01 NRDC Dyslexia 1-88 update - Texthelp

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Research Report
reading disability lies in the effectiveness of the instruction received rather than the
categorisation of reader type’ (Pogorzelski & Wheldall, 2002). While there might be valid
distinctions between dyslexic and ordinary poor readers in theory, ‘there are few compelling
reasons for attempting to make such distinctions in practice’ (Fowler & Scarborough, 1993),
since emphasis on a phonics-based curriculum and multisensory methods may benefit all
poor readers, not dyslexics alone (Davis & Cashdan, 1963).
There are many reasons why students in basic skills classes have low reading skills and there
are many possible outcomes for education programmes that address their problems (Brooks
et al., 2001b; Sheehan-Holt & Smith, 2000; Strucker, 1995). For intervention programmes, an
appropriate guiding principle may be assimilation (Fowler & Scarborough, 1993), namely, the
avoidance of any attempt to separate dyslexic and ‘ordinary’ adult learners with reading
difficulties. However, tutors need to bear in mind that the over-diagnosis of dyslexia might
neglect other types of special educational need (Thomson, 2002). By contrast with
intervention, the guiding principle in scientific research is not assimilation but differentiation.
Between research and practice there is no exact alignment, neither should we seek one:
‘models of etiology and models of treatment bear no necessary relation to one another’
(Sroufe, 1997).
We shall explore the implications of this observation in the following section. Meanwhile, we
note that:
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Scholars agree that difficulty in learning to read can have many causes.
They agree that some causes of reading difficulty are located within society.
They agree that some causes of reading difficulty are located within the individual.
Scholars do not agree as to the relative importance of those causes.
They do not agree as to whether dyslexia is a valid concept.
Among the scholars who believe that dyslexia is a valid concept, there is no agreement as to
precisely what it is, or whether it is subsumed by or distinct from ordinary poor reading.
Scholars do not agree as to whether dyslexic and non-dyslexic poor readers require different
intervention programmes.
Scholars who believe that dyslexic people require different interventions from those needed
by ‘ordinary’ adult learners with reading difficulties do not agree about the nature of those
interventions.
Conceptual issues
The context
Dyslexia is associated with problems of great complexity. These problems are fundamental;
they cannot be dismissed as semantic quibbles. It may be helpful to begin by asking a few
elementary questions, in order to outline possible ways in which they might be answered. By
looking at different uses of the word ‘dyslexia’ and by asking which, if any, of these uses might
be currently supported by scientific evidence, we will be brought face-to-face with some of the
conceptual problems. After that, we can go on to consider the practical difficulties that follow
from the conceptual problems.
In many other fields of enquiry, there is a consistency in the use of words that makes this
strategy unnecessary. In dyslexia research and practice, there is a degree of inconsistency
verging on anarchy, as the opening paragraphs of the introduction reveal (and as Appendix 1
illustrates).