Asking for help

Although the students felt that they listened well in class, often they needed to ask for additional help. When talking about their experiences students often seemed

distressing. Concern was expressed at the time it took waiting for help that could be spent working.

I listen to everythin but it’s like when it comes to it, I’m like [looks off to the distance and looks confused]. Like I don't have a good memory like I see something do something and forget about it straight away. Miss will read loads of stuff to us and like will tell us to do stuff in ten like sequences stuff like that and I’m like... What, what...Err... It’s just when I put my hand up for something else like I could be doing something else instead of that but in English, I feel like all I do is put my hand up (Jamie, year 5).

When Jamie and I spoke about things that may help them to remember the sequence of the task they needed to complete, they explained how a teacher in a previous year had written the steps on the board at the front of the class. Jamie explained how this had aided their completion of tasks as they could look at the board when they needed to remember the next step. Although Jamie’s current teacher has a schedule written on the board, this was limited to the plan for the day “on the side [of the white board] is what’s going to happen

after break and stuff like that” (Jamie, year 5). Jamie explained that although they may still

need help to complete some tasks, not having to remember or ask the teacher to remind them of the next step in a task would reduce the time they felt was wasted, both asking for and waiting for help.

As well as the time they felt they wasted waiting for help some students also suggested that they did not want to disturb the teacher, especially if they were helping someone else:

I don’t really ask for help because…sometimes when I ask for help the teacher is helping someone else and she’ll say like wait until it’s your turn. And then whenever I don’t ask for help and she’s free erm she says…she says that erm…you should of asked for help and I don’t want to in case she’s helping someone else (Sam, year 8)

Although Sam emphasised that without help “[I] won’t be able to do me work if I can’t do it” (Sam, year 8) their concern and reluctance about asking for help appears to be based on the unpredictable responses they have had from their teacher in the past.

As raising your hand in class is a visual sign that you need help from the teacher the students spoke about how their peers would then know they were struggling. Moreover, they often spoke about the annoyance and resentment they felt, that they needed help, but they felt that their peers did not.

It feels like. It feels annoying because everyone else can do it, but I can’t find the correct things. [Begins to mumble in a quiet voice] I don’t like asking for help (Sam, year 8).

In a quiet classroom environment, it is not just the visual sign of raising a hand, but the student’s experiences drew attention to the discomfort felt when asking for help due to peers being able to hear what help was being asked for:

Sometimes I’m alright with it, but sometimes it’s a bit like…difficult. Not difficult but like they’ve [the teachers] got to go round everyone else as well. If its silent it can be a bit awkward and stuff. You feel a bit under pressure to say that you don’t understand when everyone is understanding you feel a bit like…Put out there and stuff. (Quinn, year 9).

Some students felt their peers may begin to ridicule them as they had experienced peers speaking about other people that had asked for help in the classroom before.

Like if I can’t do something and everyone else can, I get stressed. Like at school when everyone else can do it and nobody else has their hand up and stuff and I don’t want to be the only one who puts their hand up for

help...Because everyone like, if anyone puts their hand up everyone looks and sees who it is and they always talk about who has put their hand up (Alex, year 5).

Past negativity experienced from teachers when asking for help in the classroom also influenced the pressure felt and at times the decisions the students made as to whether to raise their hand.

I don’t like asking for help cause to me my teachers are scary…Erm…I, in case I get told off if I had done bad on all my other piece of work and things if she checks it. Once err… I did my work and Miss came. She saw it and I did it really wrong and she shouted at me. This was eh not the Miss that I have now but I’m still just a bit scared of askin, so I normally ask a friend or something like that. (Jamie, year 5).

No, no I didn’t feel like I could ask the teacher they, they’re just mean to me because… I used to ask for help and then the, my old teacher said, he said, look on your iPad don’t be asking me for help and, and I didn’t even have an iPad (Haydon, year 6)

Haydon’s negative experience was based on their previous school. Although they had been attending their new school for nearly a year when I interviewed them, it was clear that their past experiences still heavily influenced their decision to ask for help.

Well I’m sort of like [imitates putting hand up and down] I don’t know, I don’t really know what to do. So, I don’t know whether I should put my hand up or not. Erm…I’m just scared to ask for help and erm that’s how I was at my old school, so nothing has really changed but the teachers are a lot nicer here (Haydon, year 6)

Not only do the students feel confused and frustrated in the classroom by their inability to remember steps to complete tasks or even fail to understand the task itself, they often had to endure the embarrassment, and fear of ridicule as their peers may be able to see if they needed to raise their hand, or in a quiet classroom hear what they were finding difficult. Some students explained how they have also begun to fear to ask for help, due to the negativity and discrimination they experienced from teachers such as being disciplined, refused help and teachers responding in unpredictable ways.

The extracts from the students’ interviews highlight the difficulties dyslexic students experienced with reading, spelling, and handwriting throughout schooling. Feelings of anxiety towards their difficulties were often heightened due to the peer comparisons they made within a classroom environment. Handwriting difficulties can also lead to physical pain and the students’ difficulties with reading would also lead to further embarrassment,

particularly for primary school-aged students due to the visual, colour-coded book banding and levelling of their reading books. Feelings of anxiety and humiliation were also

heightened when students felt they needed to ask for help in the classroom, particularly as raising their hand was a visual indication to peers that they were finding the work difficult.

5.4 Discrimination – dyslexic children’s experiences of discrimination and