Supported by BERA’s 2022/23 Small Grants Fund, this project sought to understand assessment procedures that professionals across the UK employ to identify students with dyslexia. Through a survey of over 270 dyslexia specialists, educational psychologists, special educational needs co-ordinators, teachers and tutors, the study explored what types of assessments dyslexia assessors use in the UK, and what assessment models or frameworks they use in their identification procedures. The report presents the findings of this survey along with recommendations for policy and practice.

Report summary

Early identification of academic difficulties such as dyslexia is key in providing school-age children with appropriate services to help them overcome their academic challenges. However, what constitutes dyslexia and methods to diagnose individuals with dyslexia have remained a contentious topic (Elliott, 2020). Dyslexia has a long history of evolving definitions and diagnostic criteria. Past studies in different countries have generally reported lack of consensus among professionals in what constitutes dyslexia and methods used for identification (for example, Sadusky et al., 2021). However, little is known about dyslexia assessment methodologies and frameworks used for dyslexia identification of school-age children in the UK. Thus, this project sought to understand assessment procedures that professionals across the UK employ to identify students with dyslexia. Our findings highlight a lack of consensus among dyslexia assessors. More importantly, we find that a majority of dyslexia assessors adhere to outdated models of dyslexia identification or models that lack reliability. We present our findings along with recommendations for policy and practice.