Researching Dyslexia, teaching and testing.

For Design Studies I was asked to look up books and journals on my issue that came to light on assignments 2 (brainstorm & mindmap in a previous blog entry).

My issue was based on personal experience where no one noticed that I had dyslexia in school. I decided to research at the beginning, starting off with general books on dyslexia and learning difficulties. My journals are on the point of view of the teacher to see how they can spot difficulties. No teachers managed to pick up on my perhaps not-so-obvious dyslexia (looking back now, it was obvious... I just thought I was normal... I shouldn't have had to struggle as much as I did though).

If I was going to improve the education system these are the texts I would first look at before going into schools observing and asking questions (even though I'm not one for asking questions! Again my school life is to blame).


Here are the texts I found:

Gerber, M., (2005), Teachers are still the test: limitations of response to instruction strategies for identifying children with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities. 38 (6) 516-524.

As it says in the title, this journal concentrates on RTI (response to instruction) as a way of earlier identification of learning disabilities. However its limits include expenses, teachers responding to students differently based on behavior and the fact strategy training and results are rarely reported (e.g. each session cannot be done in the same way, have the same results everytime and unnoted improvements would be made).


Hultquist, A., (2006), An introduction to dyslexia for parents and proffessionals [online]. London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. http://site.ebrary.com.libproxy.dundee.ac.uk/lib/dundee/docDetail.action?docID=10156041

This online book goes into the various types of dyslexia, giving basic examples of how the children with dyslexia spell, not be able to retrieve certain words or read. It brings into account different levels of dyslexia - mild to deep dyslexia. Apparently there are many tests to identify dyslexia but she particularly talks about IQ tests. Other areas are covered such as laws and other reading disorders.


Martin, D., (2000), Teaching children with speech and learning difficulties. London: David Fulton Publishers Ltd.

This book shows how to spot a child that is having issues. It tells us about teacher's observation and shows examples of situations. The book has sections where it shows what questions the teachers should be asking themselves in regard to a student.


Muter, V., (2003), Early reading development and dyslexia. London: Whurr Publishers Ltd.

This book covers very early learning, going onto children with difficulties. From chapters 7 until 12 is specifically looks into the testing and teaching of children with dyslexia.


Reid, G., ed., (1996), Dimensions of dyslexia - Volume 1. Glasgow: Bell & Bain Ltd.

Information wont be that up-to-date but will still be relevant (it was reprinted in 2000 though). Each chapter is written by a expert or group of experts, so there is a lot of information regarding each section. Covers teaching, support, all types of assessments and further education.


Taylor, H., Anselmo, M., Foreman, A., Schatschneider, C. and Angelopoulos, J., (2000), Utility of kindercarten teacher judgements in identifying early learning problems. Journal of Learning Disabilities. 33 (2) 200-210.

In this journal, it is the teacher's view on the child's progress, to predict if they will struggle and how they will be in the future, based on their behaviour and if they are learning at such an early age. The authors do tests on groups of children in kindercarten classes.