Only one in five schools will test students for learning disorders | News from Catalonia

Some 450 public and charter schools (representing almost 20% of the total) have signed up to participate in screening tests for their students. The tests are voluntary – the centers decide if they pass them – when it was announced in March that they would be mandatory, which has generated opposing opinions among different sectors. This is a type of screening that 1st and 3rd grade students will undergo in January with the aim of revealing language problems or dyslexia. “We need to see what interventions can be done in the classroom to help them and, finally, improve educational results,” summarizes Susana Tarapiella, general director of Inclusive Education.

There is a consensus that the increase in – among them caused by some learning disorder, behavior or disability – is hindering the results of the students, and does not address the specificities of each student. In recent years, detection mechanisms have improved a lot and have brought many disorders to the surface, but now the Department of Education wants to go one step further by promoting early detection to tackle problems as soon as possible.

In this way, the so-called APPA tests (Prevention Actions to Promote Learning) were born, which teachers will give in January to 1st grade students to detect language problems and in 3rd grade, focused on . Additionally, a guide prepared by the College of Speech Therapists has been sent to the centers with the warning signs that teachers from preschool to 2nd grade should take into account. “At Infantil3 we find ourselves increasingly using pacifiers, bottles and crushed food, which means that the oral area is not as developed, to which is added the problem of screens and that children are not stimulated at the language level,” says Tarapiella.

Teachers will be in charge of collecting the test results and will send them to the Department through an application, and will receive a return with the results in February. “The idea is that everything possible is done from the classroom, but the most serious cases will be referred to Health, because changes are being prepared in primary care to incorporate services such as speech therapists and psychologists,” Tarapiella advances.

Education wants to expand its scope of action to other disorders such as dyscalculia or intellectual disability and next year other tests will be introduced in 5th grade of primary school and 1st grade of ESO, although it still remains to define what it wants to detect. At the same time, the general director assures that the University of Girona has been commissioned to update the guide for detecting high capacities – “the documentation is from 2013,” she points out. Tarapiella also states that the experience of this course will be evaluated to decide if next year they will become mandatory.

In March, the Department announced that all tests would start this year, and that they would be mandatory. But the managements, through the central board, asked that they be voluntary. In the end, about 450 centers have registered, a figure that Education values ​​positively, since it was expected that there would be fewer, about 350. “You cannot make a new measure universal without having tested it first. There has to be an evaluation and correct the things to improve before making them mandatory,” defends Arturo Ramírez, member of the board of directors, who sees the existence of these tests as necessary. “In 30 years I have not seen a situation as worrying, quantitatively and qualitatively, as the one now. Early detection should give us clues to attend to students sooner, so that the problems do not become chronic and then it is more difficult to correct the situation,” adds the director.

From the concerted party they also see it as good that they are voluntary, for those centers where there is not as much detection by teachers. “The tests are for statistics or to help in the classroom, what we need is more resources,” says Eva Aguiló, from the Verge de la Salut school in Sant Feliu de Llobregat, who also highlights the increase in needs. “In some schools the number of students with disorders has doubled, which can reach 10 or 20% of the total classroom,” he adds.

Other voices demand that the tests be census-based, so as not to create inequality between students. Mireia Sala, a member of the College of Speech Therapists who was part of the preparation of the guide sent to schools, believes that if the tests are voluntary “there will be under-detection” and also believes that they should be passed earlier. “In preschool you already see if there is a problem and in 1st grade it is already too late, because that is when you must intervene; and in 3rd grade the most important stage to be able to intervene has already passed,” he laments.

77% increase

The perception they have in the classrooms is corroborated by statistics: last year there were 42,266 students aged 3 to 16 years (4% of the total enrolled) with some disorder or disability, those classified as NESE A, in ordinary schools, which represents an increase of 77% compared to the 23,857 enrolled in the 2017-18 academic year, according to data from the Department of Education. The different experts consulted justify this increase by the improvement in detection processes, although they also add other elements.

Rosa Bosch, psychologist in the mental health area of ​​the Althaia hospital, expects this percentage to increase to 10 and 20%, and corresponds to the level of prevalence of these disorders. Bosch explains that other elements are now taken into account when diagnosing and defends research into the causes, including environmental factors such as pollution, which . “Other things would also have to be studied, such as the age of the parents, diet, screens, social conditions…” adds Bosch. Mireia Sala also points to new methodologies. “Literacy requires intensity, perseverance and systematic practice. Every day you have to read and do writing exercises. But in recent years the intensity has been lowered.”