Intervention for Dyslexia - The British Dyslexia Association

pupils are going to be identified and enabled to achieve their best, most notably
screening and assessment, which is dealt with in Chapter 4. However, a distinction may
perhaps be drawn between specialist dyslexia teaching, which is concerned specifically
with improving the literacy skills of dyslexic pupils and which has been defined above,
and supporting dyslexic pupils, which takes us into the wider realms of enabling dyslexic
pupils to become independent learners who can access the whole curriculum. The latter
activity includes a range of educational activities, including helping pupils to develop
study and organisational skills (e.g. mind-mapping, revision strategies) and to use
assistive technology (e.g. text-to-speech aids, spelling checkers), arranging special
provision for examinations (e.g. additional time, use of a word processor), providing
guidance for class and subject-specialist teachers in ways that work can be
differentiated for dyslexic pupils in the mainstream classroom, and liaising with parents
regarding how they can help the child to overcome their difficulties. These are roles that
trained specialist dyslexia teachers should be particularly well qualified to fulfil, but it
cannot be claimed that these additional educational functions are the exclusive remit of
the specialist dyslexia teacher. Special educational needs coordinators (SENCos), if
appropriately trained, can also undertake these roles, and indeed often do so in relation
to children who have special educational needs but who do not have dyslexia.
Furthermore, there is a strong case for some of these educational activities (e.g. focus
on study and organisational skills) being made available to all pupils, not just those with
special educational needs.
To fully review evidence on such a broad-ranging list of ways in which dyslexic pupils
may be supported is clearly outside the scope of this review, but useful overviews can
be found in Reid (2003) and Townend and Turner (2000). However, some pertinent
aspects of wider support for older dyslexic learners are discussed in Chapter 5.
1.4 Visual stress and dyslexia
1.4.1 Visual dyslexia?
The term ‘visual dyslexia’ is occasionally encountered in the published literature as well
as in the websites of a few optometric practices and companies selling products which
purport to treat reading problems that may have a visual cause. It will be noted that
there is no mention of vision or visual processes in the definition of dyslexia given in
Section 1.2.1. The reason for this is that, although visual factors clearly impact on
reading (see Cornelissen and Singleton, 2007), evidence for a role of vision or visual
processing in dyslexia is weak. Hence the term ‘visual dyslexia’ is contradictory and
misleading, but, because of the potential for misunderstanding, it is necessary to
address the matter in this review.
In fact, when the term ‘visual dyslexia’ is encountered, it is usually the case that it is
being applied not to dyslexia, but to visual stress, which is a quite different condition.
Visual stress is the subjective experience of unpleasant visual reactions when reading
(especially for prolonged durations) and in response to some other visual stimuli. Visual
stress is not currently regarded as a medical disorder but it is well documented in
international peer-reviewed scientific and medical practitioner journals. Visual stress is a
surprisingly common condition: although reported rates of prevalence vary according to
the criteria and type of sample used, incidence of visual stress in unselected samples is
generally accepted to be about 20% (Jeanes et al., 1997; Kriss & Evans, 2005; Wilkins,
Jeanes, Pumfrey & Laskier, 1996).
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