In years gone by, children who struggled to learn to read and spell were labelled “stupid”, “lazy” or “dim”. Today, of course, we are much more enlightened – now we label many of these children as “dyslexic”. But perhaps this label is still a bad idea.
Picture two 9-year-olds reading at the level of an average 6-year-old. One gets a diagnosis of dyslexia. This positively affects her wellbeing. Her teachers now understand she has dyslexia and that she can get tailored help.
The other child isn’t so lucky. Maybe his parents can’t afford a dyslexia test – in the UK, assessment isn’t available on the NHS and can cost several hundred pounds. In the US it could set parents back thousands of dollars. Or perhaps he was tested but the result was negative. Until very recently, this outcome was common for already disadvantaged children, because the official definition of dyslexia included the idea of “discrepancy” – that reading problems should be unexpected given a child’s other cognitive abilities. Assessing ability using IQ tests can also be biased against those from lower socioeconomic groups or learning to read in a second language. By extension, this second child is just bad at reading or lazy, or both, and not eligible to receive extra help with reading.
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Two children with the same learning difficulty. One gets help, the other does not
Two children with the same learning difficulty. One gets help and understanding and the other doesn’t, all because of a label. Yet this label is based on a questionable assessment. Despite trials using a wide range of cognitive processes, researchers have been unable to find meaningful ways to identify dyslexia.
So, why not just help all children who struggle to read? Each has a unique combination of risk and remediation factors, but all will benefit most if we intervene when the problem first shows up, instead of waiting years for them to fail and then receive a diagnosis. Our newfound understanding of what is happening in their brains even suggests some surprisingly simple ways to help. Giving every child the best possible chance to overcome their challenge is what matters, not the label we attach to them.