by Siobhan O’Neill White

Did you know that 1 in 10 children in Ireland are Dyslexic? In the past, Dyslexic children were often shunned and ignored in school, as they were not considered to be clever. But the reality is, Dyslexic children are clever, creative and smart. Our daughter is Dyslexic and struggles with reading and spelling but also happens to be intelligent and observant with a vivid imagination.Thankfully schools are much better at supporting Dyslexic children nowadays. Our daughter gets additional learning support and can use technology, such as her scanning pen, in school too. The scanning pen (reader pen) is a tech pen which help her understand words and their meanings. When she comes across a word she does not understand, she scrolls the scanning pen across the word and the pen reads the word aloud to her. The pen also has a dictionary function, to give her a definition of the word if she needs that. The pen comes from Scanningpens.com and parents can get a 14 day trial for free by logging on to their website This month is Dyslexia awareness month (#GoRedForDyslexia) and is a good opportunity to start conversations about Dyslexia. If you have worries about your child possibly being Dyslexic, contact The Dyslexia Association Of Ireland at Dyslexia.ie for advice and support. Also, speak with your child’s teacher and school principal about it. They can help arrange testing.We first started to worry about our daughter possibly being Dyslexic when she was around 6 years old and was struggling with homework. She had difficulty reading small, simple words and would often jumble them up. She really struggled with the word ‘was’, always reading it as ‘saw’. The school offered reading support and then, when this was not enough, they agreed to have her tested for Dyslexia. It was helpful to get the confirmation of Dyslexia because we knew what to do to help her and the school was fully supportive too.Please speak out and ask for the help and support you need because it will really help your child and that will make school a better experience for them. For more chat and support about Dyslexia, go to www.mams.ie parenting website