Published by PCWorld Education
Hmmm………….. I have been saying that a lot lately. The Higher Education Funding Council for England has funded a project to encourage those with specific learning difficulties to take advantage of higher education. Stop yawning at the back there. I have become involved with the production of a CD ROM which is to be part of the AchieveAbility raising awareness programme. Notice the second capital A to show that is not actually how you spell achievability.
The CD is to be called AchieveAbility – SpLD the way forward. SpLD stands for specific learning difficulty which is when difficulties arise unexpectedly in relation to other areas of competency and include syndromes like dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia. These students often puzzle teachers by appearing quite able in some areas and then not coming up to expectation in others, causing frustration on both sides.
In order to explain the difficulties these students face and the co-morbidity (cross-over) of traits we have designed an interactive crystal which lights up and sparkles in different ways. There is a quiz style presentation as well as some more heavy duty fact sheets on the 3Ds – dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia.
We have collected stories from students and professionals and recorded them all, no text readers necessary on this CD, so you can listen with your eyes closed if you don’t wish to watch the carefully crafted slide show on the screen. There are sections about where SpLD students can study and what help they can expect, when to go, how to apply and how to cope with finances.
The content is simply displayed and acts as a prompt to explore the internet for more specific information by the use of links. Here is a wealth of information neatly packaged and delivered totally free to a desk near you.
So to conclude – if you are in a secondary school, college or further education establishment, please ask your heads and SENCOs to look out for a CD called AchieveAbility – SpLD the way forward. It would be nice if you could pop it in a CD drive somewhere and appreciate the amount of time, trouble and money that has gone into its production, play with the crystal of SpLDs, listen to some of the stories and dip into the other categories, even if only to follow the web-links. Do encourage participation by sharing it with colleagues and you can, at least, use it as a coffee coaster and think of me. For more details see www.achieveability.org.uk I thank you.
Fiona Hover, Dyslexia Institute.
