No such thing as dyslexia

I have just read this article in The Guardian which quotes British researcher Joe Elliott as saying that dyslexia does not exist, "there is essentially no difference between a person who struggles to read and write and a person with dyslexia ... Dyslexia is such a broad term, he argues, that it is effectively meaningless [and] we should stop using the word dyslexia."

He reviewed every study on dyslexia he could find, concluding that there is no single definition of nor test for dyslexia, and thus there is and can be no test for it. Curiously, while it is often diagnosed in students form wealthier backgrounds, it is rarely found in those from poorer communities and yet those students also suffer from the same difficulties in reeding. Elliott has received awards and recognitions from psychologists' associations, but is criticised by dyslexia advocates.

Staffordshire and Warwickshire school districts decided to drop dyslexia as a distinct diagnosis and to respond to all reading difficulties in the same way. They adopted an approach which "focuses on teaching children to read and write the 100 most commonly used words in the English language, which cumulatively account for 53% of all written English. The approach was piloted in 14 Staffordshire primary schools during a year-long study in 2011. In one s school, within eight months, the number of students who had fallen behind with their reading halved, dropping from 60% of the children surveyed to just 32%. Larger studies, using this approach, showed that the incidence of reading difficulties was reduced from 20-25% to between 3-5%."

Politics then got in the way, especially because things like IEPs and additional funding, and of course income opportunities for private providers, were involved and The Guardian's piece is worth reading for more on this.

The discussion reminded me of a dyslexia presentation I attended several years ago, I am afraid I cannot remmber where or when this was, or who was the speaker. However I do remember what she said. Her research showed that a significant number of students diagnosed with dyslexia had in fact short-term memory problems. 

Reading, and writing, require various processing or other tasks which in turn require short-term memory and students who could retain only a small number of items or who could retain something for a short length of time then had problems with reading, and writing.

Her solution for these students was to train short-term momory through games, puzzles and interestingly through student copying : close-copying, from a book, far-copying, from the board, and auditory copying, dictation, all require the use of short-term memory. 

We adopted this practise, specially at the pre-school and lower elementary levels. We had not had many diagnoses of dyslexia in any case, but we also did not have many afterwards. We did find general improvements in things which required short-term memory for  example problem-solving and group discussions, although this could also have ben due to our program as a whole.

I found Elliott's findings interesting because of my experience so many years ago, and I wonder if sometimes we jump too quickly into diagnosing and labelling something which my not be what we thought. I know a dignosis and label can be reassuring, but with new knowledge we should also be ready to change.

**Please leave your comments and questions below.**

Further reading
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/sep/17/battle-over-dyslexia-warwickshire-staffordshire