Teach Secondary 14.4

that dyslexia can frequently occur alongside other developmental conditions. The 2024 Dyslexia Delphi Study, authored by academics from leading UK universities, sought to agree on a new definition of dyslexia by building consensus amongst numerous dyslexia experts, specialist teachers, educational psychologists and individuals with dyslexia. This newly developed definition is the one you’ll now find at the British Dyslexia Association’s website at bdadyslexia.org.uk , and while it won’t have any retrospective bearing on past diagnoses, it does set out to dispel historical confusion, while addressing misconceptions around dyslexia and its links to visual stress and increased creativity. Against a backdrop of multiple ongoing challenges in education – the continued underperformance of groups from certain socioeconomic backgrounds; ethnicity and gender inequalities; the continuing impact of the COVID-era school closures; the ever-deepening recruitment and retention crisis – the lack of professional discussion around dyslexia is deeply concerning. An invisible difficulty We know about the young people arriving at secondary unequipped with the literacy skills needed to engage with the curriculum. We know about the students who have struggled to secure key passport GCSEs inmaths and English. A recent study by researchers at Nottingham Trent University into the visibility of dyslexia across schools in England (see tiny. cc/ts144-D2) interviewed a number of families and teachers. The study’s explorations uncovered a significant number of students who felt anxious, stressed and excluded from learning. Based on the research, and our own professional observations, we know that young people with dyslexia can be left exhausted through the continuous effort of trying to meet literacy expectations across a range of subjects. At the time of writing, Jamie Oliver’s ‘Documentary of hope’ is set to air later this year. In the meantime, we’ve seen the recently published Curriculum and Assessment’s Review Interim report (see tinyurl. com/ts143-TP2) acknowledge that too many students aren’t meeting expected standards at the end of KS2 and KS4 – particularly those with SEND and who are socio- economically disadvantaged. The full report is scheduled to be published at some point later in the year. Via The Dyslexia Delphi study, we do now at least have a definition of dyslexia that’s been reached by consensus, which certainly wasn’t the case previously. A cursory look at any news outlet will remind you that we live in turbulent times – and yet, I can’t help feeling optimistic that we may now, finally, see a more wide- ranging dialogue in schools around howwe can ensure students with dyslexia are able to succeed. My own child’s dyslexia hasn’t yet been formally diagnosed as yet, but it’s been highly visible right throughout her education. The problem is that there’s too much variability across the system. Every student must be able to keep learning, but then so too do their peers, and all the other key stakeholders around them. So who knows –maybe a little media-driven star power might help to move the process along. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jennifer Hampton (@brightonteacher) is an English teacher, literacy lead and former SLE (literacy) THE DELPHI DEFINITION Dyslexia is a set of processing difficulties that affect the acquisition of reading and spelling. Some, or all aspects of literacy attainment will be weak in relation to the individual’s age, standard teaching and instruction, and level of other attainments Across all languages, the key markers of dyslexia difficulties are reading fluency and spelling ability. These are on a continuum, and can be experienced to various degrees of severity The nature and developmental trajectory of dyslexia depends on a range ofmultiple genetic and environmental influences Dyslexia can affect the acquisition of other skills, such asmathematics, reading comprehension or learning another language Themost commonly observed cognitive impairment in dyslexia is a difficulty in phonological processing (i.e. phonological awareness, phonological processing speed or phonological memory) – though phonological difficulties alone don’t fully explain the variability that’s often observed Effects on workingmemory, processing speed and orthographic skills can contribute to the impact of dyslexia on a student’s outcomes Dyslexia can frequently co-occur with one ormore other developmental difficulties, including developmental language disorder, dyscalculia,ADHD and developmental coordination disorder Formore information about dyslexia and the‘Delphi’ definition,visit bdadyslexia.org.uk 67 teachwire.net/secondary S E N D