There have already been a lot of children who are suffering from dyslexia. So the government is also finding ways to offer services to make sure that these children can get the help that they need. In Asia, specifically in Singapore, there aren't many people who have heard of dyslexia before learning that one of the most influential people in the country suffered from dyslexia himself.
Dyslexia is a common learning difficulty that can cause problems with reading, writing and spelling. It's a specific learning difficulty that causes problem with certain abilities used for reading and writing. However, unlike a normal learning disability, the intelligence of a person with dyslexia is not affected.
Before Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, there were only a few people who knew what dyslexia is in Singapore, but because of the growing awareness of the condition in the past years, there have been more and more people who are seeking help for it. According to Straits Times, there were a total of 3,012 students (from 2,465 in 2013) who enrolled in the Dyslexia Association of Singapore's (DAS) main literacy program which is offered in all its 13 centers.
The program is co-funded by the Ministry of Education (MOE) and its goal is to improve students' reading, comprehension, and writing skills. They also want to help these children distinguish phonemes. DAS has been around for almost 25 years and the number of students it has helped is growing as time pass.
Just last year, the Singaporean government discovered that about 280 preschools have asked help for their students. The number is overwhelmingly great if you compare it to the 89 preschools who sought out help in 2013. The program will also be made available for post-secondary dyslexic students. Like the preschool students, the post-secondary students will receive an immense amount of support from 30 DAS alumni who will be their mentors and buddies.
Aside from the main literacy program, there are also other courses available for students which have also had an increased number of enrollees. The math classes had 266 students last year compared to only 90 in 2013. There were also 46 students who enrolled in the speech and drama art sessions, doubled in number compared to the number of enrollees in 2013.
Lee Sian, CEO of DAS said that global numbers showed that there are about 4 percent of students suffer from dyslexia severe enough to be intervened. The number means that there are at least 23,000 primary and secondary school students in the country who are suffering from the condition.
In the past three years, DAS has examined more than 900 students and about two-thirds of those students were diagnosed with dyslexia. They have also hired more educational therapists, as well as speech and learning therapists to make sure that the demand is met.
