Should every school take a toolbox approach to dyslexia support?
Is there a simple way to support dyslexic learning within the classroom that empowers the learner to find strategies that boost literacy skills but is also equally available to anyone in the classroom whether they have a dyslexia diagnosis or not? Could the work of two dyslexia specialists on the island of Malta have a strategy to share with all schools across the world? Read on to find out more.
I recently attended a webinar hosted by Succeed With Dyslexia that was entitled “A Toolbox Approach To Dyslexia Support”. The host, Julia Clouter was interviewing two dyslexia specialists from the Secretariat For Catholic Education, on the small Mediterranean island of Malta.
Jason Gauci and Claudia Farugia between them have more than 50 years of experience in supporting schoolchildren with dyslexia and currently support 40 schools across Malta delivering assessments and training teachers on how to support their dyslexic students. They work with all 40 schools on their strategic approach to supporting children with special educational needs.
Jason is also a published author of the book Auditory Processing Skills, a resource book to help children with learning difficulties develop phonological awareness and auditory memory capacities.
Jason and Claudia are huge advocates for the use of low-tech and mid-tech approaches that support learning.
Watch the recording of the webinar with Jason Gauci, Claudia Farugia and Julia Clouter below:
The Toolbox: Using a low-tech approach to supporting learning.
In the webinar, Claudia outlined a strategy that they have implemented in all the schools that they work with that is call “The Toolbox”.
The aim of the ‘toolbox’ is to provide a classroom with a range of low-tech resources that can help with developing literacy skills.
I will share what is in the toolbox later in this article but let me outline how it is used first.
Each classroom gets their own toolbox and the teacher is trained on how to use the contents.
The teacher then introduces it to the class. The teacher makes it clear that the toolbox is for anyone who wants to use any of the contents to help them with reading and writing.
The teacher also makes it clear that it is up to the pupil to go to the box and find an item that can help as and when they need to.
Whilst the teacher is aware of who in the class is experiencing literacy difficulties or who has a dyslexia diagnosis, the aim is to make the toolbox a resource for all.
The contents of the toolbox are as follows:
Sets of high frequency words,
Page markers,
Sticky notes,
Highlighters,
Multiplication tables,
What I really like about this approach is how every child in the class can use the toolbox if they feel that they have the need, and the teacher is available to help them find what works for them. Children have a natural curiosity and so having a big box of fun but useful ‘tools’ to help them with learning, that are freely accessible, can only be a good thing and this strategy develops skills in independent learning.
Jason and Claudia went on to say that this approach is mainly used in primary schools in Malta, but it is a good starting point for dyslexia provision.
At age 7, all children in these schools are screened for dyslexia and further diagnostic assessments are then arranged. With the diagnosis then comes further use of ‘mid-tech’ assistive technology to support learning can then be used more specifically as part of the intervention, an example of which would be the C-Pen.
Jason Gauci has conducted a study to evaluate the impact of using a C-Pen Reader Pen on primary school children who have literacy issues.
A summary of this study can be seen below:
Final Comments.
It is clear that Jason Gauci and Claudia Farugia are making a difference in schools across Malta with children who are dyslexic or have difficulties with literacy. The approach that they have implemented across Malta brings about an established infrastructure of support that is standard in every classroom and available to anyone who can use it. This approach promotes independent learning and normalises the use of ‘tools’ for helping with learning.
Jason has done further work to assess the use of reader pens in the classroom and at home to support learning and found that 87% of those that used the C-Pen had felt helped in their reading comprehension.
Personally, I would love to see the toolbox approach used as standard in primary schools across the UK as it would help children to develop skills in self-advocacy and independent learning. The use of ‘low-tech’ equipment means that this strategy is relatively cheap to implement and easy in terms of training staff. This helps to manage most of the needs in the classroom leaving the schools to fund more specific interventions as required or in purchasing other types of assistive technology such as the C-Pen.
Jason and Claudia, have also developed their study with the C-Pen with adolescents and will be presenting their findings in another webinar coming soon. I will keep you up to date as I get the details.