Difficulties of Dyslexic Students at Primary Level in Our Education System

Difficulties of Dyslexic
Students at Primary level

in Our Education System
Presenter: Fauzia Aslam
M.Phil. Applied Linguistics

1st Semester
Session 2019-21
Minhaj University Lahore
Abstract
The study finds the perceptions of teachers and head
teacher regarding dyslexia at primary level private
school system of Lahore. Researcher selected ten
participants by using purposive sampling method. Six
teachers and four head teachers were selected. In-
depth interview was used as researcher instruments to
get the required data from the participants. The finding
revealed that dyslexic students face many educational,
emotional and behavioral challenges during their
educational career if they are not dealt with special
attention and care.
It is also observed that there is lake of awareness
regarding dyslexia and due to limited sources only few
schools arrange remedial classes and provide trained
staff for dyslexics. These dyslexic students can
perform better when provided with proper attention
and positive input.
Introduction
Every human brain has a unique pattern of strengths
and weaknesses. These strengths and weaknesses
have great impact on the learning and cognitive
abilities of students (National Institute for Learning
Development 2016).
The students with reading disability encompass
several challenges in getting and understanding the
required information. Moreover, it develops lack of
confidence among the students.
Reading disability also known as Dyslexia is a sub
branch of learning difficulty, which came to be known
at the end of the eighteenth century.
It has been observed by psychologists and
psychiatrists, that children who possess dyslexia have
late cerebellum development, which indicates dyslexia
and as being neurological in nature (Blythe, 2006).
Purpose of Research
The purpose of the study was to investigate the issues
of dyslexic students at elementary level and how to
overcome the problem faced by these students in our
current education system. The researcher identified
the strategies that teachers might use to enhance the
learning ability of these dyslexic students.
Research questions:
The following research questions has been answered

through this research.
• What is the understanding level of the teachers and

head teachers regarding Dyslexia?
• What are the issues a Dyslexic student faces?
• How well trained the school staff is to deal with the
students of learning disability?
• Which strategies can be used for enhancing the
learning abilities among dyslexic students?
Literature Review
“Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is
neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by
difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition
and by poor spelling and decoding abilities (IDA,
2012).”
According to William and Lynch (2010), “children who

experience hindrance in reading and writing also
experience emotional disturbance, which results in low
self-esteem and academic achievement.”
The Education and Training Inspectorate define
dyslexia as an amalgamation of difficulties to learn to
read, write, and to spell. This impediment is not the
crisis of cognitive disability, but due to lack of
phonological processing (ETI, 2003).”
“It was explored by Leadbetter (2001) that
empowerment given by heads to their teachers play an
important role to combat challenges faced by children
with dyslexia”
“Stowe (2000) suggests that children with dyslexia are
often unable to follow multi- instruction and as a result
they fail to keep track of time, and thus they have
incompetent personalities.”
Methodology
The research is qualitative in nature. This research has
been conducted by using in-depth interviews to
explore the experiences, feelings, and perceptions of
the respondents, which cannot be justified by
quantitative research. Respondents’ perspectives are
much more visible and deeper insights are shown
through qualitative research methods which is quite
invisible in quantitative research (Berg, 2001).
• Population: All the teachers and head teachers at
primary level schools and targeted population was
primary school teachers and head teachers of
Private schools in Lahore.
• Sampling: Purposive sampling gives an inductive
approach where the sample size selected is usually
on a small scale (Suri, 2011).
• There were no limitation on age, gender or

education; however, the participants can be
identified from primary private mainstream schools
having teaching experience of two to five years.
• Five schools were considered for this research.

Overall, ten participants were taken which included
four head teachers and six teachers from private
schools.
• Research instrument
Semi structured open-ended interview questions were
used to extract the required data.
The in-depth interviews can give actual insight into
how children with dyslexia are treated and accessed
academically. This gives detailed information about the
strategies for students with dyslexia.
• Data Analysis:
The data was analyzed and evaluated by using
thematic analysis technique by transcribing the
responses and coding them. Then the themes that
emerge were extracted from the provided responses
and results were made.
Findings and Discussion
The interviews identified that not all the participants
were aware of the term Dyslexia however, they
confirmed that they had encountered with the students
of having reading and learning disability.
The participants agreed that dyslexic children were
misunderstood before they were diagnosed and
therefore, they suffered badly in their academics.
Following themes were extracted from the data:
(a) Lack of Awareness
(b)Educational system and policy,
(c) Academic and emotional challenges,
(d) Limited resources.
Lack of Awareness: The study reveals that there is
no enough awareness about Dyslexia in our
educational system particularly at primary level.
Educational System and Policy: The participants

were guided to support problematic children in their
schools. Few of them said that they attended teachers’
training program and some respondents informed that
they arrange remedial classes for their slow learners
but not all the schools were having special trained staff
for dyslexic students.
Academic and Emotional challenges: It has been
observed that children with dyslexia have immense
negative influence on their academics and they face
behavioral difficulties (Gash, 2006). Dyslexic child,
who attend mainstream schools if not handled with
care, have a negative impact on their behavior (Dahle
& Knisvsberg, 2014).
Limited Resources: All the participant agreed that

sometimes they face hindrances because of the lack
of required resources. Not all the schools have special
teachers and remedial class’s policy because of their
limited resources.
Recommendations
Thus, it is concluded that dyslexia which is a kind of
learning difficulty cannot be consider a medical ailment
although it is neurological in its nature. According to
Mann, McCartney and Park (2007), dyslexic children
can be prevented from adverse effects if early
diagnostic tests and interventions are provided.
• Schools should make special policy for dyslexic

students.
• Managements should organized awareness
seminars for both teachers and parents.
• There should be trained staff for dealing especially
with dyslexic students.
• Psychological testing at an early stage of schooling
should be available in all schools.
• Provide required resources and material to the
teachers for dyslexics.
• Arrange remedial classes of dyslexics and
encourage parents to let their children attend the
class.
• Provide positive class room environment to the
students and avoid giving punishments especially to
dyslexics.
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Difficulties of Dyslexic

Students at Primary level

Presenter: Fauzia Aslam

M.Phil. Applied Linguistics

The following research questions has been answered

• What is the understanding level of the teachers and

According to William and Lynch (2010), “children who

• There were no limitation on age, gender or

• Five schools were considered for this research.

Educational System and Policy: The participants

Limited Resources: All the participant agreed that

• Schools should make special policy for dyslexic

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