CHILDREN’S WELLBEING
DIRECTORATE
ADDITIONAL NEEDS
HEREFORDSHIRE PSYCHOLOGY SERVICE
Dyslexia Policy Statement
Dyslexia Definitions
Herefordshire Psychology Service supports and has adopted the following definition of
dyslexia (Rose, 2009):
Rose Report Definition:
 Dyslexia is a learning difficulty that primarily affects the
skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and
spelling.
 Characteristic features of dyslexia are difficulties in
phonological awareness, verbal memory and verbal
processing speed.
 Dyslexia occurs across the range of intellectual abilities.
 It is best thought of as a continuum, not a distinct category,
and there are no clear cut-off points.
 Co-occurring difficulties may be seen in aspects of language,
motor co-ordination, mental calculation, concentration and
personal organisation, but these are not, by themselves,
markers of dyslexia.
 A good indication of the severity and persistence of dyslexic
difficulties can be gained by examining how the individual
responds or has responded to well founded intervention
(From Rose, J. (2009) ‘Identifying and Teaching Children and Young People with Dyslexia
and Literacy difficulties: an independent report from Sir Jim Rose to the Secretary of State for
Children, Schools and Families.’ DCSF).
(See also the British Psychological Society (BPS) definition from 1999 and reprinted in 2005,
which we accept and see as consistent with the above definition).
The Principles Behind our Approach to Dyslexia
Firstly, we acknowledge that dyslexia is an emotive and often contested issue lacking in a
consensus about its causes, its effects and its identification. However, as educational
psychologists we feel we have a responsibility to explain our viewpoint and clarify where we
believe misunderstandings have arisen in the use of this term in the past.
Additional Needs Service, Children’s Wellbeing, Herefordshire Council, Plough Lane Hereford HR4 0LE
We believe that dyslexia occurs at all levels of ability, and therefore we do not advocate a
‘discrepancy’ approach to assessment (where general abilities have to be significantly higher
than literacy attainments).
Assessment of progress over time in response to a specific teaching intervention is the best
way of assessing the severity and persistence of a child’s reading and spelling difficulties,
and whether or not these can be described as dyslexic difficulties. Although a reading test
may offer a ‘snap shot’ in time of a child’s under-achievement, it cannot provide information
about the other cognitive, historical, or environmental factors that may have caused or
contributed to the delay. These factors can include learning, emotional or behavioural
difficulties, an interrupted history of schooling, and physical factors such as hearing and
vision.
The SEN Code of Practice (2001) states that assessment should not be regarded as a single
event but as a continuing process. Assessment information about a child’s progress over
time should be gathered by schools over a sustained period of time and include:
-
Assessments of vocabulary, phonics and phonological skills;
Information concerning the child’s progress with word reading and spelling over time;
Standardised assessment information relating to word reading and spelling;
Information detailing whether the child has had appropriate learning opportunities;
Whether the child has made progress only as a result of much additional effort and
instruction and the difficulties have nevertheless persisted.
A comprehensive assessment of a child with severe difficulties would involve professionals
from outside the school such as a specialist teacher or educational psychologist, and would
come at the end of this process, after a period of monitoring and skills assessment and
intervention within school.
Dyslexic difficulties occur when other factors have been excluded, and literacy difficulties
persist, in spite of appropriate learning opportunities. Dyslexia is basically a failure to learn to
read or spell when other explanations have been ruled out. The term is descriptive and not
explanatory.
Dyslexia research is a large and conflicting area of academic study, lacking in agreement
about a single cause and where simple genetic and biological factors, whilst important, have
yet to be identified. However, it is now widely accepted and understood that dyslexia has as
its primary cognitive cause impairments in phonological processing (Vellutino et al., 2004).
Dyslexia is not commonly associated with visual factors.
In the absence of a definitive medical assessment procedure, we acknowledge the
usefulness of understanding dyslexia as a continuum where there are no clear ‘cut-off’ points
and where children can be said to experience ‘dyslexic difficulties’ of varying degrees rather
than having, or not having dyslexia.
Although Dyslexia has characteristic features related to phonological processing, and a wide
range of co-occurring difficulties (and in some cases associated strengths) these do not
reliably distinguish those with dyslexia from other poor readers, and although ‘useful signs’,
these are not sufficient on their own to be used as ‘symptoms.’ Elliot and Gibbs (2008) state
convincingly that ‘there appears to be no clear-cut scientific basis for differential diagnosis of
dyslexia versus poor reader’ (p. 488). Therefore we do not identify dyslexia on the basis of
symptoms or ‘positive signs’ (checklists often cite difficulties with letter orientation and letter
confusion, poor sequencing skills etc). Dyslexic difficulties should be understood in terms of
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their severity and persistence in spite of opportunities to learn, and no other features reliably
identify this condition.
This makes dyslexia the responsibility of all teachers and not just specialists, and urges an
early-intervention approach to literacy difficulties, rather than proposing a system where
teachers wait for a significant degree of under-achievement and expert diagnosis before
applying this label and then implementing measures to remediate the difficulties.
Schools have a responsibility to ensure that some teachers in local schools have specialist
skills and knowledge regarding methods for teaching children with dyslexic difficulties, and to
make effective use of their SEN delegated budget for children with these difficulties. They
have a duty to implement advice received from Local Authority support services, organise
access arrangements for children with literacy difficulties and to ensure that additional and
different provision is consistently in place to meet the needs of children with dyslexic
difficulties.
Schools need to ask ‘are the child’s dyslexic difficulties so severe and persistent that they
require extra resources’ instead of ‘does the child have dyslexia?’ These resources need to
be made available early on, at the first signs of a child falling behind, with a process of
identification through teaching, by teachers, and where increasing levels of support become
directed to resolve the problems. There is an expectation that as the child’s difficulties persist
in spite of intervention, that the programme they receive becomes increasingly intense,
specialised and individual, with interventions proceeding in three successive ‘waves’ from the
whole class to the individual level, described in the SEN Code of practice as a ‘graduated
response.’
We recognise the hugely detrimental emotional impact that accompanies dyslexic difficulties
in some children and see this as an avoidable outcome if care is taken, and early intervention
is successful.
We believe that all children can learn to read if given the right opportunities and experiences
in spite of dyslexic difficulties. Sadly, we understand that environmental factors can also
prevent some children learning to read (including poor teaching, and lack of family support).
We recognise that some psychologists and teachers may use other terminology (SpLD,
literacy difficulties), however, in Herefordshire we have adopted the definition from the Rose
Report and acknowledge these other terms as consistent with this definition. The term
‘dyslexic difficulties’ refers to the reading behaviour rather than the child, or their internal
predispositions.
Every child is different and comes with a complex and distinct set of experiences and
capabilities. Therefore, it is not possible to state how great a child’s delay in literacy needs to
be in order to be described as severe. We define severity in terms of how resistant the child’s
difficulties are in spite of attempts to remediate and resolve them. We also acknowledge that
severity should be understood in terms of how the child’s difficulties interfere with their ageappropriate curriculum access.
Explicit systematic phonics teaching to develop word reading skills is the most effective
teaching method for pupils with dyslexic difficulties (Brooks, 2007). In addition, the teaching
of whole word recognition may be suited to children who struggle with phonics. Furthermore,
it is important to acknowledge the importance of developing the motivation to become a
thoughtful reader, and recognising that this is enhanced by regular access to interesting,
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familiar and relevant texts, and through providing children with frequent opportunities to
increase their fluency by reading with success alongside someone else.
The literacy interventions used should have their effectiveness proven by academic research
and include:
-
an element of phonological training;
logical progression of elements with small steps teaching (and not just a collection of
unrelated worksheets);
regular and frequent reinforcement until learning and retrieval is automatic;
skills teaching to enable the burden on working memory to be reduced;
multi-sensory approaches and the active integration of auditory, visual, kinaesthetic
elements within teaching;
success based learning to build self-esteem and eliminate emotional obstacles to
learning.
Teaching methods remain the same whether or not the word ‘dyslexia’ is used.
The IDP materials for dyslexia have been revised in line with the Rose Report and remain a
very useful resource for schools and EPs alike:
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100202100434/http:/nationalstrategies.stand
ards.dcsf.gov.uk/node/175591
The Dyslexia SPLD trust has the support of the Department of Education to provide
information for parents and schools on a wide range of topics, and with a range of resources
for schools:
http://www.thedyslexia-spldtrust.org.uk/
Whilst we recognise that the label dyslexia can provide great support and comfort to those
who may have experienced a sense of failure when learning to read, we favour an approach
based on supporting schools to identify measures which seek to resolve a child’s literacy
difficulties and meet their Special Educational Needs in preference to identification of
dyslexia.
Over the coming year we hope to develop a coherent set of guidelines, based on research,
that outlines exactly what sort of interventions and programmes have the best outcomes for
children with dyslexic difficulties.
Information for this policy statement was obtained from:
Brooks, G. (2007). What Works for Pupils with Literacy Difficulties? The Effectiveness of
Intervention Schemes. 3rd edition. London: DCSF.
http://www.interventionsforliteracy.org.uk/assets/documents/Greg-Brooks.pdf
Elliott, Julian G. & Gibbs, Simon (2008). Does dyslexia exist? Journal of Philosophy of
Education 42 (3-4):475-491.
Essex Council (2011). Supporting Pupils with Dyslexia
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http://essexcc.gov.uk/vip8/si/esi/content/binaries/documents/Service_Areas/SENaPS/SEN_P
rotocols/FINAL_Dyslexia_policy_pdf_FINAL.pdf
Reason, R. & Stothard, J. (2013) ‘Is there a place for dyslexia in educational psychology
practice?’ Debate, DECP, 146.
Vellutino, F.R, Fletcher, J.M, Snowling, M.J, Scanlon, D.M. Specific reading disability
(dyslexia): what have we learned in the past four decades?
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 2004 Jan;45(1):2-40. Review.
Access the Rose report at:
https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/_arc_SOP/Page7/DCSF-00659-2009
British Psychological Society Definition (BPS, DECP, 1999; reprinted 2005):
“Dyslexia is evident when accurate and fluent word reading and/or spelling develops
very incompletely or with great difficulty. This focuses on literacy learning at the ‘word level’
and implies that the problem is severe and persistent despite appropriate learning
opportunities. It provides the basis for a staged process of assessment through teaching.”
(from ‘Dyslexia, Literacy and Psychological Assessment’ British Psychological Society,
DECP 1999).
Kamran Khan
Debbie Chamberlain
Jane Mansfield
September 2013
Herefordshire Psychology Service
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