Week 3: Explaining dyslexia

Introduction

In Week 3, you’ll embark on an in-depth exploration of the explanations that have been offered to account for the observed symptoms of dyslexia. You will study the biological, cognitive, and behavioural perspectives that are linked to the signs of dyslexia.

Afterwards, this week will move onto the world of neurodiversity. You’ll evaluate how traits of neurodivergent conditions can overlap e.g. dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD. Learning about these neurodevelopmentally will explain how these disorders interfere with the learning of academic and/or social skills and encounter some of the same kinds of learning problems.

Brain development is an open process that continues through the life span, and many of the conditions you will study are hereditary. Therefore, this week aims to make you aware of different developmental conditions aside from dyslexia, so that we can create an environment that provides and compensates for neurodiverse people – a social model.

By the end of this week, you should be able to:

• outline different explanations given for the observed symptoms of dyslexia
• understand the term ‘neurodiversity’, and the range of differences in individual brain function and behavioural traits
• give a brief overview of the four most common conditions and learning difficulties that are considered ‘neurodivergent’, in addition to dyslexia.