What is Dyslexia?

The current accepted description of dyslexia reflects the extensive research that has been carried out into the underlying causes and signals of dyslexia since a report was first published in the British Medical Journal in 1896, which highlighted a boy’s specific difficulty processing words. Dr W. Pringle Morgan’s article titled, ‘A case of congenital word blindness’ described a fourteen year old patient of his called Percy ‘who was a bright intelligent boy, good at games and in no way inferior to his peers but who spelt his name as ‘Precy’ and to whom words written make no impression to his mind.’ Dr Pringle Morgan would have been fascinated to read the immense amount of research that has been carried out over the last 129 years, which has led to the latest description of Dyslexia, which was first announced by the ‘SpLD Assessment Standards Committee’ (SASC) in May 2O24.

Sarah Cowell, Dyslexia Assessment and Tuition

The nature and development trajectory of dyslexia depends on multiple genetic and environmental influences. Dyslexia is a set of processing difficulties that affect the acquisition of reading and spelling. The most commonly observed cognitive impairment in Dyslexia is a difficulty in phonological processing (that is, in phonological awareness, phonological processing speed or phonological memory). However, phonological processing difficulties do not fully explain the variability that is observed. Working memory, processing speed and orthographical skills can contribute to the impact of Dyslexia. In Dyslexia, some or all aspects of literacy attainment are weak in relation to age, standard teaching and instruction, and the level of other attainments. Across languages, and age groups difficulties in reading and spelling are a key marker of Dyslexia.

The description carries on to describe the fact that Dyslexia is variably severe and that it can frequently co-occur with one or more other learning difficulty, including developmental language disorder, dyscalculia, ADHD and developmental co-ordination disorder.

Dyslexia is assessed using recognized standardised assessment tools, which measure the individual’s phonological processing skills, and their verbal, general and visual working memory. The individual’s reading speed and untimed, reading accuracy will also be assessed, as will their writing speed and accuracy. And assessments of receptive and expressive verbal ability and verbal reasoning skill, and if relevant, general visual processing skill, help to build a wide profile of results which alongside the individual’s developmental history will help to determine whether or not a diagnosis will be made and the precise recommendations that will follow as a result.

As described above, research has identified certain genes which predispose people to developing Dyslexia. Parents often describe their own difficulties at school when they discuss the problems their children are experiencing and this gives them added empathy and understanding for their children’s difficulties, which can be enormously beneficial.