Learning and Teaching: Essential Guides
Learning and Teaching Essential Guides
No 1: Identifying and Referring Students who may have Dyslexia/Specific Learning Difficulty Pointers for Academic Staff
Indications from Word-Processed Work
Nationally, approximately 40% of HE students • Visually similar words may be confused: e.g. identified as being dyslexic have not been form/from, of/off, peruse/pursue. assessed prior to University. There are a number • Homophones can also be confused: e.g. of reasons why this is: brake/break. • A lack of resources in schools. • Common or short words may be misspelt • Pupils do not necessarily need to prove while longer ones may be correct. dyslexia to get extra time in exams. • The student is likely to be unable to spot their • Pupils who can manage, or just get by often own errors. go unnoticed. • Essays may jump from point to point without • In some areas literacy standards may be explicit connections being made. below the national average and therefore Indications from Hand-Written Work expectations are lower. • Handwriting may be scruffy and changeable. It is therefore likely that there will be some students E.g. slant of writing may change from left to in the class who have unidentified dyslexia. right, letters from rounded to spiky, cursive to However, it may be difficult to pick these students non-cursive, upper case/lower case. out from the increasing numbers who have lower level skills and who need Academic Skills and • Handwriting may be neat but slow. study skills advice. • Student may have difficulty keeping up with Below is a list of possible indicators you may note taking. observe in students work. It is not an exhaustive • There will be quite a few spelling errors. list and no student would necessarily exhibit them all. However, it may give some possible indication • Patterns of words may be repeated/ of when to refer a student to the Disability and shortened. E.g. beginninning/beging. Dyslexia Team rather than just Study Skills. Memory If in doubt-refer on. • Poor short term memory is one characteristic of dyslexia. • Students may be particularly forgetful of names, dates, times, phone numbers, e-mail addresses etc. • Memory for information given verbally particularly affected. • There may be difficulty following spoken
Learning and Teaching: Essential Guides
instructions or directions. • Short term or working memory difficulties can also affect note taking and reading. Speech and Pronunciation • Students may mispronounce polysyllabic words. E.g. “pecially for “especially” etc. • Students frequently find themselves having difficulty finding particular words (the ‘tip-ofthe-tongue’ syndrome). Reading • Reading will be slower than for peers. • Students may complain that it takes them much longer to get through reading lists than others. • Students may complain that they forget everything they read. • Student may display difficulties/reluctance to read aloud. • Student may misread words for other similar words. Orientation • Students may confuse left and right. • It may take a while to learn the way around the department, campus and town. Emotional Factors • Stress is known to exacerbate dyslexic difficulties. Students with dyslexia will therefore find their symptoms worsen at times of pressure, such as examination periods or near coursework deadlines. • Unrecognised dyslexia can have a number of emotional outcomes. The most common of these is a lack of confidence and self esteem. • Unidentified dyslexics have often grown up with labels such as “lazy”, “careless”, or “stupid”. Students are keen for academics to think well of them and therefore may not be keen to disclose their difficulties.
For this reason, if a student approaches a member of staff about dyslexia, they should always be referred on. Referral to the Disability Service If you believe a student may have some indicators of dyslexia, discuss your concerns with the student and seek permission to refer them for a screening. If the student agrees to this you can either refer them using the Disability Referral Form. You can find this on MY Courses, under Student Support Forms, or e-mail their contact details to disability@ chi.ac.uk. Students can also book an appointment through 01243 812076 or via the SIZ desk on each campus (01243 816222) Disability and Academic Skills Co-ordinator: Steve O’Melia Dyslexia Advisor: Sue Goff or Marilyn Polkinghorne Referral to Study Skills For students who have general study skills gaps but do not appear to be dyslexic you can refer them to the Academic Skills Advisor or Royal Literary Fellows via SIZ.
For further advice on this document or any other issues related to Dyslexia, please contact the Disability and Dyslexia Service on 01243 812076.
Learning and Teaching: Essential Guides
Centre for Learning and Teaching/Disability and Dyslexia Service Enhancement Guides The University promotes an inclusive approach to learning and teaching, based on equity and equal entitlement. The university’s aim is to increase the proportion of students who are currently under-represented in higher education in order to widen participation and its objective is to provide suitable facilities, and implement policies that enable all students to undertake and complete their studies successfully.