What's in a name? Perspectives of dyslexia assessors working with students in the UK higher education sector

Abstract

Research findings and positions concerning the nature of the dyslexia construct are currently diverse and increasingly complex. The ability of assessor practitioners to operationalize such knowledge and categorically diagnose dyslexia in any reliable and consistent way is being questioned. This study aimed to explore the way in which diverse and complex research findings are operationalized in the dyslexia diagnostic assessment of UK higher education students. The perspectives of 118 professional assessors of dyslexia working within the sector were collected using a questionnaire and some interviews. Data were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively, as appropriate, and then integrated. The results confirmed critics' concerns about the consistency and reliability of the construct as currently diagnosed within the higher education context. Key controversial aspects of practice that emerged included the contextualized interpretation of literacy difficulties, a general commitment to discrepancy concepts, scepticism about the face validity of prescribed psychometric tests, and a related reliance on professional observation and experience above test results. The findings pointed to the need for a more informed nuanced understanding of the dyslexia label and a more cautious and responsible attitude towards its use.

It’s Time to Be Scientific About Dyslexia

“…The fourth conception understands dyslexia as a pervasive neurodiverse disorder that, in its reach, goes far beyond reading difficulties (Cooke, 2001). Indeed, proponents argue that one can struggle with dyslexia even when not experiencing reading difficulties (Ryder & Norwich, 2018). Such reasoning, currently less prevalent in the United States than the United Kingdom and some other countries, is based on observations that those with severe reading difficulties are more likely than normal readers to present with various cognitive difficulties, thus leading to the conclusion that they are markers of dyslexia.…”

“…For receiving institutions, there are limited means of challenging the judgments of assessors who, in the main, are employed by the individual who will be the beneficiary of any subsequent accommodations and additional resources that are recommended. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that a high level of heterogeneity exists in assessor practices, with significant inconsistency and reliability in the way that dyslexia is diagnosed (Ryder & Norwich, 2018).…”

“…This may reflect assertions occasionally found in the scientific literature that such a procedure is meaningful (cf. Hammill & Allen, 2020; Yuzaidey et al, 2018), and, for some practitioners, an explicit rejection of the academic literature in favor of a personal perspective (Ryder & Norwich, 2018). In part, resistance to scientific knowledge may be a feature of professional defensiveness.…”

UK higher education lecturers’ perspectives of dyslexia, dyslexic students and related disability provision

“…Additionally, where researched knowledge had been acquired, it typically involved outmoded understandings. Although current research findings and their operationalisation into higher education diagnostic assessment practice are complex and confusing (Ryder and Norwich, ) there is general consensus in the research field about the non‐categorical, continuous and interactive nature of learning differences like dyslexia (Bishop, ; Hulme and Snowling, ). Participants’ quantified survey responses and clarifying comments revealed much concern about the heterogeneity of diagnosed dyslexic students, and at the often indistinguishability between some of them and other students with similar academic weaknesses.…”

‘It’s been taken away’: an experience of a disappearing dyslexia diagnosis

“…There has long existed a belief that the reading difficulties experienced by dyslexic people are special because they are 'unexpected' and exist as one part of a 'spiky' profile of abilities and difficulties (Stanovich and Stanovich 1997). This conception of dyslexia as a distinct category, connected to ideas of 'average or above intelligence', has remained in the public imagination and within some diagnostic practice in the UK (Ryder and Norwich 2018), despite the rejection of the discrepancy model in much of the literature and in assessment guidance (Elliott 2020). Indeed the value of the discrepancy model altogether remains controversial.…”