News

Dr Ross Cooper (AchieveAbility) was interviewed by LBC Radio to debate Professor Julian Ellott’s (Durham University) comments that dyslexia is a too generalised term and therefore does not exist.

Ross makes the case that Elliott’s statements could make it even harder for dyslexic people to get assessed when this is already difficult to do.
Julian Elliott is not dyslexic and therefore does not understand the key issues that face dyslexic people. Dyslexia is about trying to make sense of experiences that often do not fit into the mainstream. Dyslexia is a product of a reading difficulty, it is neurological condition. Many Dyslexics can read well! To be assessed is the door opening for many dyslexic people to ways of understanding their learning.

Interestingly at the end of the discussion LBC stated Julian Elliott is ‘Barking Mad’

Dyslexia Action state:

The views of the Durham University professor and those of professors at Yale in the US have been challenged by the charity Dyslexia Action, which says the term clearly defined in 2009 following a review by Sir Jim Rose still has meaning and should not be dropped.

The charity’s Dr John Rack insisted the term retained a scientific and educational value.

He said: “If the argument is to treat all struggling readers as if they were dyslexic then that is fine with us.

“But we don’t buy the argument that it is wasteful to try to understand the different reasons why different people struggle.

“And for very many, those reasons fall into a consistent and recognisable pattern that it is helpful to call dyslexia.

“Helpful for individuals because it makes sense out of past struggles and helpful for teachers who can plan the way they teach to overcome or find ways around the particular blocks that are there.”