DYSLEXIA ACTION GROUP

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:39): I rise today to talk on a very important topic that would affect all members of parliament and their constituents across the state, and it is certainly an important issue in Stuart, and that is the topic of dyslexia. I, along with the shadow minister for education, the member for Flinders, I think, and several other opposition members, had the opportunity to meet with the Dyslexia Action Group Barossa and Gawler Surrounds (which is affectionately known as the DAGBAGS, a name they have given themselves) on 5 June.

On 12 June, I also met with Ms Claire Morrison, a constituent of mine from Robertstown who is very focused in this area, and she is a member of the Dyslexia and Specific Learning Difficulties Support Group based out of Eudunda. I went to that meeting with some knowledge of this issue. I am happy to share with the house that my wife is actually dyslexic—not severely, but she does suffer from it, and she manages very well. She is probably very fortunate to have had a mother who was a teacher, so perhaps that just helped her along the way with diagnosis and dealing with it. She is a successful professional person and does well, but when she reads out loud, it is very apparent that she suffers from this.

I learnt an enormous amount more at that meeting. I learnt that 10 to 15 per cent of all Australians are dyslexic. I learnt that 4 per cent of all Australians are severely dyslexic. I learnt, very sadly, that 60 per cent of prisoners are dyslexic. As the shadow minister for correctional services that is of particular interest, but I am sure every member of the house would be concerned about that.

One of the most important aspects of this is that dyslexia problems can cause mental health issues for children as young as five and six years old. The reason for this is that it is not typically picked up until after that age. The problems with dyslexia for very young students are that they do not display themselves until after they have entered a regime of learning how to read, write, count and all of that sort of thing, but, by that time, it is actually too late.

What these support groups are advocating for is that teachers in South Australia—and elsewhere no doubt, but South Australia is of our interest—have a regime whereby they actually do testing of young children, ideally at the kindy transition visit they believe is the right time to do that. It is very possible and apparently very simple to use oral screening tools to identify children with dyslexia before the dyslexia actually has an impact on their learning.

The impact on their learning can be that it is just more difficult and happens more slowly for them, or it might well be that the children actually reject learning, feel insufficient and unsuccessful, have damaged pride and all that sort of thing, so they actually opt out and sit at the back of the class and do not participate. They become disruptive and head off on a different path, and no doubt some of them become the 60 per cent of prisoners who have dyslexia.

My reason for raising this in the debate today is to make sure that all members of the house, and particularly in the government, are aware of this issue, and to ask the government to take this very seriously. I wrote to the minister about this issue back in February, and unfortunately got a response that said that, really, it is up to the school budget to deal with this, and in fact also included a recommendation that schools approach the Variety Club for extra support and extra funding. While no doubt that is good advice, I am positive that the government could do more on this issue.

In the electorate of Stuart that I represent, speech pathology is by far the most sought-after special needs training that is not being provided. Of all of the different special needs training out there that school communities—whether they be teachers, principals, governing councils, parents, friends of the school—feel is missing, speech pathology is top of the list. There is a very strong link with speech pathology being needed and students who have dyslexia.

I very genuinely and sincerely ask the government to look into this issue. Clearly, funding is necessary. People on the ground are doing the very best work they can, whether they be mums and dads without any particular training in this area or whether they be genuine professionals such as GPs and the like. There are only five dyslexia specialist teachers working in South Australia at the moment for all the students and for all the schools across the entire state, and that is clearly not nearly enough to address this issue. It is vitally important that this issue is addressed for the benefit of the students and their future lives.