Sir Jim Rose, who is leading the review, will make recommendations onidentifying and teaching children with dyslexia and help the Governmentto establish a pilot scheme in which affected children will receivereading support or one-to-one tuition from dyslexia teachers.
The review focuses on children moving from the Early Years FoundationStage to the first year of primary school (News, 17 January). Sir JimRose is due to present his findings on dyslexia in 2009.
The announcement follows research published in March by Hull university,which found that half of children who fail their SATs tests at primaryschool show signs of dyslexia or specific learning difficulties (News,20 March).
Last week the Government published its second evaluation of Every Childa Reader, an early literacy programme for the bottom 5 per cent ofchildren aged five or six who are struggling to learn to read. Theevaluation found that children who received one-to-one tuition fromspecially trained teachers were around one year ahead of those inschools where the programme is not available, and were able to writetwice as many words.
The evaluation also found evidence that Every Child a Reader closes thegender gap between low-achieving boys and girls.
Schools minister Andrew Adonis said, 'The results are particularlystriking, given that children on the programme are in the bottom 5 percent nationally for reading when they start.'