Post 7-Why Should We Screen?
When I was little, I would try and stick my head inside the sand in the sandpit, bum in the air. I was “playing ostrich”, I would say. Since I didn’t understand idioms much, I would hear people suggest that so and so was sticking their head in the sand, so I thought I would give it a go too.
Having children with specific challenges and diversities has taught me that knowledge is powerful.
Dyslexia Screening Reasons
1 in every 5 people have Dyslexia in NZ.
WHY do most go undetected?
Most parents rely on schools to pick it up. Reality is, many schools won’t. Why? Because knowing what to look for is a specialist skillset. Teacher’s won’t know, they might suspect, but they hope their teaching will make a difference.
Parents wait for schools to “get someone in”. That someone is often an RTLB (Resource Teacher of Learning and Behaviour) , the publicly accessible Specialist Teachers who have direction to prioritise target students.
Currently , wait times for assessments in popular organisations are often in the range of 6 months or more and tutors are difficult to get ahold of.
Dyscalculia Screening Reasons
It’s been described as the number one cause of maths weakness that you’ve never heard of. Dyscalculia is a specific learning disability we know very little about yet it affects around 6 percent of the population.
People with dyscalculia have a huge struggle acquiring arithmetical skills in spite of a good learning environment at home and at school.
SPELD
’Signs of dyscalculia aren’t always easy to spot.
Keep in mind that all kids have trouble with math from time to time. But kids with dyscalculia struggle a lot more than other kids the same age.
Dyscalculia isn’t the same as math anxiety. But kids with dyscalculia often have strong emotions around math. They might get upset or frustrated when playing board games, for example.’
