Affective Issues Impacting Children With Dyslexia in a Special School in Ireland

Understanding the Socio-Emotional Impact of Dyslexia in the Inclusive Classroom

“…In other studies, it is reported that children with dyslexia in mainstream schools had significantly lower self-esteem compared with those without dyslexia and, interestingly, children with dyslexia in a special setting had higher self-esteem that those with dyslexia in a mainstream setting [10]. These findings are congruent with more recent studies ( [14,15,[17][18][19][20][21]). If socio-emotional elements are lower in mainstream settings, it can be argued that it is the contextual and environmental domains which are responsible for this and not the specific impairments associated with dyslexia.…”

“…Much of the research in special education highlights the fact that children with special needs often view themselves in a negative way, resulting in lower levels of self-esteem and self-concept [10]. In fact, strong evidence has emerged that these affective factors are relevant to children with dyslexia and often impact students' wellbeing [7,8,[10][11][12][13][14][15]. In a study by Polychroni et al [16], it was also found that children with dyslexia demonstrated lower levels of self-concept in literacy and mathematics compared with other children without dyslexia.…”

“…It may indeed depend on the quality of support they are provided with, including the use of appropriate resources and teacher understanding at a particular time. There may now be an opportunity for practitioners to consider the socio-emotional benefits of special settings in order to provide an appropriate and educationally rewarding experience for all children, including those with dyslexia [14,15]. Novita [22] examined the impact of dyslexia on wellbeing and also found that there was indeed a correlation between lower levels of self-esteem and self-concept in the group as compared with classmates without dyslexia.…”

“…It has already been argued that these experiences are often impacted by external factors, such as the way teachers understand dyslexia. While a simplistic approach cannot be applied to a complex issue, there is a growing body of research which highlights the positive effect of teacher understanding and positive student-teacher relationships on children's self-confidence [8,12,14,15,23]. While this may be the case, the opposite is also true.…”

“…Children's self-esteem may be negatively impacted when they are treated unfairly by teachers or when they are bullied by teachers or other children [12,14,15]. In fact, the critical role of teachers is highlighted in much of literature [12,14,15,24]. The European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education [24] note the imperative of teacher understanding in meeting the needs of all learners.…”