Teachers need better dyslexia training says charity
Almost two thirds of parents of dyslexic children (61%) said their child had to wait a year for help after being diagnosed, a report suggests.
Of 450 parents surveyed for the charity Action on Dyslexia, 90% said teachers lacked awareness of the condition.
The charity wants dyslexia training for all teachers and a national dyslexia and literacy strategy included in the government's special needs reforms.
The government said early support for dyslexic pupils was vital.
The report, Dyslexia Still Matters, says that despite one in 10 children having the condition, there is no requirement for teachers to have any training in how to identify dyslexia or support a dyslexic child.
More than half (56%) of the parents questioned by YouGov believed dyslexia was not given enough recognition within the education system.
The respondents wanted more specialists to help identify dyslexic children (82%), more specialist support for parents, teachers and children (92%) and a school environment that did not stigmatise their children for being different (57%).
Parents in some schools complained that their children's learning difficulties were not picked up early enough - and sometimes it was parents rather than teachers who raised the condition as a possibility.
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... (BBC News - 27 June)