Exploring the text producing practices of a child with dyslexia when he writes what matters to him

Abstract

Historically, when children with dyslexia do receive assistance with writing, the support involves handwriting intervention, transcription services or scaffolding techniques during the planning and preparation stages of writing for assessment purposes. Without practice in applying ‘reasonable adjustments’ like scribing or assistive technology, children with dyslexia may struggle to realise their full potential. Curriculum demands and resourcing issues can limit a school’s ability to provide the dedicated, personalised support a child with dyslexia needs if they are to practise using the available adjustments. However, parents represent a form of potential support. This study explores what happens in terms of a child’s literacy development when both transcription and selfregulation are supported by a parent learning partner as the child creates a personally absorbing, written artefact that is not assessment driven. This study adopts a design-based research protocol centred around a case study to capture the experiences of one child with dyslexia and his parent as they collaborated in a writing engagement. Data were collected via four artefacts produced over an eight-week period plus semistructured interviews with the parent learning partner. Systemic functional linguistic (SFL) methods of textual analysis are used to explore the indications of growth and change in the child’s literacy development. Bernsteinian concepts of visible and invisible pedagogies are used to analyse the parent’s pedagogical practices throughout the project. Key SFL findings include increases in total word count, lexical variation and cohesion, with figurative language beginning to emerge. Lexical density and grammatical intricacy appeared vulnerable to environmental constraints beyond spelling capabilities. The parent’s pedagogical practices suggested an orientation towards invisible pedagogic practices when focused on maintaining the child’s interest or managing emotions. Visible pedagogic practices were used to deliver information or strategies to support writing. Implications are considered for families challenged with dyslexia, particularly with respect to the ongoing role parents can play in their child’s literacy development.