at home and at school can damage self-esteem or self confidence beyond repair.

The sense of alienation, lack of confidence and self doubt experienced by many dyslexic adolescents has been described by many writers. Within my own College setting, we too see the damage that the inflexible education system has inflicted on our young students. Many suffer from a lack of confidence, self doubt and sensitivity to criticism, behavioral problems, withdrawal and often isolation.

Low self-esteem

Within the Statements of Special Educational Need that we receive, the educational psychologists often refer to “low self esteem”, due to the student’s dyslexic learning style. Unfortunately, many psychologists very often fail to suggest any strategies to help in this respect, or indeed to focus on the strengths that the student may have.

Within the last few months, we had a university student doing some research with our dyslexic learners. She studied the links between dyslexia, co-ordination skills and the student’s perceived self esteem. The final report made interesting reading and linked all three factors. Many of our dyslexic learners have poor self esteem and poor co-ordination skills. The study was particularly important as a tool, as I had recently introduced the Primary Movement program for all those who have a diagnosis of dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia or concentration difficulties.

Importantly too, for any of our students who have to be assessed by a psychologist to get assistance in exams or class, we offer a professional counselling service to try and address some of the issues they may have.

Praise is also important – but it must be appropriate and genuine or else it will have a detrimental effect on the student’s confidence.

Phonic development

I have also introduced a program of phonic development. The programme has been developed from the “Jolly Phonics” package and adapted to be used with older learners. We have found that this has empowered our students and helped them to help themselves.

We encourage learners to develop awareness of their own learning strengths or styles, and encourage them to take responsibility for using them. Students with a dyslexic learning style are offered 1:1 support sessions with a tutor who assists with phonic development, shows them how to organize their work and schedules, and teaches them how to deal with their condition. This tutor also encourages good posture and writing techniques.

Curriculum tutors too are encouraged to be aware of their priorities when presenting material. Are they aiming to teach subject material or to develop learning strategies? We have trained many of our teaching staff in the “Teaching Thinking” program. This encourages staff to empower students to think for themselves as opposed to being spoon-fed. I do however instil in staff that some dyslexic learners, contrary to expectations, feel overloaded by multisensory presentation. I want staff to be sensitive to the individual students needs.

Confidence building classes

In one particular class, where nine out of eleven students were dyslexic, we ran self confidence / self esteem building classes. This ran for a period of six months and helped the students to feel good about themselves and focus on their strengths rather than their weaknesses.

Experience has shown us that de-motivation and low self esteem go hand-in-hand for many dyslexic learners. Equally we know that the sooner any difficulties are pinpointed and addressed, the sooner success becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. Time spent initially helping to come to terms with these difficulties, and supporting learners appropriately will undoubtedly lead to less frustration, less disruptive behavior and greater success for all the pupils in the learning environment.

It is important to consider that the principle of inclusion, to which we strive, will be more successful when issues have been recognised, systems, training and resources have been put in place and each individual student is given the special support they need.

High marks for understanding and knowledge

It is important to ensure that provision is in place so that our dyslexic learners can receive high marks for understanding and knowledge, rather than always being marked down for poor spelling, grammar, punctuation and presentation skills. Alongside this, developing a strong literacy policy that is based on phonic awareness, will increase the strengths of all the learners in the college and not just those who are dyslexic. Tutors are encouraged to be aware of the current area of learning and mark only that which has been taught, in order to boost motivation and encourage success. Our learners need to see that, while their literacy skills may be weak, their thoughts, ideas and knowledge are valued at the same level as their peers.

Stephen Mccartney
May 2008

• Dyslexia College.