Unable to understand dyslexic minds, schools put pressure on children

CHENNAI: Last week two Class IX students walked into Rashmika Early Learning and Counselling requesting for a certificate that they were dyslexic, so that they get a language exemption. A test by the centre to check, showed the boys’ standard was Class 1 level. The case exposes the inexperience of mainstream schools in identifying or handling children with learning difficulties and the poor system of promotion that is more of a race rather than a mark of learning.

Experts say teachers ill-equipped to identify dyslexia and the compulsory promotion system has led to learning disabilities not being diagnosed at all. The lack of a system to lend help together with the stigma associated with learning difficulties pushes children with dyslexia to emotional distress.

Elizabeth Suresh, principal of the centre, said she has got at least 11 students from middle school in the past year, who were found to only have the reading and writing skill of Class I students. "Many of them did not know the

alphabet

properly," she said.

Late diagnosis of dyslexia creates a strain on students as they struggle to cope and have to grapple with the backlog they face academically. "When we find students who have a learning disability, we need to start from scratch. When they get diagnosed between Classes VI but are at Class II level, bridging that four-year gap takes much longer," says Aishwarya Rao of Akshyantra Learning Centre of the Vivekalaya Group of Institutions. "In an environment where academics is the

gold standard

, children with dyslexia may have low self-esteem and it gets amplified at pre-teen or teenage. We need to look for additional issues like anxiety and address it simultaneously," says Dr Anuja Panicker, psychiatrist with PSG Hospitals.

Teachers with inclusive schools say the ideal age to diagnose dyslexia is between Classes I and III. "At the age of six if a child is unable to read aloud, ends up skipping words or cannot write the alphabet correctly, teachers and parents should pick up the possibility of a learning disability," says Aishwarya. "The problem arises when it is diagnosed much later when extra tuitions do not help and a counsellor recommends the child get tested," she adds.

A disinterested student in class or a refusal or inability to follow instructions should act as an alert. The main reasons for delayed diagnosis is lack of awareness about learning disabilities among teachers, the compulsory promotion system and denial of parents. "Many teachers do not know how to diagnose a learning disability and its various forms. There is

dyscalculia

, which is difficulty with numbers, dysgraphia that affects handwriting and motor skills or a language processing disorder," she adds. "The system in schools too creates a pressure as when a student is detained in a class for a year it is perceived as failure when it should be seen as the child not being ready for the next stage." A detainment, says Suresh should act as an alert for parents and teachers. "Many parents are unaware of learning disabilities and some refuse to accept it, which becomes an obstacle for the child," she says.