George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises:

(a) dyslexia as a learning disability which, according to the World Federation of Neurology, is ‘manifested by difficulty in learning to read despite conventional instruction, adequate intelligence and socio-cultural opportunity’;

(b) the Irlen Syndrome, also known as, Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome as a specific type of visual perceptual dyslexia; and

(c) that school students with dyslexia learn differently to their fellow students;

(2) supports the concept of compulsory teacher training to ensure educators have:

(a) an awareness of dyslexia and the impact dyslexia has on students;

(b) the ability to recognise the symptoms of dyslexia; and

(c) the ability to utilise a range of multi-sensory learning methods to engage with students with dyslexia;

(3) supports the:

(a) concept of compulsory training of pre-service teachers in dyslexia and Irlen Syndrome as well as training in multi-sensory teaching methods for children who learn differently; and

(b) ability of teachers to be able to inform parents directly about concerns they have of their children exhibiting symptoms of dyslexia or Irlen Syndrome;

(4) requests the Government make changes to National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) to allow school students with dyslexia or Irlen Syndrome to have their NAPLAN test read to them;

(5) supports the concept of modified homework for school students with dyslexia to reflect their particular learning difficulties; and

(6) recognises that dyslexia would be a significant barrier to learning a second language and supports the ability of school students to opt out of Languages other than English classes.

According to the World Federation of Neurology, dyslexia is 'a disorder manifested by difficulty in learning to read despite conventional instruction, adequate intelligence and sociocultural opportunity'. The primary symptoms, according to the Australian Dyslexia Association, are: problems learning the letter sounds for reading and spelling; difficulty in reading single words such as on flash cards and in lists, otherwise known as decoding; a lack of fluency; reading slowly with many mistakes; poor spelling; and poor visual gestalt or coding, or what they call orthographic coding. According to dyslexia testing services, about 16 per cent of the Australian population has dyslexia, making it the most common cause of reading, writing and spelling difficulties. Dyslexia does not discriminate. It affects both men and women alike and equally, as well as people from different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. I want to stress that people with dyslexia are not intellectually disabled. They can and they do learn. They just learn in a different manner to many others in the community.

Like autism or Aspergers, dyslexia occurs on a continuum, with learning difficulties ranging from the mild to the severe. Within the field of dyslexia, there is a specific type of visual perceptual dyslexia known as Irlen syndrome or scotopic sensitivity syndrome. Sometimes when you go into a classroom you see children wearing special coloured glasses to assist their visual perception. These young children battle with Irlen syndrome.

As a child, I would often write my Bs as Ds and my Ws as Ms and vice versa. But I would pick it up almost as soon as wrote it down. It was a very mild form of dyslexia and I still have it to this day. But there are others whose dyslexia is at the other end of the spectrum, the severe end. Many of them are children. They are some of the bravest young people that we have out there because of what they face every day in the classroom. Last year, I had the pleasure of meeting a young man, James Spain, who lives in Mackay in my electorate of Dawson. James has extreme difficulty in comprehending words and thus with reading, writing and spelling. That makes life in school pretty much hell for him. But he carries on regardless. That young man is going to have a great future because of his attitude.

I want to read you a letter from a young Mackay girl. She is in grade 9 this year, I believe. This letter was relayed to me last year. I ask that the letter be recorded in Hansard as it is written and not as I am going to read it, because I am going to read it with some corrections. I want people to understand the suffering that young people with dyslexia face in the classroom. The letter reads:

I hate school becuse I'm get bulled and my teaches are not helping me whith my school work becuse I'm. The stumped one in my class and do you why aim like this becuse I'm am dislexa and I'm always get toled by my teaches that I'm not allowed in ther class my becuse I'm so bum I just wish that I could be at home 24 hours at a day becuse what is the ponit of me being there when I'm dum and put at the bake of the class and not doing anything all school is. For me is hell but I stik it out and go whith and be me butt feel I'm always left out becuse no one blouse not whont to around a girl that is not a Lerner problem my them and you will always find that in me but same time I think that I'm just stooped and Feel really sik and just so be preset and just who ting to kill myself and but when I do have friends all thay like to do is think that becuse I'm stopped that thay can just be mean and say bed thing about me and and that is why I think that smigels and stumpy are my true fernds and thay are always there for me to talk to so that the end.

As I found out later, Smiggles and Stumpy are this young girl's two pet horses. How terrible that our education system has let a young girl who suffers a learning disability such as dyslexia fall into such a dark place that she contemplates taking her own life. That is an indictment on us all.

The motion that I have before the House is not simply calling on the House to recognise dyslexia as a learning disability and to acknowledge the real problems within our education in dealing with students who have dyslexia; it is also a motion that is calling for action. One of the key solutions to effectively dealing with students who have dyslexia is to ensure that teachers have a thorough understanding of this lifelong disability and know the methods to educate those young people in their classrooms.

In my electorate, there is a business known as the Sunbird Education Centre that assists with tutoring. They particularly assist in the field of children with specific learning disabilities such as dyslexia. Vicki Dammerel, who works at that centre, wrote to me and summarised quite clearly the intent of this motion. She said:

Teachers and prospective teachers must be made aware of these specific learning differences and be trained in understanding these student requirements and making the necessary accommodations in their classrooms. A dyslexic student's education must be equal to that of other students and most importantly their mental health be taken into consideration in the process.

The Productivity Commission undertook a study into the school workforce. There were many submissions to that that highlighted the problem of children with dyslexia and what is happening and is not happening in classrooms.

Even the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations in their submission stated that most teachers would have at least one student with a disability in their classroom every school year and they included in that students with learning difficulties. But they went on to say that only 10 per cent of teachers had received the training in teaching methodologies for students with disabilities or learning difficulties. Karen Starkiss, who is from the Dyslexia Assessment and Support Service Organisation, summarised that more succinctly by saying:

Every teacher is going to meet students with learning difficulties in every class that they teach. That will happen from the first day they start teaching.

We have a major problem.

The Productivity Commission, after all of those submissions and after the study that they did, came out with a finding that there needed to be an increase in the emphasis on the learning needs of the educationally disadvantaged students in pre-service teacher training. That is one of the things that this motion is trying to achieve.

There was also a Productivity Commission inquiry into the education and training workforce. A senior researcher at the Centre for Adolescent Health at the Royal Children's Hospital and Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Nola Firth, put in a submission to that inquiry in which she said: 'The current inclusion of the study of learning disabilities varies greatly across Australia. Many teachers complete their entire training either without ever having heard of the phenomenon or with a limited understanding of what it means, how to identify signs of it, what effective strategies are available to assist these students with dyslexia.' She went on to point out that the USA, the UK and Canada have all mandated initial teacher training in learning disabilities. We in Australia are lagging behind in this regard.

She pointed to a report of the dyslexia working party that was provided to then Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services. It strongly recommended pre-service teacher training in the field of dyslexia. The government has responded. I acknowledge that some work has been done. But there is a long, long way to go, and it is three years since that report was delivered. The government in its response talked about a $200 million initiative and more support for students with disabilities. But the fact is that that program does not include children with specific learning disabilities, and the report speaks about those. That includes dyslexia. There is a large gap.

In the remaining short time that I have, NAPLAN is also something that we are going to have to focus on. There are a lot of horror stories about young people with dyslexia facing these NAPLAN tests. Teachers report that it is compounding the problems for them. They cannot do the test as it is currently structured because of their learning disability. We need to review that. I am pleased to hear that our shadow education minister is going to do that and look at a lot of the things contained in this motion. I ask the government to do it as well.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Seniors) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Dawson for raising such an important topic in the parliament. However, given the package of education reform that this government is delivering in this country, it is a bit pre-emptive to give any support to this motion.

'Dyslexia' is a sort of a catch-all word for learning difficulties. It is a word that I do not use very much. I had a learning difficulty. I have been through a lot about dyslexia and other learning difficulties. It is a bit of a medical term and I think it sometimes holds back discussions with parents whose children may have a learning difficulty. Learning difficulties are right across the board and there is an enormous number of different reasons why people do not learn. A lot of people find it difficult and we need to continue to find new ways to help people to learn and to move through those difficulties.

In 2012, I was an ambassador for the National Year of Reading. I am a great supporter of reading and literacy. Literacy is one of the most important skills a child can learn. It is sets them up on a path for the future. It is such an important matter in some of these arguments around Gonski and in other debates around the country about university and primary education. Primary education is critical. If you do not have a primary education how can you get to university? Primary education is a critical factor in the whole education debate. We should be focusing at that end and also on kids before they get to school.

For children who suffer from a learning difficulty, the path often seems to be tough, too tough to climb. Many feel embarrassed that they cannot read and write, or spell as well as their peers. This sets up some real issues for them. This can start a pattern of shame that they often carry through their adolescence into adulthood, and it can lead to other problems. These learning difficulties have taken them onto other paths. I remind the House that jails in this country are full of people who cannot read and write, or who have had learning difficulties.

Starting from an early age, as a baby our speech is learned. We often learn to speak from repeating what our parents say and the sounds that are made. For some that does not always come naturally or easily. We learn to use our voice boxes by making all sorts of noises. If parents themselves do not have strong literacy skills then a cycle starts to emerge where the child goes to school without the same level of literacy skills as other children in their class. Child care plays an important part in this. I have been told by a lot of educators that child care makes it a lot easier for kids to get an early start in learning, learning sounds and socialisation. It makes it a lot easier for them having that sort of contact early in their lives.

It has also come forward that in houses where books are not readily available, where parents do not read and write freely and do not talk about books, that can set up an issue for young people as well. There have been different programs where mothers, after giving birth, are given a set of books to take home with them. Those sorts of issues are very important. All those sorts of programs can add to helping people get through and get a start.

If we start to diagnose at an early age and educate parents in the signs and symptoms that their child might need an extra helping hand with their reading and writing, then we are able to give them the assistance they need at an early age. This is starting to occur—there is a lot of good work being done in that space.

There is currently a lot of talk around education and its funding with the Gonski report, with the states that are looking at signing up to the national plan for schools. For me, it is a fantastic thing to see education take priority—and it should, of course—and to see people in my own communities around the Lyons electorate engaging with me on this topic. That is a terrific thing. I feel really good when people want to talk about education.

People care about their children's education. They care that they get a good education, that they get a good start, and it is really coming through when you have those sorts of discussions in the community. People are willing to fight for their children's right to a good education and they are willing to fight for their local school. That is terrific to see, and they will always get every encouragement from me.

What also strikes me from the discussions I have been having with a number of parents who themselves are not well educated, and who do suffer—and did suffer—from learning difficulties, is hearing them talk about the investment in education and the importance of that. They are talking about how important investment is. That is a wonderful thing, and I see that this government is investing greatly in education.

Those parents often admit to themselves that they had trouble learning. When their children learn in our schools, so do the parents, and these linkages continue to come through. I know that community groups around Lyons, in particular our neighbourhood houses and community houses, do a lot of work with adults and with literacy. All that sort of work is coming through more and more now, and the interest in education is starting to emerge more in debates and discussions that I have.

I recently visited a local child and family centre, Tagari Lia in Bridgewater in my electorate, for one of the Biggest Morning Tea fundraisers, and I had the chance to speak with many of the local community members. Tagari Lia runs a vast variety of programs that focus on the family and the important role that parents play in their children's lives and also in their education. They teach the parents through various literacy programs but they also notice that they teach the parents through their own children. By getting their children involved in programs run by the centre, the parents learn too and often return to do a course themselves. That is a pretty good way to get involved in education if you have not been involved in it for a long time.

They even have a weekly morning chat over coffee and biscuits there. This is a session where parents can share their stories for the week, such as any testing situations they have had and how they got through and managed them. This may not be the standard in the classroom or by the book way for people to study a course—or how a theory would say that somebody should learn—but parents who attend these sessions are learning, and this is a learning process for adults.

For those who suffer from learning difficulties, this is often how they most comfortably learn, and there are all sorts of different levels that people learn at. To me, food and reading are also a great way for people to learn and start learning, because they have an interest. Their children, of course, are critical. People often come back to education when they see that their children are starting to learn and may be having difficulties reading a story to them.

I commend the member for Dawson for bringing this motion before the parliament. As a nation, I think we can be very proud of all the educational reform packages that this government is delivering.

Debate adjourned.