As an expert in the field of specific learning difficulties, I believe it is important for parents to understand the nuances that surround dyslexia programs currently being run in Malaysia. There are too many provisions and people who claim to be trained to work with learners who are dyslexic here, and most of these have little to no training to teach these students.
Quality of dyslexia programs is quite poor in Malaysia and this is simply because of a lack of ethics, government regulation, and strict control of who can run such programs. It is such a shame that in 2024 we are still having to grapple with these 3rd world issues such as governance, control and ethics. People here tend to lack ethics in the Special Education sector and focus only on the profits that can be made. A clinical psychologist who runs a special education teaching center and a medical doctor who runs a special needs center, all know how unethical they are, but for the love of money, they continue, and therefore, articles like this one still have relevance.
Dyslexia teacher training is training done after one is qualified as a trained teacher. It is not a standalone course, and certainly someone right out of Form 5 or a general degree program cannot claim to be a dyslexia specialist in any way. Here are a few red flags to look out for when seeking a professional “dyslexia specialist” to work with your children.
The person does not speak good English and/or conducts most of the initial meeting in Chinese and English!! They will also claim and sell the fact that they are bilingual. ( This one.. is a no brainer and if you fall for it as a parent, then you deserve what you get!)
The person does not have a mainstream teaching credential (Definitely not a specialist of any kind!). Teaching credentials are at a minimum a BEd, or Dip Teaching, or MEd or Masters of Teaching. BSc Psychology is NOT teaching credential.. nor does it justify one calling themselves a “psychologist”. A few more common lines used by pseudo-dyslexia specialists in this area are ” I have x years experience” or ” I taught at xyz Centre for x years”.
The person claims to use only one specific program to teach (They are probably “youtube” trained! Run, if you hear “Jolly Phonics” or the “Davis Method” or the “left brain- right brain NLP” types!) Clarify the number of people actually trained in whatever method it is being sold to you, as parents. And we are not talking ” in-house” trained. None of the professionals who are legit are ever trained in only ONE way to teach learners with dyslexia. The variation in the facets of dyslexia make it impossible to only know ONE way to teach and hope you can get away with that.
The person focuses on the term ” phonics” or “OG trained” only. Find out specifically who in the Centre is OG trained and who is OG-in house trained! Another hint, ask when the “properly trained” person last did a CPD course! Also find out how many staff were merely “in-house” trained.
It is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects the way in which certain people learn to read, spell, and write. The mechanism for linking sound to print is flawed. Further to this, there may be other complications, such as slower processing, the inability to be aware of sounds within words, and the inability to distinguish certain sounds from each other. Skills such as blending syllables to form words and reading longer words tend to be problematic. Some learners get so fatigued from this process that they simply give up and resort to guessing words that are longer instead of processing and blending syllables.
A good dyslexia program would address all of the above needs in a systematic and consistent way. This will provide the learner with the tools to cope with the growing demand of reading as they get older. The goal of reading is to derive meaning. Reading and comprehension go hand-in-hand with dyslexia intervention. There is no use in a learner spending so much time on reading that they lose meaning. A properly trained dyslexia specialist will know how to get both processes to occur simultaneously and seamlessly. Self-esteem in dyslexics is always compromised and a lack of motivation to read. The program must cover all these areas too in order to be effective.
Dyslexics require a multisensorial approach to learning to ease the “mechanical problems” they face. Teaching phonics alone is not enough. There are other levels of teaching that must take place, and there are words that a learner has to learn to recognize
on sight. There are words that look similar in their print form, and the learners must be able to discriminate between these words without struggling. Patterns in spelling need to be taught for reading to become fluent and accurate. Writing, reading, and spelling are also linked and must be taught simultaneously and not in isolation. These processes occur at the same time in everyday life.
Very often, group programs are not suitable for dyslexics for this reason. The rate of progress from one student to another is different, so, 1-1 sessions are the most suitable for maximizing progress in literacy.
With this information, I hope parents will be more equipped to seek out programs from providers and professionals who are really well trained. Dyslexia programs tend to be expensive because the person incurs a huge cost to get trained too. There are materials to be bought for teaching purposes, and all this costs money. Properly trained dyslexia tutors will seldom go to your home because of the amount of resource materials they would have to carry with them. They would rather the student go to their place of work. Do not try to go for the cheapest possible program because, at the end of the day, you will get what you pay for.
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Special Education Centre for Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Learning Difficulties Assessments & Intervention.
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