Dyslexia

The Rose Review (2009), commissioned by the UK government and still the definition most widely used by English and Welsh schools, describes dyslexia as a learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling. Characteristic features are difficulties in phonological awareness, verbal memory and verbal processing speed; it occurs across the range of intellectual abilities and is best thought of as a continuum, not a distinct category.^{[1]Rose 2009}

Updated reviews — including Snowling and colleagues' 2020 synthesis — broadly support this account while emphasising frequent co-occurrence with other developmental difficulties such as developmental language disorder, ADHD and dyscalculia.^{[7]Snowling 2020}

The British Dyslexia Association estimates that around 10% of the UK population has dyslexia, including approximately 4% who are severely affected. It is the most common specific learning difference identified in UK schools.^[2]BDA

In Great Britain, dyslexia generally meets the definition of a disability under the Equality Act 2010 — a physical or mental impairment with a substantial and long-term adverse effect on the ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. This places a legal duty on schools, colleges, universities and employers to make reasonable adjustments.^{[3]Equality Act 2010}

The SEND Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years sets out how schools and local authorities in England must identify, assess and support children and young people with special educational needs, including specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia, through SEN Support and — where needed — Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans.^{[4]SEND Code}

Functional imaging studies consistently show reduced activation in left-hemisphere posterior reading systems — the parieto-temporal and occipito-temporal regions — in dyslexic readers, with compensatory activation elsewhere. Dyslexia is highly heritable and observable in at-risk children before formal reading instruction begins.^{[5]Peterson & Pennington, Lancet 2012}

• Slow, effortful reading aloud; frequent guessing or substitution of words.
• Persistent spelling difficulties that do not respond to typical instruction.
• Difficulty with phonological awareness — breaking words into sounds and blending them back.
• Difficulty with rapid automatised naming of letters, colours or digits.
• Reading comprehension that lags behind listening comprehension.

Adapted from BDA and Rose Review guidance.^[2]BDA

The Education Endowment Foundation's UK guidance report Improving Literacy in Key Stage 1 rates systematic synthetic phonics instruction as one of the highest-impact, best-evidenced approaches for early reading, particularly for children at risk of reading difficulties. Effective programmes combine phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension, delivered early and at sufficient intensity.^{[6]EEF[1]Rose}

• Extra time and (where indicated) a reader or scribe in exams, in line with JCQ Access Arrangements.
• Assistive technology: text-to-speech, speech-to-text, screen readers, mind-mapping software (often funded via Disabled Students' Allowance at UK universities).
• Spell-checkers without penalty for spelling on coursework.
• Clear, sans-serif fonts with generous line spacing on printed and on-screen materials.
• Explicit, multisensory teaching of new vocabulary and concepts.

Reasonable adjustments are a duty under the Equality Act 2010.^{[3]Equality Act[2]BDA}