| dc.description.abstract | Dyslexia is a learning difficulty that affects accuracy and fluency of reading and spelling abilities (Rose, 2012). A large body of research related to dyslexia itself has been conducted. However, there are no perfect answers yet regarding how best to support dyslexic people since there is a lot of individual variety in the difficulties experienced. Dyslexia friendly schools are specialized in supporting students with dyslexia. There are 125 such schools in Norway (Dysleksi Norge, 2020), and the number has been increasing dramatically since 2016. This research was qualitative and was focused on teachers’ competence in supporting dyslexic students and the impact of teacher training. The aims of this research were to clarify whether development of expertise has an impact on dyslexia support and what kind of support was felt to be effective. In addition, the differences in implementation between dyslexia friendly schools and general schools were also examined. Vygotsky’s Cognitive Development Theory gives a perspective on how skilled teachers contribute to dyslexic students to achieve difficult tasks, while Rose’s model of Removing Barriers to Achievement explains the importance of structured expertise in each school in terms of effective interventions. The main findings indicated that ICT support could reduce both students’ burden and teachers’ struggles. It was also significant for teachers to take professional development training and update their expertise because appropriate knowledge about dyslexia support gave teachers confidence. However, there were several obstacles to taking additional training. Content and approaches to additional training also had a significant impact upon teachers’ motivation. This study concluded that the key factor to successful dyslexia support was cooperation and development of expertise. Therefore, it is recommended that a community, a school, teachers and parents should share expertise to work together for dyslexic students. Further, schools should understand the importance of additional training whilst course providers should also consider the specific needs of the teachers. | eng |