After some 30 years working with Cleveland, Dorset and Poole local authorities as an educational psychologist I now run a private consultancy. My specialisms and interests as well as SpLD include bereavement, behaviour management, Autism/Asperger’s and the training and professional development of both professional and non-professional staff working with young people with special needs.

Nick BeardB.Ed (hons) MA M.Ed AFBPsS C.Pchol. HPC Reg EP

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Advance OrganiserThe difference demands for Eps working in

school, FE and HE contextsDefinitions of dyslexia and why they matterThe content of the psychological reportReasons for failure to identifyOther SpLDs

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The difference for Eps between working for schools/LAs and HE

HE School/LA

Diagnosis of “condition”

Producing an acceptable “label”

Opening the gate to additional help

Exploration of strengths and weaknesses

Producing realistic and useful recommendations

Implying who should pay for additional input

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Definitions of dyslexiaThe British Psychological Society, 1999, define Dyslexia as

“evident when accurate and fluent word reading and/or spelling develops very incompletely or with great difficulty, despite appropriate learning opportunities – that is learning opportunities which are effective for the great majority of children”.

The Rose Report by Sir Jim Rose (June 2009) identified the following working definition of dyslexia:

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 a 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 coordination, mental calculation, concentration and personal organisation, but these are not, by themselves, markers of dyslexia.

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Definitions of dyslexiaA commonly accepted definition of

dyslexia in further/higher education (SpLD Working Group – 2005 – DfES Guidelines, page 5) describes “A combination of abilities and difficulties where the difficulties affect the learning process in aspects of literacy and sometimes numeracy. Marked and persistent weaknesses may be identified in working memory, speed of processing, sequencing skills, auditory and/or visual perception, spoken language and motor skills”.

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Some implicationsA student might be dyslexic using one of the

above definitions, but not using another.The EP therefore needs to produce evidence as to

why they regard the student as being dyslexic.This evidence needs to be replicable – ie another

EP using the same methodology with the same student should get more or less the same results.

Higher education still tends to favour a discrepancy model, which links in well with the Working Group model – given this person’s overall scores, how probable or improbable are their discrepant scores?

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The psychological reportThere will normally be an indication of overall ability,

obtained from a “closed” normative test, together with comments about any unusual variations in the subtest scores. This will typically include scores for verbal and non-verbal ability together with results and discussion on working memory, and processing speed.

There will be an indication of scores on standardised literacy tests, looking at different sorts of reading and writing together with comments on areas of strength and weaknesses and whether or not these are unusual.

There should be an indication as to the extent to which the literacy scores would have been predicted from the ability scores .

There will often be a further set of tests to follow up any hypotheses or to produce further evidence.

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Example of a significant discrepancy Subtest Predicted

ScoreActual Score

Difference

Level of statistical significance

Frequency of difference in normative sample

Word Reading

99 110 +11 n/a n/a

Reading Comp

99 102 +3 n/a n/a

Spelling 99 99 0 n/s n/a

PS Decoding

99 114 +15 n/s n/a

Written Expression

99 70 29 .01 1%

Comp Reading

99 110 +11 n/a n/a

Comp WR L

99 84 15 .01 10%

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The Psychological report -2

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There will normally be an indication that any other issues which might be affecting the situation has been checked and eliminated or allowed for – sensory difficulties, missing or problematic education, difficult family circumstances and so on. It’s often helpful to know if other members of the family have similar difficulties.

Keeping it “legal”

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The Working Group reports lays down various other requirements which EP (and other) reports should adhere to.

Reports should carry a note indicating that they have been written “in accordance with the SpLD Working Group Guidelines for assessing SpLDs in Higher Education”

How do they get this far without identified?

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Deficit difficulties:Institutes with no systems or other prioritiesNo or minimal independent study skills inputReluctance by student or institute to acknowledge problemSubtle difficulties that don’t show at more basic levels of

workPositive difficulties:Being bright and working hard overcomes difficulty at FE

levelHuge amounts of input/support from othersAlso:Course has literacy demands but doesn’t assess for them

on entry

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Other SpLDs

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If they are in DSM IV they are theoretically medical diagnosis: this is true of ADHD, ADD, Dyspraxia and so on.

Much more difficult to test for: normative tests aren't usually very useful.

Therefore DSM criteria allied to checklists, self reports and (given agreement) reports from others along with observation during the assessment are the basis for “diagnosis.”

In HE any people with these sorts of difficulties tend to get swept up into the “dyslexia with additional difficulties” categories and may therefore need referring on.