Simple test will head off misery
As one who worked with dyslexic children for many years, I am pleased that Staffordshire Specialist Educational Needs Service is to establish a specialist unit at a Wombourne School.
There is no single condition that can be labelled "dyslexic" but it is a convenient term to cover a raft of conditions causing problems with reading and writing.
Developmental dyslexia affects around one in five of first-born boys leading to cross-lateralism showing in reversals, omissions, substitutions, mis-pronunciations and such like. Boys are doubly handicapped, firstly by the problem itself and secondly, by being labelled as "lazy", "untidy", "careless" and worse, which does nothing for their self-esteem.
Undetected visual problems, especially in those arising from the moving eye, cause much unhappiness in childhood and I urge parents of affected pupils to take the work of the new unit seriously.
I would like to see all teachers of Year Five children taking a few minutes out of the school year to scan their class using a questionnaire that most Behavioural Optometrists will be pleased to supply.
I trust the new unit will be funded sufficiently to enable to buy equipment such as intuitive overlays and coloured lenses and perhaps be able to help low income parents whose children need to be assessed privately by a consultant.
Norman Freeman, The Greenlands, Wombourne.
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