Leading the way in supporting children with additional needs

This chapter provides a clear background for educators in Asia to understand the mechanism behind reading difficulties and how evidence-based approaches can be used to assist them. Truly successful education is achieved when students of all learning abilities and needs are able to apply academic knowledge and skills to lead lives with dignity, develop to their fullest potential and improve their quality of life. Students with special education needs (SENs) are those who, because of a disability, require special education and related services to achieve their fullest potential. The challenge in supporting such students in Asia is that a large number of them write in the Chinese script, which is opaque in symbol–sound correspondence and rife with homophones. Students with dyslexia may encounter difficulties reading at the level of recognizing words from symbols and/or extracting meaning from words. The chapter concludes with a group of students with writing difficulties. Copyright © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Kerry J. Kennedy and John Chi-Kin Lee; individual chapters, the contributors.