In recent years, educators are beginning to realise that our classes are full of neurodiverse learners and that many more children than we originally thought have learning differences that mean they may not progress in a straightforward way. This makes early identification more important than ever. Many questions are asked about how best to identify dyslexia. Can screening be effective or is a full assessment needed if we suspect dyslexia?
The answer lies in what we are hoping to achieve and when and why we are assessing. I believe there is a place for both, but screening can lead to early identification, which is vital.
One thing is clear - the signs of dyslexia are evident very early. Sometimes these signs are ignored because dyslexia is much more common than many teachers believe and they do not always link the difficulties a child has early on with dyslexia. The idea of 'wait and see' is of no benefit to dyslexic students and in fact can be very damaging - leading to an educational gap which is hard to close and low self esteem.
What we want is for children to be given the right support at the earliest opportunity.
Both teachers and parents can misunderstand the benefits and purpose of screening. Screening should be a quick and 'low stakes' way of identifying children who have gaps in their skills that could hinder their progress in school. Success in learning to read and write relies on having the right foundation skills. If we can identifying children 'at risk' of having a learning difficulty then interventions can quickly put in place. For many these interventions are likely to prevent failure and help children to make progress in areas they find difficult. Screening works best when all the children in a class or year group are screened, this means that children are not singled out and no one is missed.
Screeners can are often computer based or may be a series of short activities or games. This limits the skills had can be tested and the depth of information gained. While no screener is completely reliable as they look at a child's performance on a particular day with 'novel' activities. They can still help to identify many students who would benefit from a different approach.
Many parents, in my experience, worry about labelling young children. They feel that if their child is identified as having learning needs it will be like a 'self fulfilling' prophecy. They fear that their child will be treated differently and this will disadvantage them. They feel if we ignore the difficulty it will go away.
In reality the opposite is true, those who receive early intervention often go on to needing minimal support long term and develop their own strategies to manage any difficulties they have. Their self esteem and sense of self usually remain positive. In contrast those who do not receive the specific help they need fall further and further behind and become frustrated and demoralised.
Many students do need a different approach and this should be more readily accepted. Identifying this is not a disadvantage but an advantage. It means that they can develop their basic skills and then start to access more of the classwork without support. Ignoring difficulties very rarely ends up positively in reality the gap between the child and their peers only gets wider and as they become more self aware their self esteem crumbles.
Children know from a very early age if they are not able to do the things that their peers can do. They will then use a number tactics to get through. They will avoid activities they find difficult, this is easy to do in the early years setting. others always choose to work with a partner. Verbally able students often find ways of masking their difficulties and in my experience girls are better at masking than boys. Boys tend to opt more for clowning around or looking like they 'don't' want to something to disguise the fact they 'can't' do something. Boys will often employ work avoidance tactics.
There is also a still the long held belief that some children are 'late bloomers' in my experience this is rarely the case. Those who start off 'behind' stay behind unless they receive appropriate interventions and support. Their difficulties never really go away but change the way they present themselves which can give an illusion that the problems have gone away.
The purpose of screening is not to give a definite label but to suggest areas of difficulty that can be targeted and supported.
It is important to realise if a child is identified as having a learning need, this is not a judgement of a child's intelligence and does not mean that they can't be successful future. But the fundamental thing is they need to be taught in a way that works for them early on while their brain receptive and this preserves their self esteem. If a child takes longer to develop basic skills, this is absolutely fine. However, our education system has turned into a conveyor belt where certain skills need to be achieved in each year group and this is how some students can quickly get 'behind'.
The great thing about early intervention is that is largely game based and gives the child extra adult attention. It is also not 'harmful' if a child is wrongly identified as all that will happen if they make rapid progress. As a result, they will no longer be included in the intervention.
The number of times I have arrived at class to take my intervention groups and half the class want to come and join in. While parents worry about some sort of stigma, the children themselves are excited to do activities where they can succeed. They also enjoy having adult attention either individually or in a small group.
Screening can not replace formal assessment it just has a different purpose. In my opinion, formal assessment has an important role as it is a much more thorough and detailed process which is beneficial when the child needs more individual support. However, it does not necessarily need to be the first step or a pre-requisite for intervention. It can also be hugely beneficial for both the child and parent to properly understand why learning to read and write is so challenging. Strangely, having a clear label can also be a huge relief for many students who are often mislabelled by themselves and others.
So my advice is to screen first and follow up with a formal assessment when necessary.
