Welcome and Hello

Hello all you SpLD people. Just wondering where you are. I know you've enrolled as Chris Llewellyn has kept me up to date so come on, don't be shy - tell us who you are and what you do. It will be good to hear from you.
Ruth

Having enrolled for the final dissertation module of the MA Inclusive Education - hopefully SpLD (?), I have already left my 'hello intro' on another site (Family problems are presently causing senior moments).

I have recently given up the post of Senior Teacher in charge of the Nottingham Centre for Dyslexia Action, having previously held the same post at their Derby Centre. I completed the PGDip Dyslexia & Literacy validated by the Uni of York last year. I am now self-employed and carry out Diagnostic Assessments (Dyslexia) for all ages, including for DSA which I mostly do for the OU in the East Midlands. I also support HE dyslexic students and have applied to tutor SpLD teacher training courses. I am currently setting up a PATOSS support group for Notts/Derbys - anyone interested please get in touch - annharrislock@aol.com.

As part of my voluntary work, I was recently invited to attend a Gypsies & Travellers Conference at Rufford, Notts and would like to base my research on relevant issues in this community - URGENT GUIDANCE/ADVICE NEEDED.

Hi Ann, You need to go into the MA Education and into the Dissertation module. I would also email Ian Terrell i.terrell@mdx.ac.uk to let him know that yu need help with your area of study. It sounds fascinating and perhaps you would like to come back on here and lead a discussion board as it sounds like you may have lots of information that other students would find very useful.
I do have a contact who works with the Gypsy and Traveller Community if you need to talk to someone who has worked in this area for many years. She may be wiling.
Ruth

Thank you for steering me in the right direction, Ruth. I will certainly get back to you about your contact and will be very pleased to share my information with other students. Many thanks, Ann

Hello everyone! I kept checking in here but since nobody had written anything i thought i d stay quiet too! I am Christiana and I am at the second year of the MA (at least i hope i am as we dont have the results of the first year yet!) I have little experience on working with children with learning difficulties as I ve only been working in this field for a year! I work in an international mainstream school in Athens and my post is as a special educator. I chose to study specific learning difficulties as most of the kids i work with are diagnosed with dyslexia or ADHD but i am also extremely interested to learn more about autism spectrum disorders.
Well that's about it for now, i wish everyone a great academic year!

Hi Christiana, Good to see you on here and meet up again. Results won't be long now! Pauline Sumner will be your tutor this year but she has had a lot of family issues just lately. However she is now back at work and wil join us all on -line very soon.
Meanwhile we need you to get us started.
I'm going to introduce 2 teachers soon on the main discussion board on the front page who have done some fantastic work in their school around the Dyslexia IDP and used some innovative ways to get very insightful 'pupil views' I think you will enjoy it.
All best, Ruth

Dear Christiana, I am currently delivering an MA programme in a London school where the majority of the pupils are on the Autistic Spectrum. They have a site on the MA Education page under OakLodge school. You could go on there to ask questions, a;; the staff are extremely knowledgeable. Also some students in your cohort last year based their studies around AS. I could ask their permission to share their work with you. We are all here to learn from each other.
Ruth

Hello Ruth! I will definitely be looking into the Oaklodge school as although i only have one kid with Aspergers his condition is VERY intriguing and thought provoking! Thanx! Also, i would very much appreciate it if you could contact last year's students and ask them on my behalf whether i could have a look at their work. Thank you very much for all this,
christiana

Dear Christiana, In my other job for a local authority I work as a Specialist/Advisory teacher for pupils with Autism and
have a lot of books and resources in this area so once you have read around the subject a bit do get back to me with any particular questions.
Ruth

Hello and welcome to the first discussion thread for those of you studying the Developing Inclusive Policy and Practice in SpLD (PDT 4180). Many apologies for my late arrival and not being around to greet you when you first arrived! Hopefully, I will now be able to give you my full attention and answer any questions you may have regarding the module. Have you been able to find your way around the website and access the handbook?

Please do introduce yourselves and provide us with a bit of a background to help us get to know each other.

Here is a short intro to my background: As well as my work as Module Leader on the MA Inclusive Education I work with HE/FE students with dyslexia/SpLD here at Middlesex University and some other HEIs. I have recently attained the qualification to enable me to carry out diagnostic assessments for dyslexia (although I am still feeling rather wary about carrying out assessments!) My interest in dyslexia grew with my dyslexic son and I have been involved in supporting him throughout his education; this interest escalated to being involved in advising parents of other children going through the education system as a member of a local Dyslexia Assocation. I am also interested in dyslexia in the workplace and provide advice and support for employees particularly on issues of disclosure.
Looking forward to working with you all
All the best
Pauline

Hi Pauline

I was hoping that you might be able to help me with a query about the suggested reading list. As the postal system here in Zambia is either fairly costly or very slow and unreliable, I was thinking of investing in some of the books from the reading list, rather than having them posted out to me by the DLSU. Obviously, I hope to be able to read as many of the titles as possible, but do you have any recommendations for a good starting point - many four or five books? I have a friend visiting me soon from the UK - and I hope to persuade them to act as my courier!

Thank you!

Jenny

Hi Jenny,
It is a little difficult for me to recommend specific SpLD books from the reading list until I know more about what you hope to focus on in your project. I will however receommend a very good research book which I think will be very useful for your studies: Martyn Denscombe - 'The Good Research Guide' published by Open University Press (2003)
Other suggestions are that you could try using Google Books to get a view inside some of the books on the reading list so that you can make the decision for yourself. Do you know how to use Google Books? If you just go to www.google.com/books and then put in the authors or name of the book there are often sections of the book available for you to look at for example I just put the first book in the Suggested Reading List in : Armstrong, F. and Moore, M (2004) Action research for inclusive education,
It has produced quite a few pages so you can then review them yourself.
I would also recommend the Book Club that is available on this site where students are encouraged to let us know about good books they have read. This can be found by searching for Book Club in the box up at the top right of the page or clicking on (the list of options on the left of the page) Programme Materials and then Discussions and then Book Club. It would be great if we could collect together some recommendations for books that focus more on Specific Learning Diffiulcites such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, etc. I think it would be good to add websites here as well as there is so much good information available on line. I will put some websites that I know on there shortly.
All the best
Pauline

Hi Pauline! Having been completely out of this for some time I ve just noticed the 1st of December deadline and gone crazy! I havent read a lot because as so many others have said, it's rather difficult to get hold of English books adroad and as for some reason my Athens password doesnt work i ve been limited to what i can find free online! I wanted to ask you the following thing... would it be ok to review literature and policies only in terms of the 3D's (Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Dyscalculia)or do i need to make introducation a bit more general? I intend to focus on dyslexia as it is a rather big issue in my school but i wanted your opinion. Thanx a lot!

Dear Christiana,

Regarding reading/literature for this module, it is useful to consider what is required in each of the units. For example if you look at page 18-21 of the Module Handbook Unit 1 requires you to look more generally at national/local policies, school handbooks etc and provides links to some useful websites. Once you get more into the core of the research project you intend to carry out in the next Units, I would suggest that whilst you should then be more focussed in your review of literature on your specified topic (as you say - the 3Ds) you still need to set this within the context of the more general theory of inclusive education, national/local policies etc. Have you looked at the very useful powerpoint on conducting your Literature Review on the front page of the MA Inc Education web pages? I would also recommend that you contact the webhelpdesk regarding your problems with accessing Athens - the contact details are available on their distance learning website http://www.lr.mdx.ac.uk/dlsu/index.htm
Hope this helps!
Pauline

Hi I left a message on the SEN site too. I think this is where I am supposed to be though. I am the SENCo at the American International School of Lusaka, Zambia. I think my technical difficulties are over now and am looking forward to starting the course. Thanks Donna Chuula

Hello all,

It is fascinating to see your different profiles building up. I am going to ber tutor to a few of you; you know who you are! I'm really looking forward to facilitation learning and sharing of experiences from all over the world.

Sarah Rosen-Webb

Welcome Donna - I am glad you have been able to find your way to the SpLD discussion board and sort out your technical difficulties. It is all a bit strange to start with but hope you have settled in to the module and look forward to working with you and hearing all about your work in Zambia.
All the best
Pauline

Hi everyone

I've been having some technical difficulties accessing the website - so I'm really pleased to be here at last! My name is Jenny Elliott and I am the SENCo at Lusaka International Community School, which is a mainstream school based in Zambia. I am delighted to see that I am not the sole Zambian based student, and that my counterpart at the American International School is also enrolled on the course.

Similarly to Christiana, I chose to study the SpLD modules as the majority of students on the school's SEN register are diagnosed with dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia. The school is also very keen that we review and update our SEN policy, so I hope that the research I do as part of the course will me with this.

Jenny

Welcome Jenny, I am glad you have been able to sort out your technical difficulties! One of the joys of this job is talking with students from all over the World and it will be useful for the two of you from Zambia to be able to communicate with each other and for us to hear about your experiences in Zambia.
Looking forward to working with you.
Pauline

Hi

I am working on creating a needs analysis for submission on Dec 1. I am not sure what format is required for this-would it be similar to a report narrative or more of a collection of documents? are we supposed to use particular templates? and is submission electronically acceptable?
I have read The Good Research Guide online which was very helpful regarding research practice and read through some of the recommended websites-also very helpful. Is there anything else I should be doing?

Thanks, Donna.

Hi Donna,
The guidelines for what is required for your needs analysis are contained in the Handbook - if you look at pages 18-21 you can see that you should be collecting together documents and also weaving a narrative through your work. Yes you are supposed to submit your work electronically - there are instructions available for you to do this but I am not sure where these are placed - perhaps one of the others can help here.

What I would recommend is that when you upload your submissions you place any copies of documents as Appendices rather than in the main body of the work and then cross reference them within your writing, showing how they are relevant to your work. Each submssion for each unit should be kept in a separate folder but within that folder different files should be made - one for the main body of the assignment (including references) and the other files within the folder containing Appendices of the relevant documents that are referred to within your writing. Hope this makes sense!

Thanks for flagging up that the Good Research Guide is available online - I think this is a really useful and and easy to understand research book and I note that there is an electronic version available on the Middlesex Uni Library Catalogue. Is this where you accessed yours from?
All the best
Pauline

Hello everyone

I think I left my hellos in the wrong place before. It's interesting reading all your comments.

Loretta

Hello to everyone, like others I posted my initial "hello" on the wrong site. Subequently I managed to forget my password and it's taken me a while to get it all sorted. Finally, I'm online and having a major panic because of the 1st December deadline - aaghh!
I work in a mainstream primary school in Chingford, East London. We are a large multi-cultural school and have children with a huge range of needs. I teach Reception age as well as holding the SENCO position. This is my second year on the MA, having recently completed the first year on the MA Education (Early Years). I am really interested in focussing on dyslexia (with perhaps a link to dsypraxia). Over recent years there seems to have been a sharp rise in children at our school who have been diagnosed as dyslexic or "having dyslexic tendencies". I'm really interested in whether or not these are accurate diagnoses or if there is an issue around early/over zealous labelling when actually the child needs a different type of support/assistance.
Anyway, any ideas/suggestions/reading advice that any of you can offer would be very welcome.
Oh and if there is any chance of an extention to the deadline, that would be welcome too!
Julie

Hi Julie and welcome.
I am glad you have sorted out your IT glitches! Interesting comments you have made - yes here has been quite a debate over the issues of the increased numbers of dyslexic children coming through assessment. Have you seen Professor Julian Elliott's point of view on this subject? He caused a real stir a few years back in the dyslexia world when supposedly questioned in a TV programme that dyslexia actually existed and that many were just jumping on the bandwagon as it were. He was quoted as saying “Dyslexic organisations have these checklists, but the symptoms cross over with so many other disorders, such as dyspraxia, that they could signify many disorders,” he says. “The fact remains that a dyslexia label meets a lot of our emotional, financial and personal needs. Even if it means absolutely nothing.”

The rest of the article can be seen at:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/[…]/article1847619.ece

Various people responded - see links below:
http://www.thepsychologist.org.uk/[…]/1105anal.pdf

The British Dyslexia Assocation also responded see:
http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/news/latest-news.html
But of course following on from this has been the far more positive Rose Review (which can also be downloaded from the above BDA website) and subsquent outcomes - so good has come from bad!
I would be interested to hear what others have to say about Professor Elliott's point of view
All the best
Pauline

Hi

Is it ok to submit my Unit 1 work in my folder on this site? It is due tomorrow.

Thanks

Donna

Hi Donna,

I don't know the answer to your question I'm afraid but I was wondering how you had presented your assignment? I am really struggling with how much to include/not include and how detailed it should be. 1000 words sounds alot but once I start writing I get a bit carried away! Have you included policies etc as appendices? I know I am cutting it very fine but I would appreciate any advice you could share.
Thanks!
Julie
PS: I'm sure I read somewhere that we do submit the work through the folders on this site. Alternatively, I guess you could just email it to Ruth or Ian or Christine and they will log it in the right place.

Julie, thanks for your help in answering Donna's question. With regards to your questions, I would encourage you to stick to the 1,000 word limit. Policies should be placed as appendices with clear cross referencing in the main text of your writing.
All the best
Pauline

Hi Julie

This might be too late but I did stick to the 1000 word limit and added policies, minutes etc in the appendices. So it wasn't all that detailed and the I used a basic text format I hope it's ok!

I placed it all in the folder on this site. Good Luck!
Donna

Dear Donna, Yes that is correct, you submit your work in the folder on this site. Have you managed to work out how to do it now?
Pauline

Hi

I have submitted my work in the folder on this site-I hope it's accessible!

Please let me know.
Thanks
Donna

Make sure that you read the power point on this and join the discussion. Its of particular value t the SpLD group and we'll want to see evidence of your participation in your portfolios.
Claire has been feeling very lonely!!!
Thanks,
 Ruth

Just wondering if everyone is okay? All of you seem to have your heads down and working hard with little time to chat!! It is often useful to discuss your research between each other and myself. THe hotseat discussons are providing a lot of helpful information so please make use of them. Hope everyone is getting on okay and please contact me if I can be of any help.
All the best
Pauline