ABSTRACT
In very general terms, a pupil whose SEN is referred to as ‘dyslexia’ will have significant difficulties in reading, writing and spelling. Importantly, these difficulties will not be those which are consistent with the pupil’s general intellectual ability. This discrepancy may also result in other behaviours, notably withdrawn or acting-out behaviour and ‘clumsiness’, whilst links between dyslexia and attention deficit disorder have also been made. As a term, it is one of the most contested and debated topics in the whole of SEN. It is important to note that a more general term, specific learning
difficulties (SpLD), has been applied to dyslexia. But the term SpLD is also used to describe a learning difficulty affecting an ability with numbers (dyscalculia). A wide range of explanations for dyslexia have been proposed.
Originally the term was used in neurology to describe reading difficulties amongst adults which were caused by brain damage. The word itself comes from the Greek, meaning ‘a difficulty with words’. This early focus on neurology provides clues to one of the more widely popularised explanations for dyslexia – that of neurological differences. Dyslexic children appear to have a larger right hemisphere in their brains than those of other pupils. Some theorists argue that right-brain dependence is one explanation for why dyslexic pupils have aptitudes in such areas controlled by the right side of the brain, such as artistic skills, musical talent, problem solving and ‘people skills’, all of which are associated with right-brain dominance. There is also a commonly held view that dyslexia is inherited.
Indeed, researchers have identified a dominant gene which may explain this. But other contrasting explanations show the lack of general agreement on what causes dyslexia. Central to this is the contested nature of the term itself. Thus, some very well-qualified academics, teachers and other professionals have maintained that dyslexia is something of a myth in that it is a ‘middle-class’ term for underachievement in reading. This kind of thinking is fuelled by those who have claimed that the teaching interventions used to address dyslexia are no different to those used for ‘underachieving readers’. Estimates regarding the incidence of dyslexia vary, although cur-
rently it is maintained that about 12 per cent of the total SEN population is identified as dyslexic. But such estimates need to be
