Student E

Our Buddy Mentor Programme is crucial to the success of helping dyslexic children

socially and emotionally.

A strength of our proposal is that we considered the specific needs of our target

community, dyslexic primary school children, when designing our Buddy Mentor

Programme. Firstly, we proposed that upper primary dyslexic students will be mentoring

the lower primary dyslexic students. We understand that a 7 to 9 year old child would

want to have a friend to talk to, hang out with, and share their secrets with; they need a

confidante just like anyone else. They need guidance and support from someone

besides a parent or a teacher. Hence, an alternative solution to consider is a peer

mentor. Creating a peer-mentoring program provides opportunities for children to share

their feelings, thoughts, and concerns with their fellow peers—it is a simple and
1
strategic way to teach children how to build relationships. Furthermore, as a dyslexic

child, he may shy away from speaking up and asking questions in class. Hence, he may

find it easier to turn to his peer tutor for clarification and guidance since he is after all a

friend and a confidante.2 Our programme goes beyond mere academic tutoring to

include play sessions and the student mentor will also teach him social skills to interact

with others. Since both students suffer from dyslexia, they might be able to empathize
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and relate better with one another. It helps them realize that they are not alone.

Hence, selecting older dyslexic students as mentors would help the lower primary

dyslexic students manage the difficulties of school life.

1 https://www.leaderinme.org/blog/peer-mentoring-tips/
2 5 Benefits of Peer Mentoring Programs | IDP Singapore
3 https://psychcentral.com/lib/5-benefits-of-group-therapy/
However, a limitation of our proposal is that we did not consider the willingness of

parents to allow their child to participate in the Buddy Mentor Programme. Parents may

worry that their struggling child might not be able to handle their studies as they mentor

a younger student who is also struggling. This excessive academic pressure on children

is a concern with 56% of Singaporean parents say their children facing too much

academic pressure.4 This might lead to the parents not consenting to their child to

become a student mentor, affecting the effectiveness of this programme. Hence, we

could have proposed ways to show parents that peer mentoring not only benefits the

mentee but also the mentor as it is a two-way, reciprocal learning activity. It is mutually

beneficial as it involves the sharing of knowledge and experience between both parties.

As the peer mentors teach and guide the mentee along, they find themselves working

harder to understand the information, recall it more effectively and apply the knowledge

in different ways that help the mentee to learn. As such, peer mentors have a better

grasp of the subjects and tend to do well in exams. 5 With these benefits of becoming a

student mentor, parents can be assured that their child’s academic performance will not

be affected, but will improve.

4 https://www.businessinsider.sg/too-much-academic-pressure-worries-singaporean-parents-
more-than-anyone-else-in-the-world-survey/
5 https://www.idp.com/singapore/blog/5-benefits-of-peer-mentoring-programs/