May 4, 2025 • 25 mins
Rehab Shahbal, Founder and CEO of DYStinct Learners, shares her journey from financial executive to dyslexia advocate after her son's diagnosis. She discusses how we can better support students with unique learning needs by recognising their differences rather than disabilities.
• Dyslexia should be viewed as a learning difference, not a disability or disease
• Early identification of dyslexia is possible from ages 3-5 through universal screeners
• Dyslexic learners have significant strengths including empathy, creativity, and innovative thinking
• Schools need teachers trained in structured literacy and multisensory instruction techniques
• Research-based intervention programs like Orton-Gillingham provide effective support
• Early intervention is crucial to prevent the social-emotional impact of learning challenges
• Teacher training programs need to incorporate the science of reading principles
• Dyscalculia (math learning difficulties) is gaining recognition but needs more research
• Distinct Learners provides online, personalised support for students anywhere in the world
• Awareness and reduced stigma are essential to help these students reach their potential
Visit distinctlearners.com to learn more about supporting students with dyslexia and dyscalculia.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
You are listening to the Teach Middle East podcast
connecting, developing andempowering educators.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hey everyone, this is Lisa Grace coming to you with
another episode of the TeachMiddle East podcast.
It is my pleasure to have RehabShahbal on the podcast with me.
She is the founder and CEO ofdistinctlearnerscom and we're
going to be talking about how wecan make the best provisions
for students who have uniqueneeds.
(00:40):
Now am I just changing specialto unique?
I'm going to issue with specialneeds, but I think we all have
needs and they're all special.
But Rehab and I were talkingbefore we hit record and she was
saying we call it special needsand if it makes people pay
attention and give the studentswhat they need in order to
achieve, then I guess it's worthcalling it what it is.
(01:03):
It's my pleasure to welcomeRahab to the podcast.
Welcome, rahab.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Well, thanks, thanks, lisa.
Thank you for having me over.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
You're welcome.
You are welcome.
I met Rahab at the Abu DhabiTeachers Conference, which feels
like ages ago, but it reallyisn't.
How have things been since then?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Things have been good .
Things are moving in the rightdirection, you know, in terms of
the attention we're trying toget in raising awareness about
dyslexia, because we're over thespiritual month of Ramadan and
term three has started in termsof the student's journey.
So, yeah, things have beengoing well.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Tell me a little bit about why you are passionate
about dyslexia special needs.
Let's start there.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Sure.
So my journey with my venturestarted from my own personal
journey.
My second born is dyslexic.
He was diagnosed at the age ofseven and through my journey of
trying to get him the rightsupport which I found it quite
challenging, you know, being inthe region when I did find the
(02:17):
right support for him and thiswas, you know, the pandemic was
a strange period of time.
It was a blessing and it was atime that you know, made
everybody quite weary of whatthe future holds.
But for me, as a mother and as afounder, it was a blessing
because that fueled my basicallycurrent journey and giving the
voice to this hidden difference.
(02:38):
Again, I don't like the worddisability, I call it a
difference.
What happened was when I didfind the right research and
evidence-based support for myson.
One clear thing that you knowcame to me was we don't have, or
we do have, but it's verylimited within the region and
the level of awareness and thestigma and the taboo attached to
(03:00):
it was quite alarming.
And hence I said you know whatI just need to give a voice to
these other children, supportthese families, and it's a way
of me giving back to thecommunity, also Brilliant.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
What did you discover about dyslexia?
Because you said it's somethingpersonal with your second son.
But what did you discover onthat journey?
Speaker 3 (03:22):
So you know what, interestingly enough, as I
started learning more about myson and how he learns, slowly, I
started, you know, rememberinga few people in my childhood,
some family relatives, who werelabeled slow, stupid, you know,
(03:42):
not very smart, not very sharp,and it really dawned on me that
these kids most probably weredyslexic or had some form of
learning challenges.
But because of the level oflack of awareness within the
society, these children did nothave the equal opportunity to
(04:03):
thrive.
And, through my journey with myson, it has just amazed me in
terms of, you know, the otherareas of strength that he has.
You know, while today, yes,academic performance is very
important, but life skills andwhat they're able to give back
to society is such an importantpiece, you know, Through my
(04:27):
journey, I've also come toidentify a lot of people who
were dyslexic, who, you know,made a contribution to society,
from the likes of AlbertEinstein to Richard Branson, you
know, Winston Churchill, and soon, so forth, you know, and the
way the society and thehumanity is moving in the age of
AI, it is the very skill set ofthese big picture learners, you
(04:52):
know, and critical thinkers,such as the dyslexic and
dyscalculic learners.
We need more people and hence Iwant to be an advocate and I
want to raise awareness.
You know, in terms of what dothese kids bring, including the
fact that you know regionallyresearch is super limited in
terms of you know what are theliteracy rates, what are the
(05:13):
dyslexia rates and what have you?
You know within the society,and then the social, behavioral
and emotional impact it has onsome of these children as a
result of not receiving theright support in their learning
journey.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah, I got a question for you when you were
observing your son.
What were some of thedifficulties he was experiencing
that made you pay attention?
Speaker 3 (05:38):
It was not so much as academic although the academic
was the trigger, elisa becauseyou know, when I saw this little
guy hiding behind the cameraback in the online days during
COVID, where he couldn't evenpress on the right letter to
spell in the chat, whatever theteacher was asking him, it was
the social and developmentalneeds.
(05:58):
You know, he was a very shy boy, extremely low self-esteem,
didn't think much of himself.
That confidence, lack ofconfidence.
Really.
You know, as a parent it'squite painful, because what you
want is your child to thrive,because at home you see this
completely different personalityand outside because society
(06:18):
doesn't see him.
You know, at par with his peers, that wasn't coming out.
And you know, one of the keythings as a parent is I've made
my son speak up and be proudthat he is dyslexic.
You know I am dyslexic.
My brain is wired differently.
You know there's nothingdifferent with the way I'm
thinking.
And ironically, lisa, you know,as I also speak to family
(06:41):
members and I say you know mychild is dyslexic, the type of
reaction that you get, you knowthe level of awareness is still
not there.
They think it's like a disease.
Oh, how is he doing these days?
You know he's fine.
It's just that the label itselfis a necessity so that he can
receive the right support inschool.
But it has nothing to do withhis IQ, it has nothing to do
(07:04):
with his ability to fit insociety, you know.
So it's quite interesting interms of the amount of emotional
and behavioral impact that thislabel has on children, and even
how society reacts to itanother question for you.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
So, given that we know so many really top people
who have come out to say I amdyslexic, what are some of the
strengths you've noticed in yourson?
Speaker 3 (07:35):
He is very empathic, a big thinker, you know he can
read body language, think out ofthe box and that's a plus point
not very traditional in histhinking.
He's witty.
His personality the personalitycomes in.
You know his drive andresilience, because you know
they have to put in that extraeffort in order for them to be
(07:57):
able to catch up with theirpeers.
And his ability to basicallyinnovate.
You know, in terms of thenon-traditional skill sets, that
you would expect so becausethey have to almost make up for
that lack of academic ability totheir peers, so these other
(08:18):
skill sets also come out.
And then also in terms ofsports, you know he's very
athletic and these are the areasthat I've been focusing on
building.
You know it's super importantthat he feels good in other
avenues as opposed to theacademic.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah, Our audience is made up of educators, school
leaders and teachers.
I want to give you anopportunity to help them to
identify students who may needadditional support, who may be
dyslexic.
What are some of the thingsthey ought to be looking for?
Speaker 3 (08:52):
So, okay, one of the key things is it's never early
to identify if somebody isstruggling with literacy skills.
You know dyslexia can be atleast the early markers can be
identified as early as fiveyears and in fact recently I
came across research that wassaying three years.
You know children who strugglewith their phonics early on,
(09:15):
their colors, rhymesinstructions.
You know I'm a big promoter,lisa, of running universal
screeners in schools and theseare not those official labels.
We know very well that untilthe age of seven you cannot
officially diagnose a child tohave dyslexia.
But schools need to equipthemselves with the screeners
(09:38):
that are out there and you knowand I don't want to name or
advertise any screener per sebut there are a lot of universal
screeners that are out therewhich are based on research and
evidence-based methodologiesthat schools can basically
identify and pick up on who canpotentially be at risk to have
dyslexia in order for the earlyintervention to kick in.
This is number one.
(09:59):
Number two is, while it's verygood that we're able to identify
early on, but you also need toensure within your school team
you also have the rightqualified people to be able to
then do intervention that isresearch and evidence-based,
because a one-size-fits-all withthese kids cannot work.
You know, there's thisliterature that talks about
(10:20):
balanced literacy as opposed tostructured literacy, and this is
what needs to change.
The science of reading needs tokick in into our education
system in order for us to beable to help these kids.
And, interestingly enough, thisapproach of teaching dyslexic
kids can work for even regularreaders, you know, because it's
just a different way of teaching.
(10:41):
What does that involve teaching?
What does that involve?
It is basically it involvesteaching decoding, phonemic
awareness, fluency,comprehension, vocabulary, in a
very different approach.
Obviously, you know, I don'tcome from an education
background.
I've employed qualified peoplewho do that, but basically it
could be anything from applyingstructured programs such as the
(11:04):
Orton, gilligan, barton, wilson.
But then you know, like,actually this is an interesting
story, when I started my journeyin trying to establish the
various literacy programs forour students, my research really
focused on the US and as Imatured over the years, I
realized, you know, there aredifferent approaches that are
out there in the world, you know, such as the UK holistic
approach or the Australian orthe Singaporean, and all this
(11:27):
has to basically look intostructured literacy, structured
literacy and multisensoryinstruction, and in order for us
to be able to create thosepathways in these kids' brain,
for them to be able to readbetter and learn to basically
then learn comprehension andwriting and spelling and so on
and so forth.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, you hinted at something just now.
You said you know that's notyour background.
What's your background?
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Okay, so in my past life I was an executive in the
financial institution, workingfor one of the top tier banks
here in the UAE in the auditprofession, leading basically
about 50 individuals across 22countries auditing global
markets, risk compliance andinternational audits.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Wow, how have you found the change?
How have you managed thatchange?
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Okay.
So over the years, because of myleadership skills and my
education background, I have amaster's in strategy.
I was able to employ thatbackground in order for me to be
able to, you know, collaborate,network and build relationships
and find the right people forme to be able to drive the
(12:40):
business drive the business.
So when I started my journeybecause I didn't have that
education background the sameprovider who helped my son in
his remediation I decided toemploy an outsourced model for
me to be able to go through alearning journey.
And then, when I decided toleave my full-time executive job
because I just felt that it wastime for me to embark into a
(13:03):
social impact venture that wasmore meaningful and purposeful
at the stage of life where I amat, I revamped my entire
strategy and I employed adifferent operating model,
because a one size fits alldoesn't work.
The model that I currently haveis I employ freelancers who
work across the globe, trainedin different research and
(13:24):
evidence-based methodologies andprograms, and that has worked
well in terms of what I canoffer to parents, in terms of
the different mix and matchaccording to the learning
profile of the kids, and, at thesame time, each of these
individuals who I employ work inthe special education field, so
they're able to learn from eachother and impart knowledge
(13:46):
within their own countries.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
So when you get a student, what is your role in
that student's academic life?
What do you do for them?
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Sure.
So what we do is we try tounderstand the background of the
child in terms of developmentalmilestones and if they've done
any diagnostic evaluationthrough an educational
psychologist, we go through thatto check into any underlying
cognitive challenges and whathave you.
(14:20):
And if the parent doesn't haveand wish to have that official
diagnostic evaluation, we alsooffer that through qualified
assessors with the BritishDyslexia Association.
But having done that, we thengo through a consultation with
the parent understand what aretheir concerns, where their
child is in terms of theirlearning journey, any support
(14:41):
intervention that they'vereceived.
Upon doing that, we personalizeeverything to the child.
So what we do is, before westart identifying what are the
targets and the areas ofconcerns to work with the child,
we do a pre-interventionplacement assessment that looks
into the building blocks ofliteracy or numeracy, because
our area of specialization isdyslexia and dyscalculia and
(15:04):
after that we employ, you know,nonstandard informal assessments
.
That throws at us the targetsthat are to be worked with the
child, usually within a three tofour month window.
We align with the parent interms of any other targets that
they wish for us to work withthem in terms of behavioral,
because a lot of barriers withthese kids has to do with their
(15:25):
social emotional barriers overtime because of the lack of
confidence that they've had andfear of failure and what have
you.
So we integrate that.
We then meet with the school toalign with the school's
individual education plan if thechild already has one for
in-school and out-of-schoolsupport, and then we basically
match the student with the rightspecialist depending on their
(15:46):
need, and then one-on-oneintervention happens with the
child.
Usually we recommend twice aweek, and this is all online
using a very interactiveplatform that is interest-driven
.
It is super important for us toknow what are the child's
interests and we try tointroduce and drive the learning
through his interest usingmultisensory instructions.
And we try to introduce anddrive the learning through his
interest using multisensoryinstructions, and by
(16:08):
multisensory instructions we'retalking about kinesthetic,
visual audio as well as verbal.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
So a parent can be anywhere and tap into these
resources?
Is what you're saying?
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Absolutely so.
One of the key reasons why I'vedecided also to go with the
online model is because of thelimited qualified specialists
that we have in the region,within the country, including,
you know, the fact that not alot of people are keen on moving
locations.
What I've offered parents isthe ability to connect with
people who are qualified acrossthe globe, having, you know,
(16:46):
been exposed to differentapproaches.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
That makes sense actually and it actually makes
it quite accessible.
I want to shift gears a littlebit to talk about, because you
mentioned quite a bit about thefact that we don't have the
level of resources here forstudents with dyscalculia or
dyslexia.
But this region has a lot ofresources, so why is it that
(17:13):
there aren't, in your estimation, enough resources in this
particular area?
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Okay, actually, you know.
So, lisa, this is somethinginteresting.
This is not just unique to thisregion, you know, within,
globally, as I've explored andtried to identify.
You know, how is it that eachcountry addresses these issues?
I think the main issue is theteacher's training within the
education system itself, interms of the teacher's training
(17:43):
needs to be revamped intoemploying the science of reading
and structured literacy Because, rightly said, the value
delivery is today, entities likemyself shouldn't exist.
Teachers should be qualifiedenough to be able to know the
bare minimum in terms of how toteach children who need to be
taught differently.
So one of the key things, themission that Distinct Learners
(18:06):
is on, is to transform thespecial education by also
working with the universities inthe country, you know, be it at
a graduate or a postgraduatelevel, or even as a professional
development, to equip teachers,you know, to have some type of
skill sets, to be able toidentify dyslexia and
dyscalculia, early warningsignals, and then also to be
(18:29):
able to teach these children.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
That's interesting.
I'm trying to think back to myteacher training days.
I didn't really get muchtraining on.
Did I get any?
I don't think I got anytraining on dyslexia I think
later on because I'm a teacherof languages I think later on I
did some courses on dyslexia.
(18:52):
I did nothing on dyscalculia.
Talk to me about dyscalculia.
What is it and how do weidentify it in students?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Okay, so dyscalculia is an area that we've embarked
on newly, as myself, so I don'thave much information to be
quite honest on how.
But it's basically kids whostruggle with math operations as
simple as even reading theclock.
You know they can't get theirhead around probability,
percentage math operations andwhat have you.
I won't be able to give muchinsights in that area, to be
(19:22):
quite honest, because I immersemyself into the dyslexia world,
but it's alarming signals shouldbe that a child who is, even
because there's a fine linebetween math anxiety,
dyscalculia and numeracydevelopmental issues, it has to
basically anything to do withaddition, subtraction, even at a
(19:45):
higher grade, not being able tobasically even solve a basic
math problem.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
In terms of that?
I know you don't have all thespecifics, but do you see an
increase in numbers of studentswho are presenting with
dyscalculia?
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Yeah and OK.
So you'll have two kinds ofstudents.
You'll have those students whohave dyslexia and will face
challenges with math because ofthe literacy element that is
involved in math, you know,especially when you've got word
problems and what have you.
So you have those kids and then, unlike dyslexia, which has
(20:23):
received attention for a whilenow, dyscocolia is starting to
pick up pace, because we don'teven have universal statistics
of what the dyscolic rate is.
I think it's trending around 7%.
So dyscocolia slowly hasstarted picking up attention as
a learning difference as opposedto dyslexia.
(20:43):
Having said that, it's superimportant because you need to be
able to do your basic maths tobe able to survive.
Can you imagine even paying andbeing able to make sure that
you got the right change?
You know?
As simple as that.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure.
I mean I have to be honest,like in school, I wasn't the
greatest math student, but Ithink a lot of it comes down to
how mathematics was taught to me, because I do love figures and
I and you can't rob me is what Isay you cannot rob me, I know
(21:17):
how to check, but I just thinkit's just down to how I was
taught mathematics.
I just think it's just down tohow I was taught mathematics and
I think I just probablydeveloped a bit of a dislike for
it.
I don't think I had anxietyaround it, I just think I just
didn't like the thing.
I'm quite a literate person.
I love language.
Obviously I'm a writer, so goeswithout saying.
(21:40):
But coming down to the tail endof this chat, I want to know
what your goals are and and whatyou hope to see develop in this
region.
Like, where do you want it toall go?
Speaker 3 (21:54):
sure.
So my number one priority is toraise awareness and remove the
stigma and the taboo.
You know.
Have more parents be able toidentify the early warning signs
, because you will not believehow some parents just you know
hold their breath and hope thatit'll go away.
Dyslexia stays with you forlife.
(22:15):
You know.
It's at a continuum.
You will be able to just youknow empower your kids with the
right skill sets for them to beable to survive in society kids
with the right skill sets forthem to be able to survive in
society.
So the level of awarenessreally needs to increase in
terms of what is dyslexia.
Early intervention is also anarea that we're hugely promoting
, because the earlier you cancatch it, the earlier you can do
(22:37):
the intervention and you canclose the gap.
Because, can you imagine whenyou start getting students at
the age of 15, when they'redealing with the curriculum?
If you cannot read clearly, youcannot learn, you cannot access
the curriculum you know.
And at 15, while, yes, we cantry and help in terms of
building the child's fluency inorder for him to be able to
comprehend, the challenge isthat child will feel a complete
(23:00):
failure, you know.
So early intervention isanother key area that we're
trying to drive.
What we're hoping also is toempower educators, so the more
schools basically invest ingetting the right people, the
right training, even, you know,launching the right type of
curriculum for their students inthe reading and numeracy space,
(23:24):
that will help the mass.
We're also looking in future,to be able to run certain
courses within the teachertraining, like you mentioned,
because this is where thetransformation will happen.
This is where the valuedelivery is.
We're hoping that we can have aregional dyslexia association,
similar to what we have in theUS.
You've got the InternationalDyslexia association, similar to
(23:45):
what we have, you know, in theUS You've got the International
Dyslexia Association and drivethe research in this area,
because the more research wehave, the more statistics we
have.
This will drive attention interms of what is the impact of
not addressing dyslexia and itsimpact on literacy, on, you know
, the economic development ofthe country, the ability of
people to join the workforce,the behavioral and social and
(24:09):
developmental impact.
I think you know in our earliercall was it you that I
mentioned to you that there wasa study I came across in Kuwait,
done sometime in 2016, where ituncovered that 18% of the
inmates had undiagnosed dyslexia.
Yeah, you know.
So this is what we're trying todrive also research into this
(24:29):
area, because we truly believethat if we're able to drive
early intervention, empowerthese kids to reach their
potential.
There's so much, you know,contribution that can be made
from these amazing learners.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Brilliant.
Thank you for being on thepodcast, Rehab.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Thanks.
Thanks, Lisa, for having me.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
You are most welcome.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Thank you for listening to the Teach Middle
East podcast.
Visit our websiteteachmiddleeastcom and follow us
on social media.
The links are in the show notes.
You are listening to the Teach Middle East podcast
connecting, developing andempowering educators.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hey everyone, this is Lisa Grace coming to you with
another episode of the TeachMiddle East podcast.
It is my pleasure to have RehabShahbal on the podcast with me.
She is the founder and CEO ofdistinctlearnerscom and we're
going to be talking about how wecan make the best provisions
for students who have uniqueneeds.
(00:40):
Now am I just changing specialto unique?
I'm going to issue with specialneeds, but I think we all have
needs and they're all special.
But Rehab and I were talkingbefore we hit record and she was
saying we call it special needsand if it makes people pay
attention and give the studentswhat they need in order to
achieve, then I guess it's worthcalling it what it is.
(01:03):
It's my pleasure to welcomeRahab to the podcast.
Welcome, rahab.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Well, thanks, thanks, lisa.
Thank you for having me over.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
You're welcome.
You are welcome.
I met Rahab at the Abu DhabiTeachers Conference, which feels
like ages ago, but it reallyisn't.
How have things been since then?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Things have been good .
Things are moving in the rightdirection, you know, in terms of
the attention we're trying toget in raising awareness about
dyslexia, because we're over thespiritual month of Ramadan and
term three has started in termsof the student's journey.
So, yeah, things have beengoing well.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Tell me a little bit about why you are passionate
about dyslexia special needs.
Let's start there.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Sure.
So my journey with my venturestarted from my own personal
journey.
My second born is dyslexic.
He was diagnosed at the age ofseven and through my journey of
trying to get him the rightsupport which I found it quite
challenging, you know, being inthe region when I did find the
(02:17):
right support for him and thiswas, you know, the pandemic was
a strange period of time.
It was a blessing and it was atime that you know, made
everybody quite weary of whatthe future holds.
But for me, as a mother and as afounder, it was a blessing
because that fueled my basicallycurrent journey and giving the
voice to this hidden difference.
(02:38):
Again, I don't like the worddisability, I call it a
difference.
What happened was when I didfind the right research and
evidence-based support for myson.
One clear thing that you knowcame to me was we don't have, or
we do have, but it's verylimited within the region and
the level of awareness and thestigma and the taboo attached to
(03:00):
it was quite alarming.
And hence I said you know whatI just need to give a voice to
these other children, supportthese families, and it's a way
of me giving back to thecommunity, also Brilliant.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
What did you discover about dyslexia?
Because you said it's somethingpersonal with your second son.
But what did you discover onthat journey?
Speaker 3 (03:22):
So you know what, interestingly enough, as I
started learning more about myson and how he learns, slowly, I
started, you know, rememberinga few people in my childhood,
some family relatives, who werelabeled slow, stupid, you know,
(03:42):
not very smart, not very sharp,and it really dawned on me that
these kids most probably weredyslexic or had some form of
learning challenges.
But because of the level oflack of awareness within the
society, these children did nothave the equal opportunity to
(04:03):
thrive.
And, through my journey with myson, it has just amazed me in
terms of, you know, the otherareas of strength that he has.
You know, while today, yes,academic performance is very
important, but life skills andwhat they're able to give back
to society is such an importantpiece, you know, Through my
(04:27):
journey, I've also come toidentify a lot of people who
were dyslexic, who, you know,made a contribution to society,
from the likes of AlbertEinstein to Richard Branson, you
know, Winston Churchill, and soon, so forth, you know, and the
way the society and thehumanity is moving in the age of
AI, it is the very skill set ofthese big picture learners, you
(04:52):
know, and critical thinkers,such as the dyslexic and
dyscalculic learners.
We need more people and hence Iwant to be an advocate and I
want to raise awareness.
You know, in terms of what dothese kids bring, including the
fact that you know regionallyresearch is super limited in
terms of you know what are theliteracy rates, what are the
(05:13):
dyslexia rates and what have you?
You know within the society,and then the social, behavioral
and emotional impact it has onsome of these children as a
result of not receiving theright support in their learning
journey.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah, I got a question for you when you were
observing your son.
What were some of thedifficulties he was experiencing
that made you pay attention?
Speaker 3 (05:38):
It was not so much as academic although the academic
was the trigger, elisa becauseyou know, when I saw this little
guy hiding behind the cameraback in the online days during
COVID, where he couldn't evenpress on the right letter to
spell in the chat, whatever theteacher was asking him, it was
the social and developmentalneeds.
(05:58):
You know, he was a very shy boy, extremely low self-esteem,
didn't think much of himself.
That confidence, lack ofconfidence.
Really.
You know, as a parent it'squite painful, because what you
want is your child to thrive,because at home you see this
completely different personalityand outside because society
(06:18):
doesn't see him.
You know, at par with his peers, that wasn't coming out.
And you know, one of the keythings as a parent is I've made
my son speak up and be proudthat he is dyslexic.
You know I am dyslexic.
My brain is wired differently.
You know there's nothingdifferent with the way I'm
thinking.
And ironically, lisa, you know,as I also speak to family
(06:41):
members and I say you know mychild is dyslexic, the type of
reaction that you get, you knowthe level of awareness is still
not there.
They think it's like a disease.
Oh, how is he doing these days?
You know he's fine.
It's just that the label itselfis a necessity so that he can
receive the right support inschool.
But it has nothing to do withhis IQ, it has nothing to do
(07:04):
with his ability to fit insociety, you know.
So it's quite interesting interms of the amount of emotional
and behavioral impact that thislabel has on children, and even
how society reacts to itanother question for you.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
So, given that we know so many really top people
who have come out to say I amdyslexic, what are some of the
strengths you've noticed in yourson?
Speaker 3 (07:35):
He is very empathic, a big thinker, you know he can
read body language, think out ofthe box and that's a plus point
not very traditional in histhinking.
He's witty.
His personality the personalitycomes in.
You know his drive andresilience, because you know
they have to put in that extraeffort in order for them to be
(07:57):
able to catch up with theirpeers.
And his ability to basicallyinnovate.
You know, in terms of thenon-traditional skill sets, that
you would expect so becausethey have to almost make up for
that lack of academic ability totheir peers, so these other
(08:18):
skill sets also come out.
And then also in terms ofsports, you know he's very
athletic and these are the areasthat I've been focusing on
building.
You know it's super importantthat he feels good in other
avenues as opposed to theacademic.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah, Our audience is made up of educators, school
leaders and teachers.
I want to give you anopportunity to help them to
identify students who may needadditional support, who may be
dyslexic.
What are some of the thingsthey ought to be looking for?
Speaker 3 (08:52):
So, okay, one of the key things is it's never early
to identify if somebody isstruggling with literacy skills.
You know dyslexia can be atleast the early markers can be
identified as early as fiveyears and in fact recently I
came across research that wassaying three years.
You know children who strugglewith their phonics early on,
(09:15):
their colors, rhymesinstructions.
You know I'm a big promoter,lisa, of running universal
screeners in schools and theseare not those official labels.
We know very well that untilthe age of seven you cannot
officially diagnose a child tohave dyslexia.
But schools need to equipthemselves with the screeners
(09:38):
that are out there and you knowand I don't want to name or
advertise any screener per sebut there are a lot of universal
screeners that are out therewhich are based on research and
evidence-based methodologiesthat schools can basically
identify and pick up on who canpotentially be at risk to have
dyslexia in order for the earlyintervention to kick in.
This is number one.
(09:59):
Number two is, while it's verygood that we're able to identify
early on, but you also need toensure within your school team
you also have the rightqualified people to be able to
then do intervention that isresearch and evidence-based,
because a one-size-fits-all withthese kids cannot work.
You know, there's thisliterature that talks about
(10:20):
balanced literacy as opposed tostructured literacy, and this is
what needs to change.
The science of reading needs tokick in into our education
system in order for us to beable to help these kids.
And, interestingly enough, thisapproach of teaching dyslexic
kids can work for even regularreaders, you know, because it's
just a different way of teaching.
(10:41):
What does that involve teaching?
What does that involve?
It is basically it involvesteaching decoding, phonemic
awareness, fluency,comprehension, vocabulary, in a
very different approach.
Obviously, you know, I don'tcome from an education
background.
I've employed qualified peoplewho do that, but basically it
could be anything from applyingstructured programs such as the
(11:04):
Orton, gilligan, barton, wilson.
But then you know, like,actually this is an interesting
story, when I started my journeyin trying to establish the
various literacy programs forour students, my research really
focused on the US and as Imatured over the years, I
realized, you know, there aredifferent approaches that are
out there in the world, you know, such as the UK holistic
approach or the Australian orthe Singaporean, and all this
(11:27):
has to basically look intostructured literacy, structured
literacy and multisensoryinstruction, and in order for us
to be able to create thosepathways in these kids' brain,
for them to be able to readbetter and learn to basically
then learn comprehension andwriting and spelling and so on
and so forth.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, you hinted at something just now.
You said you know that's notyour background.
What's your background?
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Okay, so in my past life I was an executive in the
financial institution, workingfor one of the top tier banks
here in the UAE in the auditprofession, leading basically
about 50 individuals across 22countries auditing global
markets, risk compliance andinternational audits.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Wow, how have you found the change?
How have you managed thatchange?
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Okay.
So over the years, because of myleadership skills and my
education background, I have amaster's in strategy.
I was able to employ thatbackground in order for me to be
able to, you know, collaborate,network and build relationships
and find the right people forme to be able to drive the
(12:40):
business drive the business.
So when I started my journeybecause I didn't have that
education background the sameprovider who helped my son in
his remediation I decided toemploy an outsourced model for
me to be able to go through alearning journey.
And then, when I decided toleave my full-time executive job
because I just felt that it wastime for me to embark into a
(13:03):
social impact venture that wasmore meaningful and purposeful
at the stage of life where I amat, I revamped my entire
strategy and I employed adifferent operating model,
because a one size fits alldoesn't work.
The model that I currently haveis I employ freelancers who
work across the globe, trainedin different research and
(13:24):
evidence-based methodologies andprograms, and that has worked
well in terms of what I canoffer to parents, in terms of
the different mix and matchaccording to the learning
profile of the kids, and, at thesame time, each of these
individuals who I employ work inthe special education field, so
they're able to learn from eachother and impart knowledge
(13:46):
within their own countries.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
So when you get a student, what is your role in
that student's academic life?
What do you do for them?
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Sure.
So what we do is we try tounderstand the background of the
child in terms of developmentalmilestones and if they've done
any diagnostic evaluationthrough an educational
psychologist, we go through thatto check into any underlying
cognitive challenges and whathave you.
(14:20):
And if the parent doesn't haveand wish to have that official
diagnostic evaluation, we alsooffer that through qualified
assessors with the BritishDyslexia Association.
But having done that, we thengo through a consultation with
the parent understand what aretheir concerns, where their
child is in terms of theirlearning journey, any support
(14:41):
intervention that they'vereceived.
Upon doing that, we personalizeeverything to the child.
So what we do is, before westart identifying what are the
targets and the areas ofconcerns to work with the child,
we do a pre-interventionplacement assessment that looks
into the building blocks ofliteracy or numeracy, because
our area of specialization isdyslexia and dyscalculia and
(15:04):
after that we employ, you know,nonstandard informal assessments
.
That throws at us the targetsthat are to be worked with the
child, usually within a three tofour month window.
We align with the parent interms of any other targets that
they wish for us to work withthem in terms of behavioral,
because a lot of barriers withthese kids has to do with their
(15:25):
social emotional barriers overtime because of the lack of
confidence that they've had andfear of failure and what have
you.
So we integrate that.
We then meet with the school toalign with the school's
individual education plan if thechild already has one for
in-school and out-of-schoolsupport, and then we basically
match the student with the rightspecialist depending on their
(15:46):
need, and then one-on-oneintervention happens with the
child.
Usually we recommend twice aweek, and this is all online
using a very interactiveplatform that is interest-driven
.
It is super important for us toknow what are the child's
interests and we try tointroduce and drive the learning
through his interest usingmultisensory instructions.
And we try to introduce anddrive the learning through his
interest using multisensoryinstructions, and by
(16:08):
multisensory instructions we'retalking about kinesthetic,
visual audio as well as verbal.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
So a parent can be anywhere and tap into these
resources?
Is what you're saying?
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Absolutely so.
One of the key reasons why I'vedecided also to go with the
online model is because of thelimited qualified specialists
that we have in the region,within the country, including,
you know, the fact that not alot of people are keen on moving
locations.
What I've offered parents isthe ability to connect with
people who are qualified acrossthe globe, having, you know,
(16:46):
been exposed to differentapproaches.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
That makes sense actually and it actually makes
it quite accessible.
I want to shift gears a littlebit to talk about, because you
mentioned quite a bit about thefact that we don't have the
level of resources here forstudents with dyscalculia or
dyslexia.
But this region has a lot ofresources, so why is it that
(17:13):
there aren't, in your estimation, enough resources in this
particular area?
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Okay, actually, you know.
So, lisa, this is somethinginteresting.
This is not just unique to thisregion, you know, within,
globally, as I've explored andtried to identify.
You know, how is it that eachcountry addresses these issues?
I think the main issue is theteacher's training within the
education system itself, interms of the teacher's training
(17:43):
needs to be revamped intoemploying the science of reading
and structured literacy Because, rightly said, the value
delivery is today, entities likemyself shouldn't exist.
Teachers should be qualifiedenough to be able to know the
bare minimum in terms of how toteach children who need to be
taught differently.
So one of the key things, themission that Distinct Learners
(18:06):
is on, is to transform thespecial education by also
working with the universities inthe country, you know, be it at
a graduate or a postgraduatelevel, or even as a professional
development, to equip teachers,you know, to have some type of
skill sets, to be able toidentify dyslexia and
dyscalculia, early warningsignals, and then also to be
(18:29):
able to teach these children.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
That's interesting.
I'm trying to think back to myteacher training days.
I didn't really get muchtraining on.
Did I get any?
I don't think I got anytraining on dyslexia I think
later on because I'm a teacherof languages I think later on I
did some courses on dyslexia.
(18:52):
I did nothing on dyscalculia.
Talk to me about dyscalculia.
What is it and how do weidentify it in students?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Okay, so dyscalculia is an area that we've embarked
on newly, as myself, so I don'thave much information to be
quite honest on how.
But it's basically kids whostruggle with math operations as
simple as even reading theclock.
You know they can't get theirhead around probability,
percentage math operations andwhat have you.
I won't be able to give muchinsights in that area, to be
(19:22):
quite honest, because I immersemyself into the dyslexia world,
but it's alarming signals shouldbe that a child who is, even
because there's a fine linebetween math anxiety,
dyscalculia and numeracydevelopmental issues, it has to
basically anything to do withaddition, subtraction, even at a
(19:45):
higher grade, not being able tobasically even solve a basic
math problem.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
In terms of that?
I know you don't have all thespecifics, but do you see an
increase in numbers of studentswho are presenting with
dyscalculia?
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Yeah and OK.
So you'll have two kinds ofstudents.
You'll have those students whohave dyslexia and will face
challenges with math because ofthe literacy element that is
involved in math, you know,especially when you've got word
problems and what have you.
So you have those kids and then, unlike dyslexia, which has
(20:23):
received attention for a whilenow, dyscocolia is starting to
pick up pace, because we don'teven have universal statistics
of what the dyscolic rate is.
I think it's trending around 7%.
So dyscocolia slowly hasstarted picking up attention as
a learning difference as opposedto dyslexia.
(20:43):
Having said that, it's superimportant because you need to be
able to do your basic maths tobe able to survive.
Can you imagine even paying andbeing able to make sure that
you got the right change?
You know?
As simple as that.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure.
I mean I have to be honest,like in school, I wasn't the
greatest math student, but Ithink a lot of it comes down to
how mathematics was taught to me, because I do love figures and
I and you can't rob me is what Isay you cannot rob me, I know
(21:17):
how to check, but I just thinkit's just down to how I was
taught mathematics.
I just think it's just down tohow I was taught mathematics and
I think I just probablydeveloped a bit of a dislike for
it.
I don't think I had anxietyaround it, I just think I just
didn't like the thing.
I'm quite a literate person.
I love language.
Obviously I'm a writer, so goeswithout saying.
(21:40):
But coming down to the tail endof this chat, I want to know
what your goals are and and whatyou hope to see develop in this
region.
Like, where do you want it toall go?
Speaker 3 (21:54):
sure.
So my number one priority is toraise awareness and remove the
stigma and the taboo.
You know.
Have more parents be able toidentify the early warning signs
, because you will not believehow some parents just you know
hold their breath and hope thatit'll go away.
Dyslexia stays with you forlife.
(22:15):
You know.
It's at a continuum.
You will be able to just youknow empower your kids with the
right skill sets for them to beable to survive in society kids
with the right skill sets forthem to be able to survive in
society.
So the level of awarenessreally needs to increase in
terms of what is dyslexia.
Early intervention is also anarea that we're hugely promoting
, because the earlier you cancatch it, the earlier you can do
(22:37):
the intervention and you canclose the gap.
Because, can you imagine whenyou start getting students at
the age of 15, when they'redealing with the curriculum?
If you cannot read clearly, youcannot learn, you cannot access
the curriculum you know.
And at 15, while, yes, we cantry and help in terms of
building the child's fluency inorder for him to be able to
comprehend, the challenge isthat child will feel a complete
(23:00):
failure, you know.
So early intervention isanother key area that we're
trying to drive.
What we're hoping also is toempower educators, so the more
schools basically invest ingetting the right people, the
right training, even, you know,launching the right type of
curriculum for their students inthe reading and numeracy space,
(23:24):
that will help the mass.
We're also looking in future,to be able to run certain
courses within the teachertraining, like you mentioned,
because this is where thetransformation will happen.
This is where the valuedelivery is.
We're hoping that we can have aregional dyslexia association,
similar to what we have in theUS.
You've got the InternationalDyslexia association, similar to
(23:45):
what we have, you know, in theUS You've got the International
Dyslexia Association and drivethe research in this area,
because the more research wehave, the more statistics we
have.
This will drive attention interms of what is the impact of
not addressing dyslexia and itsimpact on literacy, on, you know
, the economic development ofthe country, the ability of
people to join the workforce,the behavioral and social and
(24:09):
developmental impact.
I think you know in our earliercall was it you that I
mentioned to you that there wasa study I came across in Kuwait,
done sometime in 2016, where ituncovered that 18% of the
inmates had undiagnosed dyslexia.
Yeah, you know.
So this is what we're trying todrive also research into this
(24:29):
area, because we truly believethat if we're able to drive
early intervention, empowerthese kids to reach their
potential.
There's so much, you know,contribution that can be made
from these amazing learners.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Brilliant.
Thank you for being on thepodcast, Rehab.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Thanks.
Thanks, Lisa, for having me.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
You are most welcome.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Thank you for listening to the Teach Middle
East podcast.
Visit our websiteteachmiddleeastcom and follow us
on social media.
The links are in the show notes.
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