It's a parent’s lot to feel guilty – but for one group of mums and dads, that guilt is felt even more deeply.

They are the parents of children with dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties, whose children are sometimes wrongly viewed as lazy or slow, and not given the help they need despite their parents’ best efforts.

Last year, the Dyslexia-SpLD Trust released a survey which showed that for the parents of children with specific learning difficulties, which include dyslexia (difficulty with words), dyspraxia (difficulty with movement and coordination), and dyscalculia (difficulty performing mathematical calculations), the greatest cause of stress is feeling guilty.

This, they say, is because although they want to do what’s best for their child, they’re not always sure they’re making the right choices. They also feel guilty because they want to help their children with reading and writing but struggle themselves.

Mel Byrne, director of the Dyslexia-SpLD Trust, a collaboration of organisations involved with specific learning difficulties, has two dyslexic children herself and understands other parents’ anxiety.

“When you first find out your child isn’t making progress with their literacy skills at school, there’s a huge sense of anxiety and guilt about what you should be doing,” she said. “Parents have lots of questions they want answered and feelings of uncertainty about what to do are very common.”

As many as one in five children have difficulties with reading and writing, and one in 10 have dyslexia.

On average, a teacher is likely to have two or three children in their class with dyslexia.

The most obvious problems caused by dyslexia are with reading, spelling, and writing. However, there are often a number of additional difficulties, including putting speech sounds together, confusion in directionality (left/right, up/down) and learning to tell the time.

Problems in remembering things are also common.

The research found that when it comes to education, parents say the attitude of schools and level of support from the education system causes them the greatest stress.

This is closely followed by the teacher’s lack of expertise and understanding.

Katrina Cochrane, of the British Dyslexia Association (BDA), said:

“The survey highlights how vital it is that teachers understand dyslexia so that they can work with parents to support children in the best possible way. We believe it should be statutory for all teachers to receive training in dyslexia and specific learning difficulties in their initial teacher training. At the moment provision is very patchy."

The BDA is campaigning to trigger a debate in Parliament on the issue, and is trying to get 100,000 to sign an e-petition.

For more information visit www.bdadyslexia.org.uk