[senco-forum] Re: Dyslexia

Stuart Lucas  wrote:
 > "what are the current percentage of primary and secondary school pupils
 > diagnosed as dyslexic by whatever psychological, psychometric or
 > physiological means?"<
 >
 > I have heard the 'figure out there' is 10% - but where did that come
 > from?<

Nobody seems to know!
Well there are no dyslexics in Surrey because the Local Authority
does not allow the use of the word in reports.

The BDA Dyslexia Handbook 1996 has:
The Incidence of Dyslexia
Based on government-sponsored studies, the British Dyslexia Association 
estimates that 10% of children have some degrees of dyslexia, while about 4% 
will be affected severely (an average of one in every class).

"Diagnosing Learning Disorders: A Neuropsychological Framework By Bruce Franklin 
Pennington (1991)" has been cited in support of the 10% figure, but it does not 
say that.

If u are subscribed to Google Book Search, u can get to extracts from that book, 
but u cannot save or copy and paste them.

"Very simply put, developmental dyslexia is unexpected difficulty in learning to 
read and spell. Unexpected means that there is no obvious reason for the 
difficulty, such as inadequate schooling, peripheral sensory handicap, acquired 
brain damage, or low overall IQ. Dyslexia is a prevalent disorder, with 
prevalence estimates usually ranging from 5% to 10% (Benton & Pearl, 1978) 
though rates as high as 20%-30% have been reported."

Psychologists and dyslexia teachers do not state their criteria or cut-off 
points for dyslexia, which may co-exist with, or be an outcome of, other 
Specific Learning Difficulties, which were not taken into account in those 
studies. (EPs & teachers on senco-forum are hereby invited, nay requested, to 
state their criteria and cut-off points please.)

It was simple in my day, when dyslexia was shown by reading or spelling scores 2 
standard deviations below verbal IQ on EP tests or 2 years below vocabulary 
scores on teacher tests.

Jean
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Jean Hutchins, SE Surrey DA.
RSA Dip SpLD, AMBDA, retired.
E-mail: jeanhutchins1 at ntlworld.com
British Dyslexia Association Web: www.bdadyslexia.org.uk
Also into spelling reform: www.simplifiedspelling.org
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