Identifying and Referring Students who may have Dyslexia
Pointers for Academic Staff
Nationally, approximately 40% of HE students identified as being dyslexic have not been
assessed prior to University. There are a number of reasons why this is:
• A lack of resources in schools.
• Pupils do not necessarily need to prove dyslexia to get extra time in exams.
• Pupils who can manage, or just get by often go unnoticed.
• In some areas literacy standards may be below the national average and therefore
expectations are lower.
It is therefore likely that there will be some students in the class who have unidentified
dyslexia. However, it may be difficult to pick these students out from the increasing
numbers who have lower level skills and who need Academic Skills and study skills advice.
Below is a list of possible indicators you may observe in students work. It is not an
exhaustive list and no student would necessarily exhibit them all. However, it may give
some possible indication of when to refer a student to the Disability and Dyslexia Team
rather than just Study Skills.
If in doubt-refer on.
Indications from word processed work
• Visually similar words may be confused. E.g. form/from, of/off, peruse/pursue.
• Homophones can also be confused. E.g. brake/break.
• Common or short words may be misspelt while longer ones may be correct.
• The student is likely to be unable to spot their own errors.
• Essays may jump from point to point without explicit connections being made.
Indications from hand-written work
• Handwriting may be scruffy and changeable. E.g. slant of writing may change from
left to right, letters from rounded to spiky, cursive to non-cursive, upper case/lower
case.
• Handwriting may be neat but slow.
• Student may have difficulty keeping up with note taking.
• There will be quite a few spelling errors.
• Patterns of words may be repeated/shortened. E.g. beginninning/beging.
Memory
Poor short term memory is one characteristic of dyslexia.
• Students may be particularly forgetful of names, dates, times, phone numbers, email addresses etc.
• Memory for information given verbally particularly affected.
• There may be difficulty following spoken instructions or directions.
• Short term or working memory difficulties can also affect note taking and reading.
Speech and Pronunciation
• Students may mispronounce polysyllabic words. E.g. “pecially for “especially” etc.
• Students frequently find themselves having difficulty finding particular words (the
‘tip-of-the-tongue’ syndrome).
Reading
• Reading will be slower than for peers.
• Students may complain that it takes them much longer to get through reading lists
than others.
• Students may complain that they forget everything they read.
• Student may display difficulties/reluctance to read aloud.
• Student may misread words for other similar words.
Orientation
• Students may confuse left and right.
• It may take a while to learn the way around the department, campus and town.
Emotional factors
• Stress is known to exacerbate dyslexic difficulties. Students with dyslexia will
therefore find their symptoms worsen at times of pressure, such as examination
periods or near coursework deadlines.
• Unrecognised dyslexia can have a number of emotional outcomes. The most
common of these is a lack of confidence and self esteem.
• Unidentified dyslexics have often grown up with labels such as “lazy”, “careless”, or
“stupid”. Students are keen for academics to think well of them and therefore may
not be keen to disclose their difficulties.
For this reason, if a student approaches a member of staff about dyslexia, they
should always be referred on.
Referral to the Disability Service
If you believe a student may have some indicators of dyslexia, discuss your concerns with
the student and seek permission to refer them for a screening.
If the student agrees to this you can either refer them using the Disability Referral Form.
You can find this on MY Courses, under Student Support Forms, or e-mail their contact
details to disabilityacademicskills@chi.ac.uk.
Students can also book an appointment through 01243 812076.
Disability and Academic Skills Co-ordinator: Steve O’Melia
Dyslexia Advisor: Sue Goff
Referral to Study Skills
For students who have general study skills gaps but do not appear to be dyslexic you can
refer them to Maureen Preece- Academic Skills Advisor- via x.2076.