ABSTRACT
At a very general level research and writing on dyslexia can be put under three major headings. First, there is the large body of cognitive research some of which was briefly summarised in the first chapter of this book. Second, there is a broad band of educational research and writing, and finally there is a surprisingly small amount of research on the social and personal consequences of dyslexia. Inevitably there is considerable overlap between these areas and, for example, some of the studies on intervention have been derived directly from cognitive research but have clear educational implications. Despite the overlaps there is a case to be made for suggesting there is still a lack of engagement between these various areas of research. The major concern thus far of cognitive psychologists has been to identify the processing deficits underlying dyslexia. They have been less concerned in looking at how these deficits might interact with broader everyday influences such as a child’s view of herself as a learner. In contrast much mainstream educational research and writing has ignored or denied the existence of dyslexia as a concept and it has therefore not been directly researched or written about. Many educationalists would argue that they have included many so-called dyslexic children within a different conceptual framework which sees them as part of the continuum of children with specific learning disabilities within the broader category of children with special needs. From this perspective there has been a considerable amount of research especially on children who have had difficulties learning to read. The problem is that because some cognitive and educational researchers have started from different perspectives with different approaches to defining and identifying children with a difficulty it is hard to compare and draw meaningful conclusions from their relative research. As stated before there is less research at present on the social and personal consequences of dyslexia. Much of what exists comes
from outside the mainstream of academic research and consists of personal accounts in the form of autobiographies or collections of case studies. At this informal level there are also the opinions of clinicians and specialist teachers on the personal consequences of dyslexia. At a more general level there is research on children’s self-concept as learners (Burns 1982) and the personal development of a range of children with special needs.
