Dyslexia

Siok et al (2008) state that ‘dyslexia is a neurobiologically based disorder’, while NHS (2019) states that “Dyslexia is a common learning difficulty that can cause problems with reading, writing and spelling. It's a specific learning difficulty, which means it causes problems with certain abilities used for learning, such as reading and writing. Unlike a learning disability, intelligence isn't affected.”[1] Dyslexia is typified by marked discrepancy between the level of intelligence of an individual and the language skills expected at that level of intelligence.

 

Incidence:

Riddick (2000) reports evidence that estimates up to 10% of the population have some degree of dyslexia, and Mortimore et al. (2006) report that dyslexia is the most commonly occurring disability in the student body, making up 41% in the first year students who disclosed a disability  in the academic year 2003-2004. The number of students with dyslexia who attend higher education has increased quite dramatically in recent years with Mortimore et al. (2006) quoting HESA data, showing that number of students with dyslexia rose from 4,304 in the academic year 1996-7 to 18,700 in 2003-4.

 

Characteristics:

A diagnosis of Dyslexia is arrived at though a number of tests and tasks delivered by an Educational Physiologist. However, an indicator of the likelihood of an individual having dyslexia can be evaluated using the British Dyslexia Associations (BDA) Adult Checklist available at Adult Checklist.

 

The BDAs Adult Checklist asks the following questions. These questions outline the skills that people with dyslexia are likely to perform differently in than non-dyslexics, however, not all dyslexics will exhibit the same strengths and weaknesses.

  • Do you confuse visually similar words such as cat and cot?
  • Do you lose your place or miss out lines when reading?
  • Do you confuse the names of objects, for example table for chair?
  • Do you have trouble telling left from right?
  • Is map reading or finding your way to a strange place confusing?
  • Do you re-read paragraphs to understand them?
  • Do you get confused when given several instructions at once?
  • Do you make mistakes when taking down telephone messages?
  • Do you find it difficult to find the right word to say?
  • How often do you think of creative solutions to problems?
  • How easy do you find it to sound out words such as e-le-phant?
  • When writing, do you find it difficult to organise thoughts on paper?
  • Did you learn your multiplication tables easily?
  • How easy do you find it to recite the alphabet?
  • How hard do you find it to read aloud?

 

Impact on teaching and learning:

On the whole making lectures, tutorials and exams accessible simply involves good teaching practice. It is likely that many of the points listed below are already employed.

Many students with dyslexia may find it difficult to read high contrast teaching material, for example black text on white background. Because students will have different preferences for text colour, background colour and fonts, it is best to provide teaching material electronically in a format that students can edit to their own preferences. If this is not possible then choose a sans serif font such as Arial, Calibri or Helvetica. Do not assume that students will want material produced on coloured paper, because while off-white paper may suit some dyslexic students, it may cause additional problems for any students with visual impairments. Also some students with dyslexia who find using white paper difficult may use tinted glasses or coloured overlays for when they’re given material on white paper, in such cases using non-white paper will actually disadvantage them. Do however avoid paper that has a sheen as this is a particular problem for students with dyslexia; plain white matt paper would be better.

Students with dyslexia may also find it difficult to spell non-standard words and words are not spelt phonetically, such as foreign words, technical terms and proper nouns. For example students with dyslexia may find words like through and thorough, difficult to distinguish when they are being read and find them difficult to spell. You could consider providing a list of spellings for words that are likely to cause problems in exams. If you do not wish to allow students to use dictionaries in tests or exams, because of the definitions they provide, you might consider allowing students use of a thesaurus instead.

It can take dyslexic students longer to absorb information and produce written work than other equivalently intelligent students; it might be difficult for students with dyslexia to answer questions in class if they haven’t had time to prepare their answers. You can help students with dyslexia by providing teaching material, tutorial questions and assignment deadlines as far in advance as possible.

People with dyslexia typically have very poor short-term memories so it would help if important information and instructions are given written form because verbal instructions are likely to be forgotten.

Students with dyslexia are likely to be very well aware and self-conscious about the challenges that they have, for example they may feel very embarrassed if they are put in position with the need to write in front of class. If you want students to demonstrate tutorial answers in class, rather than making students write their answers on a whiteboard or a visualiser you could ask them to type their answers using the room’s computer so that they can spell check what they write.

 

Impact on assessment

Students with dyslexia may find it difficult to understand what is expected of them in assignment or exam so it is important to provide very clear instructions. Examples of past students work, model answers or providing feedback on assignment drafts or essay plans would help dyslexic students tremendously.

Mortimore and Crozier (2006) using a questionnaire found that students with dyslexia reported problems with notetaking the organisation of essays and in expressing their ideas in writing. They concluded that students with dyslexia appeared to have 'unmet needs’ in the areas of the subject specific support, the organisation of coursework, lectures and writing skills. Pope et al (2007?) Found that the more pronounced the signs of dyslexia the lower the performance students had in statistical assignments, an MCQ test and in their overall mark. Additional support in these areas would therefore benefit dyslexic students.

The University has created dyslexia marking guidelines which can be accessed here.

 

Resource requirements/ accommodations

In most cases students with dyslexia will be given extra time to complete exams and tests and may take their timed assessments using a PC. While these provisions are helpful because students can check the spelling and grammar of their work, they do not help with all aspects of dyslexia. The work dyslexic students produce in exams and tests is still likely to show evidence of poor organisation and structure of arguments and poor memory.

 

Strengths:

As with weaknesses, not all dyslexics will exhibit the same strengths. That said, typical strengths of dyslexic individuals include; good lateral thinking skills, good problem solving abilities, good spatial awareness and visualisation ability.

 

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References

[1] Source: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/dyslexia/ 09/11/2019: 14:11