In this essay, I will look at three different Compulsory comprehensive schools in one community and I will compare final grades from students who graduated in spring 2006. I will also examine how the three schools work with students, and in what way they approach students with dyslexia/reading- and writing difficulties, so that they could reach goals set by The Swedish National Agency for Education. The aim with this essay is to show differences between schools in the same community and my question is if it is the way you approach students with dyslexia/reading- and writing difficulties that affects the student’s grades and results. The study is concentrating on three schools in one community and students with dyslexia and reading- and writing difficulties that went to those schools. I have spoken to remedial teacher at each school about how they approach students with dyslexia/reading- and writing difficulties, what kind of methods the use, how they investigate if a student is in need of special help and how they grade their students who are in need of special teaching because of their learning disabilities. This essay will also present different ways of defining dyslexia and how to approach the pedagogic difficulties that will appear in situations where students with reading- and writing difficulties gets exposed and are in need of special education or help. The results of this study can only be connected to those schools that have been studied for this exam. The results can not in any way be generalising for all schools in Sweden. However did the study results show that students that went to school 2 reached higher goals than students that went to school 1 or 3. The study also shows that these schools use different ways to work with students with dyslexia and reading- and writing difficulties. But to compare numbers and grades can’t give a fair picture of how each school work with each student so that they develop those skills and knowledge that is seen as necessary to become a democratic member of the society. Because numbers and grades cant tell anything about the student’s disabilities or what kind of knowledge or skills the student is in possession of. Nevertheless can this study when comparing grades, in the most general way, say that students that go to school 2 are more likely to reach goals that are set by The Swedish National Agency for Education.

Dyslexi innebär bestående ordavkodningssvårigheter som anses vara orsakade av nedsättning i fonologiska färdigheter. Till följd av dessa svårigheter har individer med dyslexi ett annorlunda ögonrörelsemönster vid läsning. Individer med dyslexi kan många gånger övervinna sina svårigheter och lyckas i den akademiska världen. Studiens övergipande syfte var att genom en multipel fallstudie undersöka ordavkodning och ögonrörelser hos fem universitetsstudenter med dyslexi. Ögonrörelserna mättes med en dator specialiserad för detta ändamål. En kontrollgrupp av normalläsare (n=20) fördes samman för jämförelse. I föreliggande studie var användning av ordavkodningstest och mätning av ögonrörelser den metodologiska inriktningen. Resultaten visar att alla de fem studenterna med dyslexi har nedsatt ordavkodning och till stor del ett annorlunda ögonrörelsemönster som varierade något dem emellan. De kvalitativa illustrationerna av ögonrörelserna var svårtolkade i jämförelse med de kvantitativa resultaten på testen, dock anses dessa och bakgrundsinformation ge en fördjupad bild av hur en person verkligen läser. Eye tracking- metoden visade sig vara användbar men för ett större forskningsprojekt skulle det krävas att vissa korrigeringar genomfördes. / Dyslexia can be defined as permanent word decoding deficits caused by difficulties with phonological skills. An abnormal eye movement pattern while reading among individuals with dyslexia is a consequence of these difficulties. Many times these individuals overcome their dyslectic difficulties and succeed in the academic world. The purpose of the present study was to investigate five university students with dyslexia through a multiple case study. Word decoding skills and eye movements were measured, and a control group (n=20) was put together for comparison. In the present study, word decoding skills were measured through tests and eye movements were measured by a computer specialized for this purpose. The results showed that the five students have word decoding difficulties and abnormal eye movement patterns which varied to some extent between the five students. In comparison to the quantitative results from the tests the qualitative illustrations of the eye movements were hard to interpret. Although there were difficulties with interpretation, the illustrations and the background information hold significance to understand how a person reads. The eye tracking method in the present study can be useful; however, if more extensive research were to be conducted some modifications would be of importance.

This thesis deals with the difficulties of adults with dyslexia. Not enough attention is being paid to this issue in the Czech Republic. The theoretical part of this thesis characterizes dyslexia and summarizes possible difficulties of adults with dyslexia on the basis of both Czech and foreign information sources. The empirical part of this thesis describes the research, whose main goal is to chart (especially cognitive) difficulties, which are related to common everyday activities. Another area monitored in this thesis is self-efficacy of adults with dyslexia in their everyday life. Data are compared with intact counterparts. The research group consists of 120 respondents, including 60 adults with dyslexia and 60 adults without dyslexia (66 women and 54 men). The intact counterparts were matched with adults with dyslexia based on the same gender, year of birth and highest education received. The whole set of used methods concluded the anamnestic part and three self-evaluation questionnaires - the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire, the Dyslexic difficulties questionnaire (created for the purpose of this thesis) and the General Self-Efficacy scale. The results confirmed higher difficulties of adults with dyslexia. The self-efficacy does not differ, however, it correlates more with difficulties in...

The aim of this thesis was to evaluate the level of reading comprehension in children at risk of developing grammar difficulties. The main goal consisted of assessing the performance and children's success in two experimental groups (with impaired speech development and the familial risk of dyslexia) and one control group (individuals with typical speech development) at the Test of Reading Comprehension based on the YARC diagnostic scale (Hulme et al., 2009). Additionally, we also observed the performance of children throughout a longer period of time. Consequently, it enabled us to compare the performance of children in the original test with the results of the Test of Reading and Comprehension by M. Caravolas and J. Volín (2005), which was administered two years later. Further analysis reveal that the individuals with the impaired speech development performed significantly worse than the children with familial risk of dyslexia whose performance was very much on the same level as the ones with typical speech development. Additionally, we found out that the performance of children in terms of comprehension does not change significantly during their development. The results of this study may be beneficial both for specialists and parents who may obtain a better understanding of their children's...

The significance of reading is undoubted today, while learning to read efficiently is a main aim of every educational system. Reading is one of the greatest challenges that pupils, students and adults have to encounter daily at school, university and professional life, especially dyslexics, for whom it is a really hard and demanding process. Given the importance of reading and the various factors can positively or negatively influence the reading ability, the current study aims to investigate to what extent the reading process is affected a) by familiarity with text, and b) by biological-constitutional factors. In this respect, the reading performance a) of Greek language teachers was compared to that of 12th grade pupils, and b) of adult dyslexic students to that of age-matched normal controls in terms of reading speed, accuracy and comprehension. The reading performance of teachers and pupils was evaluated in an Ancient Greek text and its corresponding translation in Modern Greek. The reading performance of adult dyslexics and controls was evaluated in 2 texts of varying difficulty and a list of words of raising difficulty. Participants read both aloud and silently, while being timed and tape- recorded for further analysis. After reading each text, they answered to reading comprehension questions. Pupils made significantly more reading errors compared to teachers in both Ancient (p < .001) and Modern Greek (p <.05). However, they were significantly faster than teachers in all reading procedures (p < .001), while they did not lack in comprehension (p > .05). Both groups made similar reading errors in both Ancient and Modern Greek. Finally, comparing the two languages, both teachers and pupils were significantly faster (p < .001), comprehended better (p < .001) and were more accurate (p < .05) in Modern Greek. Adult dyslexic students were significantly slower (p < .001), attained lower level of comprehension (p < .05) and made significantly more reading errors (p < .001) than the control group in all reading procedures. In contrast to non-dyslexics who read significantly faster silently (p < .05), dyslexics read at almost the same rate in both aloud and silent condition (p > .05). Additionally, the former attained higher level of comprehension in the silent condition, as opposed to the latter, who showed a trend to comprehend better aloud. Comparing reading in context and out of context, dyslexics made significantly more reading errors in the word list (p < .001), whereas non-dyslexics made comparable reading errors in the word list and the two passages (p > .05). Both groups made similar reading errors. Finally, logistic regression analysis revealed that the 2 groups could be almost perfectly differentiated based on only one variable, namely reading speed (classification accuracy 98.1%). Findings confirmed that the reading process in the phonologically consistent Greek language is influenced by factors, such as language structure and familiarity with print as well as by biological-constitutional factors. Results emphasise on the importance of daily extensive reading practice for a better reading speed, at least, which is essential not only for normal-achieving population but dyslexic readers as well, since reading speed was found to be the latter’s main deficit and the main differentiating factor between dyslexics and controls. The results may be useful for effectively addressing the difficulties encountered not only by pupils who are taught but also by teachers who teach Ancient and Modern Greek, as they may lead to new teaching methods and learning strategies. Also, results might be helpful for the accurate diagnosis of adult dyslexics based on reading speed, as well as for the effective treatment of the difficulties dyslexic university students still encounter, due to their constitutional reading deficit.

This study describes some teacher´s perceptions of how problems with reading and writing difficulties are desciribed in reading and writing analyses. It shows the understanding as it is today, but also the need of further training in the field of reading and writing difficulties. The study is a semi structured interview study with eight high school teachers in two high schools in Sweden and it has a phenomengrafic approach. The teachers in this study are familiar to working with students with reading and writing difficulties and support their students in the classroom. Allthough the study shows some misconceptions of the same type that have previously been shown in international research. There is a lot of intuitive skills in the sense that the teachers interviewed, know that adjustments are needed and, that the students abilities can differ. The formal knowledge of disabilitie effects and what it means for teaching, as expressed in the reading and writing analysis are not complete and the study shows some misconceptions and, in some cases, the lack of basic knowledge. An effect of this is that in some cases, support become meaningless or had an opposite effect.

This paper presents a case study carried through with interviews from three remedial teachers in English working with students with dyslexia at public schools in the south of Sweden. The aim of the study was to investigate the learning strategies used by remedial teachers in order to help students with dyslexia to facilitate their learning process and reach higher grades in English as a foreign language. The results of this study indicated an agreement between the remedial teachers and previous research found regarding the use of technological learning aids, the adjustment made for students with dyslexia as well as using formative assessment. However, the remedial teachers appeared to show a divided approach to the aspect of focusing on grading requirements when supporting student with dyslexia in English. Since previous research on the area of working on grades appeared to be deficient, these finding could indicate a need for research of effective strategies to support students with dyslexia in developing and reaching higher grades in English. This study therefore concludes the necessity of further and wider research within the area of supporting student with dyslexia in the process of learning a foreign language.

Στην παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία θα πραγματευτούμε τις πιθανές μαθησιακές επιπτώσεις της Δυσλεξίας στην Τριτοβάθμια Εκπαίδευση και θα προτείνουμε μεθοδολογίες για την υποστήριξη των εν λόγω φοιτητών, προκειμένου να ενισχυθεί η μαθησιακή διαδικασία και να επιτευχθούν τα μέγιστα γνωστικά αποτελέσματα. Προκειμένου να γίνει αυτό, θα αναφερθούμε αρχικά στο φάσμα των μαθησιακών δυσκολιών, στις οποίες έγκειται και το προς μελέτη θέμα, καταγράφοντας τους ορισμούς που έχουν δοθεί αλλά και τις βασικές κατηγορίες, περιγράφοντας συνοπτικά τα κύρια χαρακτηριστικά τους. Έπειτα, θα αναφερθούμε στη δυσλεξία, παραθέτοντας τους ορισμούς που έχουν δοθεί αλλά και την αιτιολογία της, ενώ στη συνέχεια θα περιγράψουμε τις επιπτώσεις της στην ακαδημαϊκή ζωή του ατόμου, δίνοντας μεγαλύτερη έμφαση στην Τριτοβάθμια Εκπαίδευση. Έχοντας καταγράψει τα πιθανά μαθησιακά προφίλ των φοιτητών, θα αναφερθούμε στην ισχύουσα νομοθεσία και την παρούσα κατάσταση στην ανώτατη εκπαίδευση, ενώ στη συνέχεια, με τη χρήση της ξένης βιβλιογραφίας, θα αναπτύξουμε μεθοδολογικούς κανόνες και προτάσεις προς τους δυσλεκτικούς φοιτητές, προκειμένου να επιτευχθεί η καλύτερη και ομαλότερη εκπαίδευση των εν λόγω ατόμων. Παράλληλα, θα καταγράψουμε τα ισχύοντα πρότυπα για την παραγωγή έντυπου υλικού, ενώ θα αναφερθούμε και στην Υποστηρικτική Τεχνολογία, που χρησιμοποιείται ήδη στο εξωτερικό και είναι καλό να προταθεί για τους εν λόγω φοιτητές για την υποστήριξη της μαθησιακής διαδικασίας. Τόσο η μεθοδολογία όσο και τα πρότυπα, θα παρουσιαστούν με παραδείγματα για την καλύτερη αποτύπωση και περαιτέρω υιοθέτησή τους. Τέλος, κάνοντας μια ανασκόπηση της εν λόγω εργασίας, θα αναφερθούμε στις μελλοντικές προεκτάσεις του συγκεκριμένου θέματος, παραθέτοντας επιπλέον προτάσεις και συμπεράσματα, που μπορούν να διευκολύνουν περαιτέρω το εκπαιδευτικό και μαθησιακό έργο. / The present master thesis deals with the possible cognitive difficulties of Dyslexia in Higher Education and the methodologies which could be used in order to support the educational process. The goal of this thesis is to support dyslexic students in order to improve their academic achievements. For this purpose, we will refer, firstly, to the different types of Learning Difficulties, in which lies the current topic, recording the definitions given and the basic categories with their main characteristics. Then, we will refer to Dyslexia, citing the definitions given and the reasons for, and afterwards, we will describe its impact on the academic life of individual, placing greater emphasis in Higher Education. Having cited the possible learning profiles of dyslexic students, we will refer to the current legislation and the current situation in Higher Education, and then, with the use of the bibliography, we will develop methodological rules and suggestions to dyslexic students, in order to achieve better and smoother education for those individuals. At the same time, we will record the current standards for the production of printed material and we will mention the Assistive Technology which has been already used abroad and has been recommended for these students, for the support of the learning process. Both methodologies and standards will be presented with examples for better mapping and further adoption. Finally, making a review of the current thesis, we will also examine the future implications of the issue, giving additional recommendations and conclusions, which could facilitate further the learning and educational process.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

The experiences of dyslexic adults in education as well as the 'caring professions' of nursing, teaching and social work continue to be fertile ground for academic study. This study extends the range of current academic knowledge of dyslexia in the workplace by exploring the experiences of dyslexic police officers across England and Wales. The context is the extension of disability-related equality legislation to the police service in 2004. The overarching aim of the study is to examine the experiences and perceptions of dyslexic police officers who are 'on-the-streets' and not in the classroom environment. This research is underpinned by the principles of the social model of disability (Oliver 1990) and in it, dyslexia is understood not as a stand-alone difference but rather as an aspect of neurodiversity (Cooper 2009) A qualitative and exploratory research strategy was adopted. Data was collected by way of self-completed questionnaires and from face-to-face semi-structured interviews with twenty-five serving or recently resigned dyslexic police officers from ten police services from across England and Wales. The data was analysed using Layder's theory of domains and his adaptive theory (Layder 2005 & 2013). This study identified that the overwhelming majority of dyslexic police officers experienced a broad range of attitudinal, procedural and police 'barriers' to their full integration into the police organisation. All of the participants in this study had disclosed to their employing police service that they were dyslexic. Participant understanding of dyslexia and disability was deeply rooted within the medical model rather than the social model. The study identified substantial evidence of bullying, and discrimination was identified across the broad range of police services as well as significant failings in the provision of workplace assessments by Job Centre staff. Despite this treatment very few participants complained or sought redress. The dominance of the medical model of disability in wider society, together with negative aspects of police 'occupational' culture, were identified as key factors in the participants' decision making processes. This research concludes that institutional disablism in terms of dyslexia is widespread across some police services in England and Wales despite the extension of the disability discrimination legislation to the police service. The research concludes with some recommendations for policy and practice.