Govt finally accepts dyslexia exists

Siblings Marie, 15 (left), Liam, 12, and Elizabeth Winterton, 17, all suffer from dyslexia and are pleased the Ministry of Education has finally recognised the condition. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Dyslexia, that's d-y-s-l-e-x-i-a.

It's taken a while for the Ministry of Education to get its head around the word but affected families and the Dyslexia Foundation are celebrating long-sought recognition of the needs of those identified as having the reading and writing disability.

It came yesterday in the form of a statement titled "Ministry improves understanding of dyslexia".

After denying for decades that the condition existed, the ministry said it would put greater emphasis on assisting students who struggled with reading and writing, including those identified as dyslexic.

Anne Jackson, deputy secretary (schooling), said dyslexia was a term used to refer to a group of students with a range of persistent reading and writing difficulties or disabilities.

The Ministry of Education recognised that more needed to be done to identify such students as early as possible and to provide them with effective interventions based on their specific needs.

"We are also developing a resource for teachers that outlines strategies for working with students with reading and writing difficulties," Ms Jackson said.

She added that the ministry had recently completed an analysis of international research into dyslexia, looking at various international definitions of dyslexia as well as scientific attempts to locate and describe the causes and symptoms associated with it.

A Pt Chevalier family know the symptoms all too well and suspect there must be some genetic link, with two sisters and one brother all dyslexic.

Christine Winterton said all her children had suffered from the disability and she suspected her husband did as well.

Mrs Winterton welcomed the ministry's recognition of dyslexia and hoped her youngest two, still at school, would get more support, having already spent thousands on private tutors for all three.

Some teachers had been supportive but others would not recognise the disability, she said.

Her eldest, Elizabeth Winterton, 17, was now at university studying design despite struggling at school.

Elizabeth's problem was masked for some time as she memorised stories read out to the class until she was about 10, when it became obvious she couldn't read properly.

Marie, 15, benefited from Elizabeth's diagnosis and got support earlier but still finds learning difficult.