Dyslexia Through the Eyes of Primary School Teachers

In this paper we intend to explore how the teachers feel about dyslexia and compare this with what research has shown us about this subject. It's also my goal to discuss the difficulties shown by the school when dealing with language pathologies alerting to the fact that schools aren’t ready nor equipped to answer efficiently to the challenge of working with special needs related to language difficulties, in what reading and writing are concerned, bearing in mind the lack of proper knowledge concerning the lack of success in school learning.In this study we counted with the participation of 100 teachers from the districts of Oporto, Braga and Lisbon, to whom were made questionnaires composed mainly of closed questions. After the analysis of these questionnaires we were able to conclude that, regardless of the teachers working experience, teachers don’t have the necessary knowledge or strategies to detect, evaluate or intervene in students with the specific pathology of dyslexia. The purpose of this study is to be a wake up call for the introduction of subjects in the Higer Education Courses that help teachers to deal with this kind of disabilities in order to programm adequately for students who show difficulties in some tasks.