“Must try harder!”
How many children have opened their school reports to find these words staring up at them. But for a substantial percentage of the population it isn’t that they aren’t trying, it is that they have brains that are wired differently. However hard they try they struggle to achieve the same result as their peers. This isn’t from a lack of ability but from being neurodiverse or dyslexic.
Dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, and dyscalculia are all common conditions, experienced by an estimated 15% of the population, and can have a devastating effect on educational attainments. Dyslexia is the most common and well known of these conditions and affects reading, writing, and spelling, dysgraphia affects the ability to write, dyspraxia affects motor control, and dyscalculia affects a person’s ability to work with numbers. These conditions also come with a host of minor and less well-known symptoms including forgetfulness, anxiety, low self-esteem, and depression.
Luckily there are some people in positions of power and influence who have suffered such conditions all their lives and have been through that struggle to achieve. Some of these people are now advocating for help for young people in a similar position to them. Jamie Oliver is famously dyslexic and is passionate about changing the starting point for children who are like him. He says:
“Dyslexia is bigger than letters jumping around and a few kids struggling to read. It’s about getting tens of thousands of kids a year to thrive, and not just survive, in school.”
The educational landscape is changing. For the last 11 years there has been a system in place the Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) to support young people up to the age of 25 get the best they can from the system. However, this is costing the country over £10 Billion annually, and consequently that support is currently up for review.
While this is a worrying situation for many families with children with special educational needs (SENs), the government has said it is committed to continue to offer support but want to do so in a more cost-effective way. The current system is showing poor returns in its ability to make the lives of these children much better, so that might actually be an opportunity for the system to be reworked in a way that will bring greater success in helping these young people into a happy and productive lifestyle and work. Again, Jamie Oliver has thoughts on the subject:
“I am starting to see the patterns of getting into trouble and ending up in prison are all massively amplified by dyslexia and neurodiversity…and I don’t think it is because this is destiny for them, I think it’s a reaction to a feeling that they never fit it.”
And Jamie is right. About 30% of the jail population are dyslexic, double that of the background population. If the condition is increasing the likelihood of someone ending up in jail, and that can be prevented by early intervention, then it will pay for itself just by keeping a person out of jail, where the cost is massively higher than any educational strategies.
So, what can be done to make life easier for someone with dyslexia, dysgraphia, or dyscalculia? Well, an early diagnosis is essential. Before the child starts to fall seriously behind their peers, and their confidence begins to be eroded, realising what is happening is essential, and most importantly sharing that information with the child. If the child understands that they are not less gifted than their friends, they just have a brain that works a little bit differently, that can change their whole life outcomes. Since dyslexia is 80% inherited, it is more than likely that their parents will have a similar condition, and this often means, especially for earlier generations where there was less understanding and support, that they come from low affluence families, who have less money to pay for support from external agencies, and so the cycle is repeated.
Once the child or young person themselves understand what is going on, attention can then be turned to the second area of need, which is a holistic support for the whole family. Understanding is central to achieving a better outcome. Helping adults in the household to understand the condition that that child has, and how they can be assisted, and what is available to that child to deal with their needs, is hugely important in bringing about the best results.
As the child moves up through the school, those with an early diagnosis and support will find it easier to move into the world of employment. However, there are currently thousands of children in the system who have not received sufficient if any support, so that challenge is how best to help them before they are lost.
The government is focussed on funding more apprenticeship opportunities, which is potentially an ideal pathway for young people with dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia as well as other neurodivergent conditions. So, it is imperative that an environment is created in which these two sides – employer and young person – can be brought together in a way that is most helpful and most productive to both. If a young person fully understands their condition with both its strengths and weaknesses, they will have more confidence. They have learnt to see themselves not as failures, but as people who have a series of skills to offer which might need a slight tweak. With greater confidence approaching something like an apprenticeship which they know will have an understanding of them, they are much more likely to stay in an environment which can flex to their needs. For example, a trainee plumber with dyscalculia may struggle with measurements, and could not cut a length of pipe to a given length, however they may still be an absolute genius at soldering copper and designing the heating system for a house. They will be a core part of the plumbing team when they can play to their undoubted strengths, and not get bogged down in the area where they will perform less well.
We think that Empowerment Passport is one of the tools that can be used to make life much easier and more productive for this cohort of young people. Let’s remember that while in some ways these conditions can make life a lot harder, they often bring their own advantages with them too. The ability to look at things from a different angle can sometimes be just what is needed. The Empowerment Passport is a digital document that acts as an intermediary between the person and the trainer or employer allowing the young person to take ownership of both themselves and their problem.
It does this by creating a place in which an individual explores all their strengths and weaknesses. This might include not only the obvious description of their condition, but more detailed and personal responses. So that if they struggle with anxiety triggered by loud noises, they can be confident that they will not be working next to a road-building site. Or if they struggle with being in crowded spaces, they know that they will not be placed in a very busy office environment. Since each person is unique, each passport is unique, and holds a description of the person in a way that they control. The Passport can be shared with the prospective employer who then has a detailed description of the person they are looking to employ or offer an apprenticeship to, and what the needs of that person are. This gives the employer the ability to make whatever adjustments are needed to keep that young person working and feel safe and secure while at the same time the young person has the confidence that they have clearly expressed their needs and concerns in a way that can be heard. The groundwork is then laid for a more successful teaming of the two sides.
Apprenticeships have the potential to play a vital role in helping people with dyslexia etc into the world of work. A more active and varied workplace with a more physical element is frequently a better environment in which they can thrive. The question then is how to maximise the opportunities for dyslexics when they are there, and sharing information about each individual with the provider is a great way to achieve this. Again Jamie Oliver says has grasped the importance of this. He says:
“Our job as adults, as parents, as teachers, as a government is to create a safe environment for you guys to fill you up, to make you feel like the best version of yourself.”
At Empowerment Passport we believe that we are privileged to offer a something which will be an effective tool to help make this happen.
