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Chapter 2 - Dyslexia, Anxiety and Social/Emotional Barriers in Higher Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2021

Amanda T. Abbott-Jones
Amanda T. Abbott-Jones
Affiliation:
Independent Dyslexia Consultants, London
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Summary

This chapter shows that, historically and internationally, key developments and literature on dyslexia and higher education have had little emphasis on or investigation into emotional consequences of dyslexia for university students and their ways of coping. Although legislation introduced in the United Kingdom during the 1990s led to improved provision for students with dyslexia, which is discussed, existing research on dyslexia in higher education has historically been characterised by two main themes: quantitative studies investigating the nature of underlying cognitive deficits in dyslexic university students (Bruck, 1990; Lefly & Pennington, 1991; Ramus, Pidgeon & Frith, 2003) and research evaluating adequacy of provision, which has not included looking at emotional support provision (Mortimore & Crozier, 2006; Griffin & Pollak, 2009). The few previous studies indicating that dyslexia and anxiety are a problem for dyslexic students (Riddick et al., 1999; Carroll & Iles, 2006), which are discussed here as underpinning the work in the book, are small-scale, principally quantative and not based on lived experiences of students with dyslexia. The chapter therefore concludes that emotional barriers to learning for dyslexic students, and ways students are coping with cognitive and emotional demands, need to be recognised, further explored and recorded from the dyslexic students’ perspectives.

Keywords

dyslexia and higher educationemotional consequences of dyslexiacopingdisability legislationcognitive deficitsadequacy of provisionanxietyemotional barriers to learningcognitive and emotional demands
Type
Chapter
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Dyslexia in Higher Education
Anxiety and Coping Skills
 , pp. 29 - 66
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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