The Reading Lab
Tara Savage
National College of Art and Design Dublin
The Reading Lab is a teacher-led reading intervention for students aged 8–12 with Dyslexia. It supports learning support teachers in delivering structured phonics sessions without requiring specialist expertise. The focus is phonological awareness, the foundational skill underpinning reading. The project is grounded in Specific Learning Difficulty (SpLD) teaching methods for dyslexic learners, using a multisensory, step-by-step approach shown by structured literacy research to be effective. This is a personal project: I have dyslexia. To access specialised dyslexic support, I spent two years full-time in an SpLD reading class, leaving my mainstream school and friends and travelling daily by taxi, before returning to mainstream education for sixth class. Places in these schools are extremely difficult to secure. The aim of the project is to equip teachers in mainstream schools with techniques proven to support dyslexic students. To ensure relevance, I visited a local primary school and worked closely with staff and students.