About Us

We provide:

  • Assessments of children referred to us by mainstream schools,
  • Written reports and recommendations for schools and parents/carers,
  • Structured programmes of work to support children,
  • Advice and resources to help schools deliver support programmes,
  • Teaching of some children with significant specific literacy difficulties,
  • Training for whole schools, groups within schools, individual staff members and other agencies,
  • Advice and consultation for teachers and teaching assistants working in special schools and Additionally Resourced Provisions (ARPs).
Definition of Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a set of processing difficulties that affect the acquisition of reading and spelling.

In dyslexia, some or all aspects of literacy attainment are weak in relation to age, standard teaching and instruction, and level of other attainments. Across languages and age groups, difficulties in reading and spelling fluency are a key marker of dyslexia. Dyslexic difficulties exist on a continuum and can be experienced to various degrees of severity. The nature and developmental trajectory of dyslexia depends on multiple genetic and environmental influences. Dyslexia can affect the acquisition of other skills, such as mathematics, reading comprehension or learning another language.

 

The most commonly observed cognitive impairment in dyslexia is a difficulty in phonological processing (i.e. in phonological awareness, phonological processing speed or phonological memory). However, phonological difficulties do not fully explain the variability that is observed. Working memory, processing speed and orthographic skills can contribute to the impact of dyslexia. Dyslexia frequently co-occurs with one or more other developmental difficulties, including developmental language disorder, dyscalculia, ADHD, and developmental coordination disorder.

Referrals

Schools send referrals to the Dyslexia Team. Written parental permission is required before children can be referred.

The Dyslexia Team’s referral system reflects the Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice for schools: children’s needs are identified by schools, additional support is put into place and evaluated. Following this, a referral to the team may be the next step if a child is not making the expected level of progress. This approach helps to identify children with more severe needs who may require specialist help.

If the referral indicates that a child may have significant specific difficulties with literacy or numeracy, a specialist teacher from the team will contact school to arrange an assessment.  If the referral indicates that the child's needs are less severe, informal advice and resources will be offered by the team to provide support.

The team’s specialist assessments begin at Year 3 for both specific literacy difficulties and specific numeracy difficulties.

Meeting with parents and supporting schools

If the child has an initial assessment from the team, parents/carers will be invited by the school to an online meeting to discuss the specialist teacher's findings.  We will provide a report and recommendations for a teaching intervention programme to help the child/young person. Some recommendations can be supported through activities at home.

Our assessment results show that individualised programmes which are delivered regularly each week are effective in addressing children’s specific literacy difficulties. This approach aims to support schools in their efforts to address children’s needs.

For some children who have significant difficulties with literacy skills, we return to review their progress after 6 months and provide updated recommendations.  After this, we are available to provide further advice on request from schools.