Talk to parents of children with dyslexia – or dyscalculia, dyspraxia or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) – and you will quickly realise how acutely aware they are of the need to move away from a “one-size-fits-all” approach to education.
More specifically, parents speak about how the dominant teaching style often relies on students writing things down quickly from the board, reading texts at speed for comprehension and supplying fast answers in class.
Alternative learning approaches incorporating watching videos or listening to recordings are still less common. And while group project work is part of the new classroom based assessments, more creative approaches to finding out information and sharing knowledge still depends on the individual teacher’s personal teaching style.
Rosie Bissett, chief executive of Dyslexia Ireland, says that about one person in 10 has dyslexia. “English is one of the most complex languages as there are multiple different sounds for groups of letters, which makes learning literacy more challenging,” she says.
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Dyslexia can manifest as slow reading, writing and/or poor spelling. As it is hereditary, parents who have family members with dyslexia are advised look out for it in their children from junior infants onwards.
“If you find your child isn’t picking up on sounds and written words as well as other pupils of their age, it’s worth drawing the teacher’s attention to it,” says Bissett. When attention is focused on the mechanics of reading and writing, children can miss out on the meaning or purpose of the exercise.
And while primary-school teachers are now getting more training in learning difficulties, Bissett stresses the importance of continuous professional development for teachers to upskill in all learning difficulties.
“Teachers will have a child with dyslexia in every class they teach and by identifying it early, you can protect the young person’s self-esteem and self-confidence and help navigate them towards the supports and accommodations they need,” she says.
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With advances in text-to-speech software, children with dyslexia now have more resources available to them if they can access the technology. Dyslexia Ireland runs a free online e-learning course in dyslexia. The website also has resources for teachers with subject-specific guidance and training videos for secondary schoolteachers.
“It’s about preventing the child internalising a negative self-image and having the language to know that their brain works differently so they can be kind to themselves,” says Bissett.
Stigma around learning difficulties has also substantially reduced in recent years, coupled with more awareness of how widespread such difficulties are.
“What’s good for dyslexia is good for everyone,” says Bissett. She contends that if teachers teach a class as if everyone is dyslexic, they will include and support a huge number of children and won’t disadvantage anyone in the class.
“If teachers teach literacy in a structured programme, building vocabulary, phonics, repetition and consolidating information with visual and auditory simultaneously, it will have benefits for everyone.”
My son is a fluent Irish speaker but that won’t be reflected in the grade he gets in his exam
The long delays for publicly funded assessments – and the high cost of private assessments (which can cost up to €1,000) gets plenty of attention, but Bissett says schools can provide interventions for children without formal assessments. Dyslexia Ireland runs an assessment service for €600 with reduced rates for low-income families. But, even for their service, there is a waiting time of 18 months.
Ben Robinson, a 14-year-old with dyslexia, is studying for the Junior Certificate at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin. He says that incorporating video and visuals as well as written explanations improves his ability to learn.
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He says Google Classroom helps him greatly as he can go back over the notes online later if he didn’t get everything written down in class.
“The school has also introduced a website for studying for all the students called examrevision.ie, and I find this helpful because it has presentations, video and past exam questions and few more things to help me study,” he says.
Ben’s mother, Kim, says that looking back over his school years, she realises that working with the school was so important. “Getting the school on board and speaking up for what he needed was key,” she says.
Julie Burke, whose son Ethan Elwood (18) was only recently diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD, says the school system is structured for a certain type of academic learner. “The problem is that everyone else doesn’t do well,” she says. “Ethan will never fit into the school environment as it is but he’s the most helpful, funny and accommodating kid and he will find his tribe when he leaves school.”
She says more classroom-based assessments would help a lot of children with learning difficulties. “People like Ethan would benefit from more presenting and project-based work. He is also a fluent Irish speaker but that won’t be reflected in the grade he gets in his exam.”
Ethan, who is doing the Leaving Certificate this year, says having enough time to do exams is one of his biggest concerns. “I also think that students would benefit from using laptops in class especially for subjects like geography, history and music.”
Minister for Education Helen McEntee recently announced that students with dyslexia would be entitled to extra time in the Junior Certificate and Leaving Certificate exams in 2026. The eligibility criteria for this extra time is due to be published soon.
Monica Grant is the mother of 17-year-old twins, Bláthnaid and Síofra Tobin, both of whom have dyslexia. The twins are now first-year students at South East Technological University in Waterford, their home city.
Grant says they struggled through primary school and conventional secondary school before moving to the XLC project school in Waterford, which offers an alternative Leaving Certificate programme. Looking back at their early years in secondary school, Grant says what would have helped them most was “more kindness and understanding from the teachers”.
Like other parents of secondary school students with dyslexia, she also says more time for exams and an ease of access to special accommodations such as scribes and readers are hugely important.
Síofra Tobin says she remembers how Friday spelling tests used to make her feel so anxious and worried. “It was like asking a fish to climb a tree. It’s not fair asking someone to do something that everyone else finds really easy,” she says. Now studying an arts degree, she says she loves reading and wants to be a writer.
“I now run the book club at the Lit Fest in Waterford city for young writers and readers. I feel that the older I get, the more I can stand up for myself.”
