Not a standard dyslexia test for seventh grader
Is it necessary to screen all first graders for dyslexia as standard? Secondary schools have their doubts.
image: Nina Maissouradze
The Gerrit Rietveld College in Utrecht is discontinuing standard dyslexia screening. Until last year, the Rietveld, like many other schools, passed all incoming seventh graders through the mill. The sooner you know as a school that a student is dyslexic, the sooner you can offer that student support.
However, that screening was very time consuming. “Do the math,” says Anja Folmer, care and support coordinator at Rietveld. “Two hundred new seventh graders, times two hundred reading texts and two hundred dictations. And then standardize and interpret all of them. ”
If you don't know how to write "curious," avoid that word and just make up something else
Sandra Kuster, remedial teacher at Helicon VMBO in Nijmegen, recognizes this. And if the results of those tests are known, it will only start well. “For students who drop out, we first look at their file. Has there already been a suspicion of dyslexia in primary school, have any studies been carried out? "
After that, these students receive remedial teaching on the Helicon, as a result of which a number of them usually improve. And for students who still score below par, an investigation into dyslexia can be started in consultation with the parents. “The time investment is enormous,” says Kuster.
And that investment - fortunately by the way - is yielding less and less. Because primary schools detect dyslexia better. “Ten years ago, dozens of new dyslexics rolled out of the tests,” says Folmer of the Gerrit Rietveld College. “Nowadays a few.”
The dyslexics that Rietveld is still uncovering are those who were difficult to spot in primary education. Folmer: “They are often smart children who have developed their own strategies to deal with their dyslexia. If you don't know how to write 'curious', you avoid that word and just make up something else. ”
At the Helicon vmbo in Nijmegen, most dyslexics are now already caught in primary school. They then enter secondary education with a neat dyslexia statement - that saves a lot of hassle. “I wonder more and more whether we should continue screening in this way,” says Kuster. “We will address that.”
Batch
The few dyslexics that still slipped through the net in primary school are spotted in secondary education by teachers, mentors, student counselors or remedial teachers, says Folmer van het Gerrit Rietveld. "Instead of all that testing, we can better invest our energy in supporting individual dyslexic students, or, for example, setting up intervision groups with dyslexic students."
Once students have a dyslexia statement, they can rely on a great deal of support in secondary education. Although that is always tailor-made, for the dyslexic and for the school. For example, dyslexics can be given extra time to take tests. "Or they get a shorter version of the test," says Folmer. "So that they don't have to work longer than their classmates, and so don't be late for the next lesson."
Dyslexics often have difficulty with foreign languages. Exemptions for these courses are not possible in the first year, but teachers are allowed to adjust the standards of their tests.
Furthermore, it is agreed at the Gerrit Rietveld that a dyslexic, in seventh grade, cannot score lower than a 3 for all subjects. Folmer: “You get a 1 in English by putting a 9 in front of it. But I don't see a dyslexic doing that so easily. " Hence the 3, although that minimum mark does not apply if the student has clearly thrown the hat at it: then a 1 remains a 1.
You can't hide behind it later either. You have to go on in life anyway
Software
In secondary education, students can often also use software that reads written texts, such as Kurzweil. However, schools often only have a few laptops with that program, so many parents of dyslexics have to purchase the software themselves. And that quickly costs a thousand euros. “Not all parents can afford that, and unfortunately that causes a social separation in the classroom,” Folmer says.
Fortunately, pupils in pre-vocational secondary education can use a cheaper program, Claroread, says Kuster van Helicon. “Kurzweil is more extensive, but many of those options are hardly used here at pre-vocational secondary education - such as mind maps.”
What is the most important thing that schools want to give to the dyslexic pupil? The realization that they are partly in control of their fate, says Kuster of Helicon. “Reading or writing will always cost you more energy as a dyslexic than anyone else. You have to learn to deal with that. ”
Mendy van Horssen, care coordinator at the Werkplaats Kindergemeenschap in Bilthoven, agrees, where students are not tested for dyslexia at all upon arrival. “The social-emotional guidance of dyslexic students is at least as important as the guidance for reading and spelling. Students must discover their strengths and shortcomings, they must learn to ask for help when they need it. You can shout 'I am dyslexic, so I can't', but you can't hide behind that later either. You have to continue in life. "
