Dyslexic learners and learning centre provision - could do better?

Report of a CELT project on supporting students through innovation and researchLearning Centre staff at the University of Wolverhampton generally have good awareness of disability issues and try to ensure services and facilities are accessible to a wide range of users. However, little work had been done directly with users to explore their views of our services and the problems they might face when using them. The research targeted dyslexic learners as the University has a relatively large population of students with this disability. In addition many of our services rely on an ability to cope with printed and electronic information and these might pose particular problems for users with dyslexia. The services might include apparently simple elements such as guides to particular Learning Centres through to more complex examples including the subject web pages and information skills workshops

Inclusive education and social competence development

Students with special educational needs are exposed to the same social and cultural effects as any other child. Their social and emotional development also evolves under those influences and they, too, must adjust to the conditions of their environment. In several cases, however, an inadequate learning environment keeps these children from experiencing and learning social skills and abilities (such as self-confidence and independence). Inclusive education for children with special educational needs is not common practice in Hungary even though it is equally well suited to fostering different social skills and abilities in children with either average or non-average development. This paper endeavours to argue for the importance of having inclusive education in Hungary by discussing examples abroad, with special emphasis on research and practical implementations in Great Britain

Exploring the individual learning style of a student with dyslexia and examining its future implications in university study

Nurse educators and practitioners aim to plan programmes which will prepare nurses with the knowledge, skills, decision making abilities and confidence to be accountable for the care they provide (Boore & Deeny, 2012). This article explains, by way of a case study, one situation where these skills were used for an individual learning opportunity to help a student (Miss A) withdyslexia, within the University, to complete her studies successfully. Resulting from the original case study is a future plan for an action research project questioning the assessment criteria and evaluation of learning styles of students with dyslexia. It is hoped that the action research project will lead to the implementation of changes, if needed, in the assessment criteria of students with dyslexia within the University environment

Re-using features of English as a foreign language (EFL) materials for special needs students of the same age group

This paper identifies a lack of age-appropriate literacy software for dyslexic teenagers in Irish classrooms and investigates the features of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) software that could be helpful to dyslexic students. There are often two distinct special learner groups within the same classroom: special needs students with reading difficulties in their native language and EFL students. While there are clear differences between these two groups, there is some overlap in their linguistic difficulties, e.g. spelling. There is a lack of age-appropriate software aimed at dyslexic teenagers; most software used is aimed at dyslexic children. However, a lot of materials are available for teenage EFL students. The paper discusses a survey of teenage dyslexic students and teachers/tutors of dyslexic teenagers, which identified student needs and desired features/exercises for curriculum-focused Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) software for dyslexic students that the author is developing. Results show overlap of features and exercises present in existing EFL software