asked the Minister for Education (a) if she will outline the arrangements, if any, that are available for the systematic examination of school children with a view to establishing the level of dyslexia; (b) the improvements it is proposed to introduce; (c) if she is satisfied that there is no correlation between the estimated 2 per cent level of dyslexia and the extent of functional illiteracy among children leaving the primary sector; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - Study of Dyslexia.
722.
(a) Various conditions which give rise to learning difficulties may be diagnosed by the schools' medical service during the routine examination of pupils in primary schools. In addition teachers are urged to note particular difficulties pupils may have and to bring these difficulties to the attention of parents. Advice on these matters is provided for teachers during pre-service and in-service training.
(b) There are some 800 full time remedial teachers in primary schools who are concerned with the prevention and remediation of learning disabilities, including serious reading disability. Approximately 200 full time remedial teachers are employed in post primary schools and a further 200 teachers are engaged part time in remedial education in these schools. In addition to these services a number of child guidance clinics run by hospitals and voluntary bodies provide services in remedial education, which are grant-aided by my Department, for children with complex reading and other learning problems for whom multi-disciplinary intervention is necessary. In order to meet the needs of the relatively small number of children whose specific reading disabilities cannot adequately be catered for by the services already mentioned, three special schools have been established, two in Dublin and one in Cork. It is my intention, as stated in the Programme for Action in Education to strengthen the remedial services in schools by the assignment of extra teaching posts for this work as resources permit, to review in consultation with the principals of the schools the organisation and application of the remedial services within them and to strengthen the teacher's capacity to identify and cope with learning disability through measures taken in the pre-service and in-service training of teachers.
(c) I am advised that the term "dyslexia" is used very loosely in the description of reading difficulty whatever its origin and that a specific disability such as dyslexia, is not the most common cause for reading failure. Accordingly it is difficult to have an accurate estimate of the incidence of such a specific learning disability and I am not therefore in a position to comment on the existence or otherwise of correlation of the type to which the Deputy refers.