When Joe Carroll’s son, Eoghan, was diagnosed with dyslexia, one of the first things he was told after the assessment was that he could get an exemption from Irish.
His “visceral reaction” was to question: “Why is that the default? Why isn’t more support the default position?” he says.
Despite the exemption being raised as an option from the psychologist, Carroll says his instinct was to let his son continue with the subject and assess his needs as he progresses, rather than “whip it away from him”.
“I thought it seemed unfair to take something that is part of his identity away from him pre-emptively,” he says.
Feedback provided recently in a parent-teacher meeting outlined how nine-year-old Eoghan, now in third class, is “doing really well”.
[ Irish-language education policy ‘ignores elephant in the room’, advocacy groups warnOpens in new window ]
“The only thing mentioned really was his Irish spellings, he’s kind of getting six out of 10,” Carroll says, though describing his son’s overall progress with the support of his school as “remarkable”.
The father-of-three from Bree, Co Wexford, says Eoghan’s school has been “very supportive”, and had already been providing additional support before his diagnosis two years ago, which has seen
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