Managing Dyslexia at University

A Resource for Students, Academic and Support Staff

Claire Jamieson, Ellen Morgan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2008
• eBook ISBN: 9781135396008
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

A thorough and comprehensive guide for both education professionals and those affected by dyslexia, this book is predominantly a guidebook. It includes lots of practical advice and is based on the authors' sound knowledge of current theory and practice.

It includes:

• photocopiable materials
• contact and reference details
• personal organisation advice
• ways forward for potential problems
• information on secondary or associated difficulties.

1
Dyslexia

AUDIENCE Academic staff, dyslexic students, disability staff, student welfare administration staff, students’ union disability representatives

What is dyslexia?

There is much confusion as to what dyslexia is. Not only has understanding of the disorder developed and changed over more than 100 years but there are still differing theoretical views. It may seem that dyslexia quite simply defies definition. However, there are some things we can say with certainty. First, developmental dyslexia has a genetic and neurological basis (Smith et al. 1983, Grikorenko et al. 1997, Defries et al. 1997). Although the genetic basis is not yet fully understood, it is known that dyslexia is familial, that it runs in families. Second, it has been widely accepted for over twenty years that a key area of weakness in dyslexia is related to a particular aspect of language-processing, namely the processing of speech sounds (Bradley and Bryant 1983, Stanovich 1986). There is a strong relationship between the awareness of speech sounds and success in learning to read (Goswami and Bryant 1990, Snowling and Hulme 1994, Muter 2003), and there is evidence that a weakness in this area leads to problems in the acquisition of literacy skills, especially in languages whose writing system involves relating sounds to symbols. Third, it is now generally accepted that there is no relationship between dyslexia and general intelligence: dyslexia exists along the intellectual spectrum (see below).

Acquired dyslexia

The subject of this book is developmental dyslexia, a specific learning difficulty (SpLD) with a genetic basis. It should be distinguished from certain types of problems which may arise as a result of an insult to the brain due to a stroke or accident, which may manifest a range of different effects on receptive and expressive language and on both reading and writing. Studies that relate the area of damage to the brain with these effects cast light on the cognitive processes that underpin language and literacy. Difficulties of this nature are known as acquired dyslexia. While cognitive neuropsychological research into the effects of brain damage on reading and spelling informed early research into developmental dyslexia, the loss of pre-existing skills gives rise to very different patterns of behaviour in reading and writing.

Developmental dyslexia

If one is dyslexic, one is dyslexic from birth and will remain dyslexic (Pennington et al. 1990). This does not mean that the effects of dyslexia remain the same throughout life. Depending on a wide range of factors, not least getting older and more knowledgeable, the effects change constantly and, in many cases, become less problematic. But it is not possible to ‘become’ dyslexic – for example, on entering secondary school or university – just as it is not possible to stop being dyslexic on leaving school.

It would be difficult to improve on the definition of dyslexia adopted by the Board of Directors of the International Dyslexia Association in 2002:

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterised by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede the growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.

(<http://www.interdys.org>)

There is also a strong association between dyslexia and deficits in short-term, or working, memory (Hulme et al. 1995 and Pickering 2000, cited in Mortimore 2003). Weakness in working memory has significant effects on a range of study skills, such as note-taking in lectures and processing text (see Chapter 5). Rote learning of, for example, multiplication tables, and sequences such as the alphabet or the months of the year are often very challenging and sometimes never mastered.

The phonological component of language relates to the sounds that make up words. In order to learn to read and write, it is necessary, in most languages, to be aware of speech sounds. At first, in small children, this awareness is not explicit, but even children as young as two or three are sensitive to rhyme, for example. They can recognise and generate sequences of words or nonsense words that rhyme. Children also become aware early in their speech and language development of the initial consonants in words. Once instruction in reading and writing begins, awareness of speech sounds, and particularly awareness of the individual sounds (phonemes) that make up words, needs to become more explicit. There is a reciprocal relationship between the development of literacy skills and the development of phonological awareness.

Children who do not have a natural propensity to develop effective phonological processing skills encounter problems in the initial stages of learning to read and write, because an essential building block is the association between speech sounds and the letters that are used to represent them in writing (Byrne 1998). Such children are often later identified as dyslexic, although appropriate intervention at an early age may be effective in overcoming obstacles to learning to read and write.

As dyslexia initially affects children’s ability to identify the correspondence between letters and sounds, they have difficulty reading new words and may not be able to attempt to write words based on the way they sound. Dyslexic university students often remember having had great difficulty with ‘phonics’ at school; breaking words down to decode them for reading was a real struggle, and as far as spelling was concerned, it was often just a matter of guesswork based on visual memory, ‘I’m sure it’s got a “u” in it somewhere, but I’m not sure where’. The compensatory strategy most often used for poor decoding skills is to build up a large number of words which can be recognised at sight (sight vocabulary). Learners who do this successfully can often mask the effects of dyslexia, to the extent that it can remain unidentified, sometimes permanently and sometimes until they face the additional challenges of studying at degree level or even at post-graduate level.

Dyslexia and intelligence

Until relatively recently, diagnoses of dyslexia were based on a discrepancy between levels of attainment in literacy skills and underlying ability, or general intelligence. Learners whose reading and writing skills were surprisingly weak in relation to their other abilities could be identified as dyslexic, whereas those whose literacy skills were behind but more or less in line with their intelligence as measured by IQ tests were considered to have more general learning difficulties but not dyslexia. There has now been a move away from this position (Stanovich and Stanovich 1997, Fredrickson and Reason 1999, Siegel 1999).

When a core cognitive weakness, usually in phonological processing, is identified, and when this deficit affects the development of literacy skills, a diagnosis of dyslexia can be made regardless of IQ, assuming that IQ scores are within the ‘normal’ or average range. For more discussion about this issue, with particular reference to university students, see Chapter 2.

Dyslexia and spatial ability

It is certainly true that many people with dyslexia, for whom the development of literacy skills is difficult, have an aptitude for visual and spatial skills. However, this is not, as has sometimes been implied, an automatic consequence of being dyslexic. Those individuals fortunate enough to have a strong compensatory cognitive strength may well gravitate towards university courses in which this can be used to advantage, such as architecture, fine art and engineering. But the cognitive profile of people with dyslexia, while conforming to specific diagnostic criteria, may be as varied as that of the population as a whole.

Dyslexia as a continuum: the interaction of causes and effects

Depending on the nature of the core deficit, the efficacy of teaching intervention and the compensatory strengths of the individual, the effects of dyslexia may be mild, moderate or severe. In some cases, a relatively mild deficit may have severe effects and, conversely, some individuals with a severe phonological deficit may have developed such good compensatory strategies that the effects of dyslexia are significantly mitigated.

Many students come to university with a diagnosis of mild dyslexia. This usually means that there is little evidence of dyslexia in the student’s levels of attainment in literacy skills.

However, if there is evidence of a cognitive weakness as described above, a diagnosis of dyslexia might still be appropriate. Such students might require less support than those whose literacy skills are more compromised by their specific learning difficulty. As in all conditions in which there is a continuum of severity, the question of where to draw the line in diagnosis is raised.

Where there is a family history of dyslexia, students who have not been assessed before coming to university may recognise that they share cognitive styles and some literacy problems with a relative who is dyslexic and may suspect that they are also dyslexic. While this may be the case, it is also possible to exhibit some features of a disorder without fulfilling all the diagnostic criteria – in such cases, a diagnosis of dyslexia would not be appropriate.

Late diagnosis

It is surprising how many students present for assessment for the first time when they come to university and who are subsequently identified as dyslexic. Such individuals may have attended school at a time when dyslexia was often overlooked; some may be extremely able and, having chosen their A-level subjects to reflect their strengths, may not have been substantially affected by their SpLD until they were required to write essays and to read vast amounts of text for their university course. There are few degree courses which do not place demands on students’ literacy skills.

Other students may begin to wonder if they are dyslexic because they find the study skills required at university hard to master. If they have no history of difficulty in learning to read and write, the likelihood is that they are not dyslexic – it is quite normal to find the adjustment to university studies challenging, but this in itself does not indicate a SpLD.

Putting dyslexia in perspective

Coming to terms with a recent diagnosis of dyslexia, or even accommodating an early diagnosis as an adult, can be challenging at an emotional and psychological level. Many students will never before have received a diagnostic assessment report, and they may not know much about dyslexia, except insofar as it affects their own studies. It is perhaps useful to know that, as a SpLD, the core deficit in dyslexia is limited to a small number of cognitive processes which are in no way related to intelligence or other abilities. It is only because dyslexia affects literacy skills, which are so highly valued by so many societies worldwide, that the disorder has such a high profile. Many individuals have equivalent cognitive weaknesses in, for example, spatial awareness or musicality, but as the effects of such deficits are unlikely to affect their academic studies, they are unlikely to be considered to have a SpLD or cognitive disorder.

Other specific learning difficulties

Along with the ongoing research about dyslexia has come information about other SpLDs, some of which share aspects in common with dyslexia, or simply coexist with dyslexia.

Dyspraxia

Diagnostic assessments may reveal a pattern of strengths and weaknesses consistent with dyspraxia. Some reports may conclude that a particular individual is dyslexic but may also have elements of dyspraxia. Dyspraxia is a SpLD characterised primarily by difficulties with fine and gross motor coordination. The Dyspraxia Foundation offers the following definition:

Developmental dyspraxia is an impairment or immaturity of the organisation of movement. It is an immaturity in the way that the brain processes information, which results in messages not being properly or fully transmitted. The term dyspraxia comes from the word praxis, which means ‘doing, acting’. Dyspraxia affects the planning of what to do and how to do it. It is associated with problems of perception, language and thought.

(<http://www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk>)

‘Planning’ refers to the neural programming of movement rather than to intentional preparation for movement, and the way in which dyspraxia might affect thought processes is little understood, but problems associated with speech (developmental verbal dyspraxia) have been researc...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• 1 Dyslexia
• 2 Assessment and Diagnosis of Dyslexia in Higher Education
• 3 Dyslexic Students in Higher Education
• 4 Dyslexia within the Disability Framework
• 5 Dyslexia: Effects and Strategies
• 6 Reasonable Adjustments
• 7 Roles and Responsibilities
• CD and photocopiable resources
• References
• Websites
• Other resources
• Index