Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 28 Nov 2000

Vol. 526 No. 6

Written Answers. - Learning Difficulties.

John McGuinness

Ceist:

389 Mr. McGuinness asked the Minister for Education and Science if he has carried out any study on the general language deficit in young children attending school; if this problem is linked to poor reading skills; the steps he is taking to analyse and deal with the issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27388/00]

Minister for Education and Science (Dr. Woods)

For many years reading and language specialists have argued about whether children with reading and learning disabilities have a general linguistic deficit or one in a specific area.

It is accepted that young children need language processing skills to meet the requirements of skilled reading. Skills in speech perception, vocabulary, short-term memory, syntax and semantics are all important language processing skills for children beginning reading.

In recent years, phonological and phonetic deficits have been considered by many language authorities to be the language deficits that most clearly distinguish weak from normal readers. There is evidence that deficits in these areas are linked to poor reading. My Department has not carried out any studies in this area.

In the revised primary school curriculum for English, an approach to reading development is fostered that is based on children's general language development, including the various language processing skills to which I have already referred. There is a strong emphasis on the development of pupils' listening and speaking skills as part of an integrated language learning process that links them with the development of reading and writing from the beginning.

In keeping with the findings of research, a central role in the development of reading is given to the teaching of phonological and phonemic awareness skills in the acquisition of word identification strategies.