Educational psychology in the Special Education Field -CYP with dyslexia

From the time of Aristotle and Plato psychology played a great role as a leading force in the field of education. When it comes to building morals, good character, cultivate psycho-motor skills, building relationships between teachers and students and evolving as individuals during the education years, psychology plays a key role.

Education psychologists have conducted research on Piaget’s theory of development (according to him children mature through four stages of cognitive capability).On this research it was found that transitions don’t happen at the same time for all domains. For example a child may be able to think abstractly about mathematics but having concrete thoughts about human relationships.

Special education involves practices on students that reflect their individual needs and differences.

Learning disability is a classification that includes aspects of functioning in which a student has difficulty learning in a typical manner. This does not mean that they can’t learn in a different manner. The individuals with learning disabilities face challenges that may follow them through their whole life. Thus, the help of all type of intervention applicable in education should be considered crucial. Some interventions are simple while others are more complex.

Dyslexia is a learning disorder that affects reading and language based processing skills,like decoding, comprehension, recall, writing, spelling and in some occasions, speech.

There have been discussions in the psychology field that question the existence of the condition, the usefulness of the term and the difference between dyslexia and other literacy difficulties.

It is important to reach a consensus on the definition of dyslexia for many reasons such as to be able to identify the CYP with the disability and measure it, intervene in the proper manner and for studies to be valid and reliable.

From the Education Psychologists’ point of view there has been much involvement throughout the years to help teachers and parents support CYP who struggle to acquire literacy skills. At the same time it has been documented that there is a continued lack of understanding from teachers and peers of what dyslexia is and the negative impact it has on learning and peer relationships including name calling, bullying and being punished for being dyslexic. EPs can contribute to the dyslexia debate by encouraging and listening to students’ voice. In this way students who may have repeatedly experienced failure in the high literacy demands of the school environment could be helped by professionals who can understand their difficulties and give them tools, and therefore predict the success or the failure in their academic life.

Strangely enough, some EPs do not perceive dyslexia as being a priority for school staff.In their own words I think schools are reluctant to use us for those consyltation conversations around literacy…because essentially they can’t see the product so they can’t see what they are getting for their money.”, or “…schools’ main focus is behavior and its impact on the classroom therefore sometimes LDs tend to get marginalized” “…it might be that some EPs because they haven’t come from a teaching background, feel less secure in terms of delivering around dyslexia”.

There is a movement towards inclusive special educational provision though there is not enough data to support it and additionally the debate has not considered that all the children with special education needs are not the same and while inclusive schools may beneficial for some children, special schools may be beneficial for other.

From the children’s point of view, having to endure bullying in a mainstream school is an extreme emotional burden. The children describe themselves as disappointed,frustrated, ashamed,fed up, sad,depressed, angry and embarrassed by their difficulties. Òn the other hand research has shown that they feel more at ease around children with similar difficulties, strive more to succeed and they seem to be doing better academically than they did in mainstream school surroundings. In a special school psychology professionals are a major factor for the emotional and, in subsequence, academic evolvement.

In order for the system to work in favor of children with dyslexia we should take under account what teachers assessment of EPs is.

A study made by T.Reagan - K.Woods showed the different aspects of the work an EP is expected to do in relevance with the dyslexic children.

a. Diagnosis. Detailed analysis of exactly what a problem is.

b. Confirmatory role. The psychologist’s role is to confirm the evaluation for them

c. Working within the available context. The difficulty for the psychologist in working within the particular context of the teacher was recognized

d. A distinctive role. The educational psychologist hasn’t been seen as the person to come in a totally different role, to develop broader strategies within the school to deal with various kinds of children.

It is evident from all the above that a lot has to be done from all the parties involved (teachers, parents, education psychologists).First of all, the term “dyslexia” should be clarified as well as the work of EPs involved in this area. Clear issue emerges for the profession is how implementation will proceed and assessment protocols will develop. In exploring these questions, we may also need to explore and clarify understandings about special educational needs.

Reference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNu4WiQaVTIhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_psychology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_education

https://ldaamerica.org/types-of-learning-disabilities/

https://ldaamerica.org/types-of-learning-disabilities/dyslexia/

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02667360802256741?src=recsys&

Inoue, A., (2016) Educational Psychology and Dyslexia: An Investigation into Current Thinking and Practice ,The University of Manchester

https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/files/66045446/FULL_TEXT.PDF

Regan, T., & Woods, K., (2010), Teachers' Understandings of Dyslexia: Implications for educational psychology practice , Educational Psychology in Practice

https://doi.org/10.1080/713666081

Nugent, M.,(2008) Educational Psychology in Practice

https://www.tandfonline.com/author/Nugent%2C