Intervention for Dyslexia - The British Dyslexia Association

3 UK intervention studies
3.1 Stages of intervention in England
The tiers of intervention used in the USA roughly correspond to what are called ‘waves’
in England. ‘Wave 1’ refers to the initial teaching of literacy in schools in which there
should be effective inclusion of all children in a daily and high quality literacy hour with
appropriate differentiation where required (DfES, 2003). However, if children do not
respond appropriately to initial classroom literacy instruction, then intervention becomes
necessary. Wave 2 describes specific, additional and time-limited interventions provided
for some children who need help to accelerate their progress to enable them to work at
or above age-related expectations. Primary National Strategy programmes such as Early
Literacy Support or Springboard would be regarded as Wave 2 interventions. Wave 3
describes targeted provision for a minority of children where it is necessary to provide
highly tailored intervention to accelerate progress or enable children to achieve their
potential. This may include 1:1 or specialist interventions, and, where older children are
concerned, usually refers to specifically targeted approaches for children identified as
requiring SEN support (on School Action, School Action Plus or with a Statement of
Special Educational Needs) (DfES, 2003). Probably the best-known example of a Wave 3
intervention is Reading Recovery (see Chapter 5), but there are other popular
programmes, such as Catch Up Literacy, 6 and Sound Linkage (Hatcher, 2000a). 7 All
three of these programmes are normally delivered 1:1, but none is designed specifically
for dyslexic pupils. Reading Recovery is generally given to children between the ages of
5 years 9 months and 6 years 3 months, and although Catch Up and Sound Linkage are
both intended primarily for use in Years 1–3, they could be used at any time between
the ages of 6 and 14 and hence might be regarded as secondary or even tertiary
interventions according to the children involved.
3.2 Rationale for the selection of studies
As with the review of intervention studies carried out in the USA and elsewhere in the
world (see Chapter 2) only UK programmes and studies that have a strong emphasis on
phonological skills are considered here, for reasons explained in the Introduction (see
Section 1.1). Brooks (2007) has reviewed UK intervention studies for children with
literacy difficulties in considerable detail. Fawcett (2002a) has also reviewed traditional
phonologically based interventions. Fourteen teaching programmes that had been the
subject of UK intervention studies were found by Brooks (2007) to have a major focus
on phonological skills for reading, and therefore may be considered of potential benefit
to children with dyslexia. Almost all of these were found by Brooks to be effective and,
although few of the studies specifically targeted children with identified dyslexia (see
Table 6), most were carried out with pupils who were on the SEN register and/or whose
literacy development was substantially behind expected levels. It is therefore extremely
6 http://www.catchup.org.uk/pages/home.shtm
7 Sound Linkage also forms the basis of the Cumbria Reading Intervention programme
[http://www.cumbria.gov.uk/childrensservices/reading/default.asp].
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