News
Summer 2008
Welcome to our new-style, shorter newsletter which is now designed exclusively for web pages.
For over eight years, Pauline Key-Kairis, typographer and designer, has given her professional skills and meticulous care to creating our image in print and online including guides, books and quarterly eNewsletters which have won international acclaim. We are indebted to Pauline for her outstanding service and welcome her future involvement with the online publications we are producing.
In this issue
- A new beginning
- Online learning
- Online conference
- Award from the King Baudouin Foundation
- International work and collaboration
- Report from e-Learning Africa
- Consultancy e-team
- ‘One in ten’
- Assistive Technology in Special Education and Rehabilitation
A new beginning
With our new web site and ‘News’, we are drawing more attention to our aims:
They are to bring full awareness of dyslexia into the education systems responsible for teaching reading, writing and maths, and to provide free online training and open education resources to ensure that children may be better taught in ways in which they can learn, which is their right.
We offer assistance to hard-pressed teachers by providing them with the training and techniques they need to teach children who learn differently from the majority. In the end we want these children to feel confident in their role and to succeed in study and work.
Online learning
This free ‘learning path’, scheduled for September 2008, was requested by la Communauté Française de Belgique, Ministre de l’Enseignement supérieur, de la Recherche scientifique et des Relations internationales.
In a first stage it will be in French and English.
It is well on target. The first of three sections, ‘What is dyslexia?’, has been completed. The second part, ‘Recognition’, is almost complete and the third, ‘What to do’, is making excellent progress.
The material is being written by Dr Vincent Goetry, who is one of our consultancy team, and was profiled in the Spring Newsletter. It will be verified by Professor José Moraïs of the Free University of Brussels.
On 28 May Vincent presented a complete treatment of the course, populated with numerous examples, topics of video clips, test-sheets, worksheets etc, at the Haute Ecole de Bruxelles. Principal guests were Monsieur Barbay, Président du Conseil supérieur pédagogique, Catégorie Pédagogique, and Madame Sylvie Frère, Psychopédagogue et coordinatrice de l'année de spécialisation en orthopédagogie.
Also present were Marianne Hallet, Secretary General of APEDA (Association belge de Parents d'Enfants en Difficulté d'Apprentissage), Anny Cooreman, Head of the EUREKA School for children with dyslexia, a parent from the European School I, and four of Dyslexia International’s volunteer team.
The presentation was enthusiastically received and, subject to a few modifications and additions, its contents endorsed.
Keep an eye on our web site in September!
Online conference
Thanks to the Microsoft Innovation Center, Brussels, we are running this event on
Thursday, 13 November 2008, 15:00, Central European Time
The theme is ‘Dyslexia: Neuroscience and Psychology’. Our two presenters are Professor Stanislas Dehaene, Collège de France, who has written a book called Les neurons de la lecture (reviewed in the last Newsletter), and Professor Moraïs in Brussels. We will be joined by Professor John Stein from the University of Oxford, UK, the Chair of our Scientific Advisory Committee. These three and some of our volunteers will be in live, ‘real-time’ mode.
You can view the conference and send questions by email if you have broadband connection and a speaker for your PC.
There are 100 places available – so first come, first served!
Award from the King Baudouin Foundation
We are proud to announce that we have been chosen for an award from this Foundation in the context of its ‘breXpat’ project which ‘brings expats and locals closer together.’
The award will subsidize the online learning course and online conference as well as contribute to the costs of the web site.
International work and collaboration
Dr Ian Smythe is a consultant in dyslexia, with experience in numerous countries and languages, and was profiled in our Winter Newsletter. We asked him to give an overview of his work.
Development of resources and training can only advance through
teamwork, and I feel privileged to be involved in so many projects
around the world that are making a significant impact on the lives of
dyslexic individuals. But when asked to recount what I do, it is both
difficult and unfair to say anything except through reference to those
projects, friends and colleagues who are part of an international team.
And that is probably best explained through the progression of projects
over the last few years.
In 2000 I worked closely with the Welsh Dyslexia Project, and
developed a Vision, which identified policies, resources and training
that needed to be developed. (See the ‘International Book of Dyslexia,
2004’, for full details.) Amongst one of the first areas to be developed
was the raising of awareness and understanding for parents, in English
and Welsh. As a consequence Wales was (to the best of my knowledge) the
first place to have a multimedia CD for parents of dyslexic individuals.
Subsequently I worked closely with colleagues in Hong Kong and Sweden to
produce CDs based around a similar concept. My own website includes the
multimedia “presentation” translated into a further seven languages.
Further work included development of training and resources in Hong
Kong, developed with the government and friends such as Linda Siegel.
Those resources, as well as results from the pan-European survey of ICT
(funded by the EU) were included in our EU funded project Dystrain -
accredited online e-learning for teachers in English, Hungarian,
Romanian, Swedish and Welsh. That ended in 2005, but the e-learning
continues, and the principles have been used elsewhere, including Hong
Kong and Brazil. More recently this e-learning has been carried through
in collaboration with the British Dyslexia Association, with courses
already developed in four areas including multilingualism and dyslexia,
a specialisation of mine.
When it comes to adults, there are two sides: self-support and those
supporting dyslexia. The EU-funded Project Include was led
administratively by the British Dyslexia Association. Much of the
content was developed in collaboration with Eva Gyarmathy of Hungary
with further input from Marta Bogdanowicz and others. Consequently a
self-evaluation tool and multimedia e-book were the main outcomes (in
English, Greek, Hungarian and Polish). This is now being transferred and
improved prior to launch on my own website, since funding has ceased.
For those supporting dyslexics, Adystrain (led by Austria) provided
funding to develop courses and e-books for tutors and lecturers as well
as managers and human resources personnel (in England, Denmark, Germany,
Bulgaria, Finland and Spain). Although aimed at adults, Edysgate (also
EU funded, and led by Austria, in collaboration with Bulgaria, Denmark,
Spain and the UK) can be used by dyslexics of many ages. The intention
was to provide a wide range of activities that could attempt to
stimulate cognitive skills that are known to be difficult for dyslexics.
The games and activities are now being trialled to examine their
effectiveness as potential learning resources for dyslexic individuals.
Probably one of the most exciting projects I am currently involved in is
Calldysc – Collaborative Additional Language Learning for Dyslexics, or
as I prefer to call it in order to help explain it easily, “Learning
English on a Mobile Phone”, in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and
Wales. We have developed a series of highly motivating language learning
games and Web 2.0 activities designed to encourage dyslexics to try to
learn English on an exciting learning platform. The project also has an
extensive computer-based learner management system which can record the
activities played on the mobile, irrespective of where the child is
learning. This is attracting international attention, especially when we
started to demonstrate it working with low cost phones and the latest
low cost Linux sub-notebooks at less than €250.
I am also involved in research in various countries and languages.
However, I tend to see research as providing the evidence to ensure the
most effective tools are used. Therefore they are a means to an end and
not the end itself. Outcomes of the research in the past year include
books and assessment tools with respect to dyslexia in Brazil and
Bulgaria, and study skills work in China.
In summary, I believe there is much to be learned from sharing, as
experience shows that more than 80% of what works in one place will work
in another. Adapt for culture and language, and resource development can
be quick and easy, and help most dyslexic individuals. And the future?
That will all depend on funding, but more solutions to identified
problems have already been mapped out, and applications for resources
made. Time will tell what gets funded, but there is plenty to do.
or through my website
www.ibisconsultants.info.
Report from e-Learning Africa
Dr. Daniel Ofori, Dyslexia International’s West Africa Regional Ambassador, attended the Third International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training (‘e-Learning Africa 2008’), from May 28 – 30 in Accra, Ghana.
Since its inception in 2006 the event has grown. This year’s conference was attended by more than 1440 delegates from 83 countries and 315 speakers.
The theme that stood out most was education and training, which focused on tools for helping people learn in school and at work – a lot was said and presented on open source material (and other free material) available on a proprietary basis and also on the net. Capacity building as a second theme concentrated on education from primary to higher education to enable students to use and manage some of the new technologies and tools.
16 diverse themes were addressed covering all aspects of technology-enhanced education and training.
The conference provided an opportunity for professionals and stakeholders to target, learn, and share new ideas on how e-learning can be integrated into the educational system as well as training. Although only one theme (Achieving Inclusivity Through e-Learning) directly addressed the needs of those with some learning disabilities, the conference also provided an opportunity for networking with colleagues from all over the world.
Fliers and cards from Dyslexia International’s office in Brussels were distributed to interested participants.
Dyslexia Consultancy e-team
Continuing the profiles of our team:
Dr Felicity Fletcher-Campbell is Director of the Professional Studies in Education Programme in the Faculty of Education and Language Studies at the Open University, UK, with particular responsibility for courses focusing on issues of Equality and Diversity. She is course chair of the Open University course Difficulties in Literacy Development, which is within the masters in education award.
Prior to joining the Open University in 2006, she was Principal Research Officer at the National Foundation for Educational Research, where she had responsibility for the Foundation's research and development programme in special educational needs. Over 20 years at the NFER she undertook numerous research and evaluation projects, mostly for national and local government.
She is a national authority on the education of children in care and has been involved with most of the major initiatives in this area since it became an issue in the late 1980s. From its inception in 1996 until she joined the Open University, she was government-appointed National Co-ordinator for the European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education She has published widely, given numerous presentations around the UK and in Europe, and taught in all phases of education.
One in ten: the De Biévre family
The De Bièvre family, which runs ‘Domus Cuisine’, is illustrative not only of the hereditary nature of dyslexia, but also of the great difficulty many experience in receiving the necessary tuition in Belgium.
Three of Sue De Bièvre’s four children are dyslexic learners (one has dyscalculia too) – her mother and brother are also dyslexic – but she has struggled to find the right schools for them. She is now even considering sending her youngest, 10, to a boarding school in France, which has a good reputation for teaching dyslexic pupils, though she says that “sending them away from their family is not necessarily a good thing”. Dyslexic children are often very vulnerable, she adds.
Sue has been exasperated by the Belgian education system, which she feels is behind other Western countries where dyslexia is concerned. In Britain, for example, more time is offered to dyslexic students when sitting exams and they may even be given the choice of giving answers orally, but such an allowance is rare here. Sue says that her son was told that a concession couldn’t be made for his dyslexia even though his school is now required to do so by EU law. She believes that dyslexic learners are “just as handicapped as a blind child” and that much work needs to be done to raise the awareness of ministers and teachers in order to recognise the problem.
All three have received logopedie (speech therapy), which Sue says is vital, but it is not, however, covered by the social insurance system in Belgium after the age of 12. At € 30 a session twice a week, the training can be very expensive. Her second eldest daughter went to Saint Bernadette School in Auderghem, Brussels, which does provide classes for dyslexic pupils and others with special learning needs. But when she was 12 she had to move to a school where dyslexia was not recognised.
Sue is especially worried about the future of her children: under Belgian law her 16 year-old daughter must complete another two years of schooling and it is likely these be spent at an école professionelle. She is concerned that such a school will undermine her child’s confidence even further and she worries about the behavioural problems that so often feature in these schools.
Assistive Technology in Special Education and Rehabilitation
Please mention the following event in your Newsletters.
26th Annual Closing The Gap Conference
'Assistive Technology in Special Education and Rehabilitation'