Romanian Perspective

by Georgiana Ghitulete

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“in that moment I thought that at least in that day his mother might not beat him when they arrive home.”

From a personal email, 4th October 2003

From Romania

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• She went to a psychologist because she always gets ink on her hands.

• She recognizes by herself that she confuses words. She is getting one palm on the front of the head and says: "How stupid I was!"

• She says "When I am copying from the board, I am a catastrophe!".

• She asked me to take a girl and not a boy to test because her colleagues got upset with her.

• She considers herself different from the "average" girls.• She said that she remembers pictures in detail.

Personal email, 4th October 2003

From Romania

Country Year of entry to EU: none Political system: Parlamentary Republic Capital city: Bucharest Total area: 238,391 kmp Population: 21,680,970 Population density: 90,9 people/kmp Currency: leu Minimum salary per month: 63 euros National Language: Romanian Other languages used: Hungarian (6.7%), Rromany (1%) 1,517,000 graduated students of higher education 509,000 illiterates ( of 10 years old and more)

Romanian Educational System

Kindergarten: 3-6 years old Primary school: 7-11 years old Secondary school: 11-15 years old High school/vocational school:15-19 years old University - short term (collegies) – 3 years

- long term – 4-6 years

- master – 1-1/2 years

How many people learn?

School Population 3,908000

Higher education563991

High and secondary education2,292915

Primary education993129

From National Statistics - 2002

Higher Education in Romania

State institutions of higher education: 56 universities and 70 collegies.

Private institutions of higher education: 68 universities

Major learning cities: Bucharest (130,969 university students),Cluj, Iasi, Timisoara

No standard definition! Person with handicap – the person who, due to some sensorial,

physic or mental deficiencies, cannot totally/partially or temporary/permanent integrate through own abilities into social and professional life and needs for a special support.

(The Law 53/1992 Regarding The Special Protection of Handicapped People)

Dyslexia – the difficulty of reading caused by deficiencies of auditory, visual or kinaesthesic perception.

Dysgraphia – the difficulty of writing.

Specialists use the “dyslexo-dysgraphia” term instead of “dyslexia”, but most of the people don’t know what means either of them.

Dyslexo-dysgraphia – the difficulty in phonetic integration, meaning the insufficient auditory/visual discrimination of sounds in heard word/letters in read word causing misspelling. (Paunescu C., 1984)

Who Assesses? Those who have taken a Psychology degree

and then taken further special needs educational courses – Psychologists,Speech Therapists, Councillors, Special Needs Teachers

But none of them are specialised in Dyslexia!! No training available for tutors to ensure

dyslexia friendly delivery!!

What tools are used to identify those with dyslexia?

International tests – adapted for Romanian use:– Borel-Maisonny Test – alphabet naming, consonant

discrimination etc. Romanian tests:

– Oral Language e.g. Ursula Schiopu & M. Garboveanu – comprehension and association of words within stories.

– Lexic & Graphic e.g. Natalia Gheorghita et al – phoneme/grapheme, picture/word, written/auditory correspondence etc.

No specific test for identifying dyslexia!It is not known the usage of these tests to adults.

Issues about standardisation

There are no Romanian standardised reading tests – although the tests undertaken show poor reading age against the norm within the school population these tests are only based on specialists’ local knowledge – There are no standardised national assessments

No computerised testing, no statistical studies – prevalence of dyslexia not known

Very few professionals remain in the field of dyslexia as it is not well paid, so there is very little research

Lack of awareness of dyslexia in Romania!

Where can I get help as a Dyslexic?

There are no specialist institutions or schools for children with dyslexia but there are institutions for all special needs and those with dyslexia are assessed at these places and then go to a special school for all disabilities – then grouped by disability or stay in mainstream schools.

Adults attend a hospital with a specialist centre for assessment – very few of these are available.

Funding• There is no specific funding for dyslexia at kindergarten

or school age (5 – 7 – 16 years) under the Minister of Education

• Public schools have specialist teachers and speech and language therapists who work with all special needs children including those with dyslexia – computer technology in one or two classes.

• Special schools have funding but it is designed for general disability needs – only administrators have computers!

• Vocational schools – 15-18yrs only specialist tuition but no assistive technology support

• Adults attend speech therapy clinics in hospitals paid for under the Ministry of Health – there is no research as to how adults and university students cope – technology is home based - no financial support.

Associations and Legislation

Romanian Speech and Language Assoc.

The “Dyslexia Organisation” from Romania (O.D.R.) is being established who will be looking into dyslexia, assessment, technology, internet and face to face support for all ages.

Romanian signed up to Salamanca agreement – assess the individuals abilities and weaknesses…..but

Romania Disability Discrimination laws only deal with general disabilities without looking into the specific nature of dyslexia.

Technology and support

Thanks to Minerva Project, there are now available in Romanian:MindfullText to speech

No special place for assistive technology, it is home based!

Tape recorder: 50 euros Computer: 700-800 euros

Issues about support

Tape recorders are allowed. Handouts are available (from teacher or

colleagues, but usually there are fees for acquiring them).

www.wdnf.info/romania/ is available.

Barriers to dyslexics at university

Lack of understanding of their own difficulties and by others, due to the lack of awareness of dyslexia in Romania

Shame Entrance exams Written exams No arrangements for dyslexics studying No financial support Percentage of dyslexics at university: no data.