UK gives more to dyslexic"s childrenle by Romana Schlesingerova

Children with dyslexia are to receive extra help in some schools in England under a £3m pilot scheme. The government says half of pupils in 10 areas will be given catch-up reading lessons or one-to-one help from dyslexia specialists. The scheme will be rolled out across England if it is successful. Dyslexia charities are also being given grants. Schools Secretary Ed Balls said a lack of understanding had previously branded intelligent young people as backward. "In the past a grave lack of understanding about dyslexia left some highly intelligent young people branded as 'backwards' simply because they had some difficulties in reading or articulating themselves through writing," he said. "Those days are largely gone, but there are still some old stigmas around and still not enough widespread understanding of dyslexia and support for the individuals who experience it. "This condition should not hinder young people's education and life chances. Sadly, it all too often does. We need to be better at identifying pupils with dyslexia and then supporting them." The measures being announced would give parents and teachers more information, would help to identify pupils with dyslexia and assess the impact of support from specialist teachers, he said. Pupils who receive help under the scheme will not need to have been given a statement of special needs - a process which can take considerable time and effort. Parents sometimes complain that extra help is not readily available for their children unless they have been formally identified as having special educational needs. The government has also announced it is giving £250,000 to Dyslexia Action over three years so it can expand pilots it already runs under the Partnership for Literacy scheme to another 10 schools.

related story: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/politics/20071204/tpl-uk-education-no-longer-world-class-81c5b50.html

by Romana Schlesingerova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

Monkey Business by Eva Matova

It is no news that chimpanzees are able to learn to recognize symbols such as numbers or letters. But I guess no one would accept a chimp to beat a human in a short-term memory test. Surprisingly, the researchers of the Kyoto University in Japan have proved that a 5-year-old chimp can use its memory better than college students! Six students took part in the test and were told to try to remember the numbers displayed on a computer screen. When the numbers disappeared, they were expected to give the correct order of the numbers they saw before. NO one expected that a chimp would managed to get 80 per cent of the given tasks correct while students only 40 per cent. The research also proved that a short-term memory of an older chimp does not work as well as when compared to a baby chimp. The finding was more than surprising to the researchers; Tetsuro Matsuzawa of Kyoto University, a member of the team who made the research, said, that the discovery "challenges the belief of many people, including many scientists, that humans are superior to chimpanzees in all cognitive functions." So instead of paying for your kids' education you would better buy a monkey. You never know, maybe you will raise a young genius!

by Eva Matova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.