Session Information
Contribution
Description: Dyslexia affects hundreds of people. It is only recently that attention is being directed to this hidden disability which affects one in ten children in an average classroom.. As the Disbility Act works its way through the educationbal system in Britain, it is hoped that things will improve. It is only in October 2006 that universities in England and Wales will try to meet the needs of all their students by making suitable provision based on the reports of educational psychologists, for which parents have to pay in many cases. This enables extra technological support in the shape of voice recognition packages and laptops and human support in the shape of scribes and readers to become available at university level. Failure to do so now amounts to shirking legal responsibilities. Yet, ironically , at present there is no state funded provision for many school children and young people, particularly between the ages of 16 and 18. This means that many young people who are able and intelligent but who have learning disabilities fall off the educational ladder at 15 or 16. Children from working class families are particularly at risk. This paper looks at the ways in which African Caribbean, South Asian and white families cope with the challenge of dyslexia in the family. This ranges from a sense of shame, despair and dismay , to one of aggression and anger. Dyslexia is still a taboo subject in many families. Many university tutors do not know how to assist their dyslexic students. How different families deal with this challenge highlights the persistent struggle of mothers whose lives rotate around the children who have to cope with this 'difference in learning'. In this context , gender becomes important too. How other countries in Europe are dealing with similar issues needs to be studied so that comparative lessons might be learned to help young people and their families more effectively.
Methodology: Qualitative research methods: Case studies, ethnographic interviews and observation.
Conclusions: This paper hopes to highlight the taboo which surrounds dyslexia among South Asian and African Caribbean families and the denial which affects some white working class homes. Middle class white families manage in many cases to rescue their children from the pain of failure at school by buying in extra support.
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.