Dyslexia Scotland endorses Kate Saunders’s points (April 24) about how upsetting it is for people with dyslexia when its legitimacy is questioned.

Like the British Dyslexia Association, our national helpline receives numerous calls from parents, adults, teachers and others affected by dyslexia, as do our volunteer-led helplines in local branches across Scotland.

As we aim to influence national and local policy and practice on dyslexia, we have supported teaching resources including Count Me In, Dyslexia at Transition and Supporting Dyslexic Pupils in the Secondary Curriculum.

There is still a long way to go towards identifying and then helping dyslexic learners appropriately, but significant recent developments in Scotland in relation to dyslexia are encouraging:

- a working definition of dyslexia has been adopted by the Scottish Government, Dyslexia Scotland and the Parliament’s cross-party group on dyslexia;

- the Scottish Teacher Education Committee launched Framework for Inclusion last week, one of the products of a two-year action plan aiming to ensure that all students and teachers are guided and supported towards gaining the required knowledge and understanding of inclusive education; a “repository” of resources will include a section on dyslexia later in 2009;

- HMIE’s Education for learners with dyslexia report identified examples of good practice, as well as considerable scope for development, to maximise the potential of every learner with dyslexia;

- Dyslexia Scotland’s assessments working group will develop a web-based resource for teachers for the assessment of dyslexia by late autumn 2009.

National helpline T: 0844 800 8484

Cathy Magee, chief executive, Dyslexia Scotland, Stirling.