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report by Mary Eld

Higher Education proved a popular theme at the conference, in this year of the Adult Dyslexic. The first session was repeated to an audience of over 70 people. This was followed on the afternoon of the second day, by a session chaired by Dr Gavin Reid of Edinburgh University.

There were 4 speakers, J. Hatcher of the University of York offered "An evaluation of the types of provision appropriate for dyslexic students", followed by C. Jamieson of University College London (UCL) looking at "Manifestations of dyslexia in University students: implications for assessment and diagnosis". We then transferred to De Montfort University, firstly to hear A. Sanderson on "Current issues related to supporting students with dyslexia in Higher Education" followed by D.Pollak on "Access to Higher Education for the mature dyslexic student: a question of identity".

Janet Hatcher spoke about a short-term project, based at York University, which had three aims:

1. To improve knowledge of the dyslexic students at the university - their strengths, weaknesses and perceptions of working in university
2. Looking at how the dyslexic experience impacts on the ability to perform in different departments.
3. Main aim: To identify statistically significant tests for assessing dyslexic students with "norms" to justify the subsequent support recommendations.

For this research students with dyslexia, from 13 departments and a control group from 18 departments, completed an assessment battery & semi-structured interview. The departments were grouped into Sciences, Maths sciences, Social and health sciences and Arts / humanities.

The results, Janet reported, indicated for Verbal and Non-verbal abilities, no significant difference was found between groups, while for literacy and arithmetic tests there was a significant effect of group, relating to speed and accuracy. The trend that prevailed in the dyslexic group was taking longer to do tasks and making more errors. An effect size, of over 1, was found for spoonerism speed, rapid naming of digits, digit span (verbal memory), rhyme fluency, as well as writing speed. Discriminate function analysis was used to identify the most sensitive indicators, Janet showed that three tests alone - non-word reading, writing speed and short term memory tests, gave classification of 95.9%. She suggested, for screening, three diagnostic tests - spelling, timed précis and writing speed, could be used and were easily administered. For exam arrangement assessing - the addition of nonsense passage reading, short term memory (digit span) and a vocabulary test to the screening set. Finally to meet Disabled Student Allowance requirements further test should be included: a short IQ, reading & spoonerisms.

In the Interviews, students indicated the most difficult tasks included writing style (structure and organising), and the time taken reading, including proof-reading. The Departments said that a "highly developed writing style" was the most frequently measured competency. Lectures posed the combined problem of listening & spelling, students also identified that it was good to have notes in advance or available on the Web. Students wanted varied and flexible support - generic but also department specific. Janet was struck by the positive outlook of students on learning strategies.

Recommendations

1. Assistance with academic writing skills.
2. Teaching and guidance in effective reading strategies.
3. Software use training.
4. Information on alternative forms of recording for note taking.
5. Subject based support in departments as well as group support for study skills, and 1:1 support.

Claire Jamieson also focused on the assessment of dyslexic students. Over five years, at UCL she had gathered assessment details for 215 students. Claire has developed her own non-word reading test (increasing syllables, while using common letter sequences and orthographic patterns) and also a spoonerism test (to prevent students using an orthographic approach) for which Claire is establishing norms.

She too has found good evidence for persisting difficulties in spelling, reading - speed & accuracy, non-word reading, and phonological skills. Once more, dyslexic students took over twice as long to complete spoonerisms. Claire concluded the most sensitive measures were - reading, spelling, digit naming, fluency - especially rhyme, time to complete spoonerisms. She referred to Lynette Bradley's work at Oxford looking into the low Processing Speed index from the WAIS, as being a potential significant measure.

Claire identified diagnosis criteria as being the co-occurrence of some persistent literacy difficulties (not the same ones as at school) and a weakness in one of the cognitive functions - phonological awareness, rapid naming, or processing speed. Clare referred to the implication of reducing the test battery - increasing the of risk false positive / negative identification and the reduction of information available for planning interventions.

Andi Sanderson offered a report on the first stage of her current work, looking into the differences in support, between 6 universities. (3 "old" and 3 "new" universities) in the absence of a provision bench mark or evaluation process. She talked of the "hidden lottery" of dyslexia support, which includes how a course is assessed and also what support is available. Surprisingly for many of us the "new" universities did not come out ahead in the "support stakes", however each university had a "good practice" not found in any of the others.

Retaining students while maintaining the concept of "graduateness" is a constraint felt by universities. The following support areas were considered and some good practices identified:

a) Provision of appropriate support tutors and status of study skills
- note-taker training - to improve status and motivation
- accredited learning modules, giving points towards degree shows these skills are valued

b) Provision of appropriate IT support
- contract negotiated with PC supplier - excellent support, and repair or replace arrangement

c) Exam allowances
- A support aware contact in academic departments - is good for handling exam issues Additionally the Conference CD-ROM will include a paper on

d) Confidentiality

e) Learning support needs within academic departments

f) Evaluation of learning support

David Pollak had limited time to draw attention to the student's experience of dyslexia by using material from a series of interviews with mature dyslexic students. He was looking at linking models of academic writing, dyslexia and support, and the prevalence of a "deficit" model underpinning support provision in university.

The academic literacy model came from Street & Lea 2000 (Student writing and staff feedback in higher education). The models dictate whether support is seen as "filling in" skills that should already exist (a deficit model), hi-lighting skills and procedure that need to be adopted to fit the academic culture, or to give students confidence in use of their preferred communication style (a social model).

David left us to consider why the current form of academic literacy demands, and delivery methods should persist in universities, and when a student has difficulties with them, does the problem lie with the student or the institution?

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