AQW 11693/22-27

Ms Kate Nicholl
Alliance Party
South Belfast

Tabled Date: 10/05/2024
Answered On Date: 21/05/2024
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education to detail the advice provided to school special educational needs co-ordinators on the delivery of initial screenings to assess for dyslexia.

Answer:

The Educational Psychology Service does not routinely provide Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCOs) with information on initial screening tools for assessing dyslexia.

SENCOs are familiar with a wide range of assessment tools which assist them in identifying individual children’s learning strengths and weaknesses, including a measure of severity of symptoms of literacy difficulties including dyslexia. Where this information is requested, Educational Psychologists are happy to support SENCOs and, where appropriate, signpost them to specific training on dyslexia and/or literacy difficulties offered by the Education Authority’s (EA) Literacy Service.