Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as ucht a bheith anseo tráthnóna. I start by acknowledging the significant strides made in recent years, especially in the expansion of special classes for children with autism which has improved access to the appropriate supports for so many children. My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, and the Minister, Deputy Naughton, are still working to continue to make sure that provision is rolled out across the country. However, concerns have been raised with me that this progress has not necessarily been reflected in the provision of dyslexia and speech and language needs. Associated with that are needs around dyspraxia and apraxia of speech as well, especially where there is a co-occurrence of autism. Access to specialist supports, such as reading classes, needed for these sorts of conditions remains quite limited in scope and availability. For example, there are no reading classes or specialist reading schools in my constituency of Dublin Mid-West. There are only a handful of these in Dublin and, indeed, in the country. Families in my constituency have reported to me that the early signs of dyslexia are not always recognised or acted upon in a timely way. There are many reasons for this. One is that there are capacity constraints in the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, which impact on access to psychological assessments. While diagnosis is not necessarily required for the continuum of support framework, we know that standardised test scores are used at school level to inform decisions on additional support. While these are valuable tools, they primarily measure attainment rather than the underlying learning difficulties and may only highlight the issues once a child has already begun to fall behind. International best practice suggests that early screening of key indicators, such as phonological awareness and letter sound knowledge, are the sorts of things that we should be zeroing in on. We see examples of this at play in some of our schools. Looking at the evidence for what needs to happen with regard to the identification of dyslexia and then the response to it, we need structured systematic literacy instruction or targeted small group or individual intervention delivered by trained staff, appropriate classroom accommodations and timely access to assistive technology. It is important at this point to thank all the teachers in schools who work with children who have dyslexia, dyspraxia or apraxia of speech. We need to make sure they have supports in place in their classroom and school settings, but also that they have access to the necessary training, especially with regard to structured literacy, and have the best-in-class, evidence-based teaching approaches to how they address this. As fathers, the Minister of State and I both know that without appropriate and timely intervention, dyslexia-related difficulties do not improve and children can experience reduced confidence, increased anxiety and ongoing academic challenges. My question is to ask, given the limited number of reading classes available around the country and the limited number of appropriate speech and language supports for children who have autism and may also have an underlying need with regard to dyslexia or some other speech and language issue, are there plans to consider expanding dyslexia-specific classes or to better incorporate specialist provision through the provision of reading classes in schools using the same model as the autism classes in schools? Where the continuing support, as we know, reduces reliance on diagnosis, are there plans to apply a national standard and to provide support for teachers in terms of more consistent early-screening approaches at primary level? Does the Department intend developing a national framework around guidance or standards for dyslexia intervention that is aligned with international best practice and the evidence I have set out? Another issue I have raised in this House, and I am sure the Minister of State, as a constituency TD, has also raised it, is the need for the expansion of NEPS provision across all schools to ensure timely diagnosis is made, as appropriate. I would appreciate the Minister of State's insight on that.

Sentiment score: 0.32

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as ucht an fhreagra sin. I appreciate the good faith of the response and thank the Minister of State for taking this on behalf of the Minister for education. One immediate point I will make, which I am sure the Minister of State's wife would empathise with, is that the application procedure for additional resources for SEN in a school is extremely onerous. Our focus should be on ensuring the resources and hours required are made available in a targeted and timely way, in the best interest of the child, especially where the school has demonstrated a need that can be met. I will delve into a few other things the Minister of State referred to in his answer and I would like him to take one or two other things to the Minister. The first is around the national framework and national guidance for an evidence-based approach to how we address dyslexia and associated speech and language difficulties in our schools. It is important it be evidence based. It is important teacher training be made available on a consistent basis. While I welcome that some specialist supports are provided in schools, there is also a need for an expansion of the reading classes the Minister of State mentioned in his reply. They do not necessarily need to be in a school setting, but the provision of more reading classes in schools is an important step in addressing the medium level of difficulty some children might have. Above all else, the reason I want to centre the importance of the national framework is that there are instances in my constituency where children in an autism special class are not able to access speech and language supports because it is not seen in the overall suite of supports provided to children in an autism class. While I am not for a second suggesting we should stop our roll-out of autism classes, I am concerned that we need to give the same level of attention to speech and language difficulties that in many cases coincide with a diagnosis of autism, but in many cases merit proper specialist supports that might be more than the SEN hours allocated to a school, that might require the opening of a reading class or, in some instances, the expansion of the reading school. Those disabilities are as important as the ones we are rightly responding to at the moment.

Sentiment score: 0.32