To meet Pauline Breslin, one would never guess that she has been battling with learning difficulties all her life. She comes across as a highly articulate woman who is brimming with enthusiasm for the pre-university foundation course she is currently attending at UCD.

Since tackling her learning problem head on seven years ago, she has been bitten by the learning bug and has worn a trail to the door of KLEAR, the community education group based in Kilbarrack, Dublin.

"When I first went there I was totally timid and didn't really know why I was there or what I wanted to do," she says. "I had been encouraged by a friend to go and see what KLEAR did and I had it in my mind to do a course in personal development - not that I really knew what that entailed at the time," she says.

For most people contemplating a return to learning is simply a question of getting the brochures, reading them and deciding what course to do. But if your reading ability is impaired then this in itself is a major obstacle to ever moving forward.

Breslin has a language-processing problem which prevents her from making sense of the written word. As a result, she also has problems with writing.

She was nine years old before her father twigged that she couldn't read, and with class sizes running to over 50 children her problem had either gone unnoticed or been ignored for years.

"I used to be asked to stack the copies and do other little jobs instead of reading," she says. "I was quite happy with that because it took the pressure off. I honestly believed that one morning I'd wake up and be able to read - I thought that was how it happened and that it would eventually happen to me too."

Breslin left school at 14 and went to work in the printing trade; she confided her problem to a work colleague, who then covered for her when necessary. "I relied on my memory to get me through and I had my own ways of getting around things so no one knew.

"But it affected my whole life. I wouldn't go to anything where I might be asked to read or write something, so that excluded me from all sorts of things - even Tupperware parties. I'd go into the kitchen and tidy up rather than sit around, in case I'd have to read something. "I tended to keep very much to myself and in retrospect it was a lonely way to live.

"In 1976 I decided to go to Eccles Street because they were running a course for adults who wanted to get back into education. They gave me a reading test and told me that my reading ability was equivalent to a child in fourth class. I was 28 years old and married at the time and this absolutely floored me. I was even afraid to voice my opinion in case my views would be perceived as those of a child," she says.

The turning point came when she heard a woman on the radio talking about doing the Leaving Cert as a mature student. "I remember standing in the kitchen and thinking, `I'd love to do that'," she says. "I mentioned this to a friend of mine and she got the information about KLEAR for me and encouraged me to go down and see them. "I had signed up for personal development, and during this course some of the women were talking about the literacy group. As I listened to them I suddenly thought that this could be what I needed. The tutor picked up on my reaction and suggested that I should sit in on a literacy session and see if it would suit me.

"I ended up with a group of people who were all in the same boat as me, which makes you feel far less isolated. We worked towards a `Word Power' qualification from City & Guilds, and we also did a City & Guilds communications-skills course. "At this stage I was really getting into it and I moved on to basic English, to understanding history, to creative writing and then to continuation English. "Basically, I have built up a range of skills and methods of learning over the past seven years which work for me. I rely heavily on tapes to learn and I normally work with a tape and a book together.

"These learning experiences have opened up a whole new world for me, because there were so many things I'd missed out on because I couldn't read and couldn't understand things properly as a result. I had huge gaps in my general knowledge and I'd missed out on an understanding of literature, history, geography - the whole lot. But I started plugging these gaps with a course at KLEAR in general studies which covered all of these areas."

This course eventually led her to contemplate sitting Leaving Cert English, which she did successfully this year. To get to this stage, however, she had to have special speech and language therapy and to lobby the Department of Education for an assessment method which allowed her to record her answers on tape.

"We knew I'd never make it if I had to write, because my writing becomes totally illegible if I have to write under pressure. So I had to learn the right method for putting answers on tape, and I was helped enormously in this by my speech and language therapist and by a tutor from the Association for Children and Adults with Learning Disabilities. "My husband also worked with me to support my progress and the people from KLEAR gave me terrific help and encouragement all along the way.

"I had to be assessed by a psychologist from the Department of Education, but once that was completed the Department agreed to my request for special consideration and I must say they were great. They let me meet my supervisor in advance, they let me see the room where I'd be doing the exam and the tape recorder I'd be using, so I'd be familiar with everything on the day."

Having become so aware of her own learning problems, Breslin watched her own children closely to see if they shared her difficulties. She also did research within her wider family circle and discovered that difficulties with language processing in various forms were widespread.

"Because we recognised the signs we got help for our children, who were affected right from the beginning - and they have made very good progress in school, with no problems," she says.

"I still have bad days when I find it very difficult to write something or express myself they way I want to, but it's amazing how much progress can be made. I'm doing the UCD course now and I'm taking that one step at a time: it's all very new and it's outside the familiarity of KLEAR, where I've felt very comfortable because people know me there. "I don't know where I'll go from here, but I would love to do some training which would allow me to get involved with children in an after-school project."