'Dyslexic children simply struggle to read': Expert claims tens of thousands are being falsely diagnosed



Misdiagnosis: Education expert Professor Joe Elliott says thousands of children are being falsely labelled as dyslexic

Tens of thousands of pupils are being falsely diagnosed with dyslexia because parents and schools failed to teach them to read properly, according to a leading academic.

Professor Joe Elliott, of Durham University, said parents whose children have trouble with reading often push for the dyslexic 'label' simply to secure extra help for them.

But in fact there are many children who simply struggle to read and require help at an early age.

He voiced his concerns as figures suggested a steep rise in the number of children being termed dyslexic.

Professor Elliot said that around one in ten children - more than a million - are now diagnosed with the condition, up from barely any two decades ago.

Figures from exams watchdog Ofqual have shown that the number of candidates granted extra help to pass their exams has doubled in just three years.

Schools agreed 105,000 requests for special assistance during exams in 2008 - usually in the form of extra time - compared with 44,000 in 2005. They have the discretion to agree up to 25 per cent of extra time - 45 minutes extra for a three-hour exam.

There was also an increase in the number of requests approved by exam boards for special help, though these normally relate to the more serious cases.

The surge in diagnoses has led to claims that, for some children, dyslexia is a 'middle-class badge for illiteracy'.

Professor Elliott, director of research at the university's school of education, said: 'Many of the messages that I have received from parents have pointed out that the system has forced them to use the dyslexic label in order to access additional resources.

Controversial: Professor Elliott sparked a media storm after the 2005 Channel 4 programme Dispatches: The Dyslexia Myth, featuring Tina (pictured), in which he said the condition was very difficult to diagnose accurately

'Parents believe that if their child were to be diagnosed as dyslexic, clear ways of remediating their problems would emerge.'



Professor Elliott went on to warn that dyslexia was not easily identifiable. One recent study into the condition identified 28 slightly different definitions of the term.

Symptoms typically associated with it included everything from poor short-term memory to clumsiness, poor verbal fluency and frequent use of letter reversals, for example b instead of d.

'Not only do these blend into other diagnoses, such as dyspraxia, but they are also commonly found in people who are not considered dyslexic,' he said.

He argued that a dyslexia diagnosis is often a hollow victory for parents, partly because there is no clear evidence that any one teaching approach is more suitable for dyslexics than any other group of poor readers.



Resources would be better spent on early, high-quality support for all poor readers, he said.

Assistance in exams, for example in the form of extra time, should be 'conditional upon a clear description of the individual's needs, rather than the provision of a diagnostic label'.

He said children with reading difficulties should be provided with ' structured intervention programmes', individually where it was necessary, adding: 'We want more assistance for these children, not less.'

Dr John Rack, of the charity Dyslexia Action, said: 'Joe Elliott is a bit behind the times when he suggests dyslexia is a catch-all, rag bag concept.'

He said it was important for those with suspected dyslexia to feel supported rather than that they were making the problem up.



