MESHGuides

While it is important to remember that not all children who are struggling with literacy and language will have dyslexia or another SpLD, nonetheless, it is important to identify children who are at risk of failure so that appropriate interventions can be put in place before the child falls behind with their learning.

A list of indicators for children aged 7 - 11 can be found on the BDA website.

Although it may not be possible to screen accurately for dyslexia at pre-school level, nonetheless, there are a number of indicators which may predict later difficulties with language and literacy; see the BDA website.

For results of recent longitudinal study of children at high risk of dyslexia assessed from age 3 years, 6 months to 8 years, see Thompson et al (2015).

Please be aware that the indicators listed in this column are only intended to be used as a checklist to provide a basic indication of whether or not an individual may be at risk of dyslexia. If you identify a cluster of difficulties and strengths, your next step should be to consult the school Special Needs Co-ordinator (SENCo) so that appropriate and immediate support can be put in place (see Column 5: Signposting for further intervention / assessment)

Dyslexia exists in all languages and cultures; however, the degree to which the dyslexic learner may be affected is, to an extent, determined by the orthographic complexity of the language they are learning. Languages which are transparent (i.e. which have regular phoneme – grapheme correspondences) are likely to cause fewer problems for the dyslexic learner than those which are opaque (i.e. which feature irregular spellings and combinations of letters).

It is often said that no two dyslexic people are alike, and, therefore, it would be misleading to suggest that all dyslexic people share the same kind of strengths. Nonetheless, there are particular areas in which many dyslexic individuals excel. These include:

While the role played by visual stress in dyslexia is much debated, nonetheless, many dyslexic individuals experience difficulties with visual issues.

Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD) is an umbrella term used to cover a range of frequently co-occurring difficulties. SpLD affect the way information is learned and processed. They are neurological (rather than psychological), usually hereditary and occur independently of intelligence. 

A range of studies have indicated high levels of overlap between dyslexia and other SpLD. This has led to the assertion by Kaplan (2001) that ‘in developmental disorders, co-morbidity is the rule, not the exception’.

This article reviews current research in:

• Phonology
• RAN double deficit
• Sensory deficits
• Cerebellar deficits

It also provides an overview of areas for further research.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6536918/

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6767399/

An overview of the issues involved in providing evidence for educational practice. The article includes a discussion of the issues involved in controlled studies and considers how impact measures such as ration gains and effect sizes may be used to evidence improvement in intervention studies.

https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/statistics-and-research/2019-08/120824-dyslexia-provision-literature-review-en.pdf

A Framework for Understanding Dyslexia

This article reviews the various current theories of dyslexia, including:

• Cognitive theories (Phonological deficit - Bryant, Snowling, Stanovich; Automisation deficit - Nicolson & Fawcett; Double deficit - Wolf & Bower);

• Brain based theories (Sensory/Magnocellular deficit - Tallal, Stein; Cerebellar deficit - Nicolson & Fawcett);