Tung Wah Group of Hospitals

Over the past few decades, a great deal of advances has been made on assessment and identification of children suffering from developmental dyslexia. In contrast, works on developing evidence-based remediation for these children, especially in Chinese, have been far less profuse. The effort spent in the evidence-based school remediation for the children remains insufficient.

In efforts to better help the children with Dyslexia, the Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and the Education Division, Tung Wah Group of Hospitals have been collaborating for years on projects to train up teachers and to provide treatment to children.

The “First International Conference on Reading and Writing – Updates on Managing Dyslexia” which is held from 15 to 16 May 2009 in Rayson Haung Theatre of HKU, is one of these joint efforts of the two organizations. The Conference focuses on current advances in need identification, respective treatment practices based on evidence collection and the application of intervention and treatment in critical developmental phases of children’s learning. A sharing of findings and experience will be drawn from regional and local context, e.g. from Canada, Mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong.

The Conference is run on two days, with parallel sessions of workshops, symposiums, and sharings. The Keynote Speech of the First Day is delivered by Professor L. Siegel of the University of British Columbia, with title “Understanding Dyslexia and Other Specific Learning Disabilities and their Management” and Professor SK Tse of The University of Hong Kong, with title “Development of multi-media computer learning package of Chinese Language (TBC)”. Other themes of the first day include a longitudinal study of the Dyslexia in Hong Kong, the analysis of the specific psychological mechanism and possible perceptual learning deficits of Chinese Learners. The Keynote Speech of the Second Day will be delivered by Professor Shu Hua of Beijing Normal University with title “Typical and dyslexic development in learning to read Chinese”. The themes of the second day is not only a continuation of the themes of the first Day but also a stretching to the future, which is enabled by an overview of the various attempts and strategies employed to help the children with Dyslexia, the critical assessment of their effectiveness and the anticipations of the ways ahead.

More information about the Conference is available at the following website

http://www.hku.hk/speech/dc/index.html

For further enquiries, please contact Ms Queenie Wong, Development and Communication Manager, Faculty of Education, HKU (Tel: 2219 4270/9220 5840) or Ms Ivy Lau, Public Relation Manager of Tung Wah Group of Hospital (Tel: 2859 7853/9261 3053).

Photo caption: Ms. WU Po-ling (right 6), Principal Assistant Secretary of Education Bureau and Dr. John Lee (left 6), Chairman of Tung Wah and guests pictured at the opening ceremony.