Understanding neurodiversity in education (dyspraxia, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia)

The world has come a long way since I was diagnosed with Dyspraxia as a child 20 years ago. Of course there is a long way to go, but as someone who grew up in a small working class town going through a somewhat broken education system the changes in awareness give me hope. When I was growing up family and teachers had the best intentions (for the most part) but too often I was met with caring types who wanted to help but didn't know how, other types who could only offer well meaning pity, some types who had a complete disregard for me (and science too apparently), and of course those types who never gave up and walked with me in the dark as I overcame the obstacles I faced. Today dyspraxia and other similar conditions are seen as common and hardly life changing, but when I grew up people certainly made a song and dance and jumped to wild conclusions. which often made me feel a burden, stupid, useless, inferior, or alienated.

These days as a teacher I look at things from the other perspective. Too often the knowledge is there but not everyone is applying it. In schools in the UK (my home country) I hear concerning stories of students of all neurodiversities being sidelined. Teachers tell me about cuts to SEN budgets resulting in a lack of resources and support staff, teachers not being trained and being so overworked they just don't have the time, and assessment systems that have a nostalgia for the mid-20th century. I hear about children with educational needs being left in the corner or sent to isolation.  The international education sector isn't doing too great either. Don't get me wrong, I love the international education sector and think that it is truly innovative in many ways: 21st century learning is a great example of this yet when it comes to special needs and support it is lacking. I have worked in three countries for mostly good schools and yet none have had a clue about what these conditions mean, how they manifest, or what to do about them. Every so often a teacher in the staff room will share concerns about a child with such conditions or I will teach a child with a learning difficulty, yet when it comes to finding support in management or resources there is nothing.


A few months ago i'd had enough of this situation and with the support of my boss I said something has to change! I observed one of my students with dyslexia, researched online, tried things out, got involved with my local orphanage teaching special needs children of all kinds, went onto Futurelearn and took a few courses: Incusive Education (University of Cape Town), understanding autism (University of Kent). I then used what I had learnt and created a workshop for my school. You can find this in previous posts (November 2017) on this blog along with an open source document I composed which has practical ideas, information, and links. I urge people to use this, and to freely update the version on there with any information they find or fee would benefit teachers.

I will take another course next month with Futurelearn on Dyslexia and foreign language teaching (click here to join for free) and add to my this but for now check out the interesting infographics on this post by the people at 'We are teachers'. They explain more detail about dyspraxia, dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia.