Sir, Your articles about dyslexia diagnosis (report and times2, May 28) report that children use the diagnosis to unfair advantage. Yes, people abuse the system but this is the same with any kind of system that depends on people taking tests.

As a sufferer of both dyslexia and dyspraxia, I understand the difficulty it causes in trying to keep up with the rest of my classmates. Throughout my educational life I have had tests about every two years, and these tests are used to reassess my needs to keep my tutorials relevant to me. If the system has been done the way it is supposed to, then it would be very difficult for a child to fake the results of the test repeatedly.

There are a number of different ways that dyslexia can affect an individual, and I don’t think that it is intelligent to say that dyslexia is just a difficulty in reading. Dyslexia affects my reading, writing, spelling and comprehension, making it difficult for me to break down the questions asked in my university exams, even with the extra time granted to me. For coursework and assignments extra time is not given to those with a disability, because it is made clear that if you have a problem then you are expected to allow for this in your preparation for an assignment.

I am now just completing the second year of my degree in history at the University of Winchester, and I believe that the help given to me throughout my educational life has been unquestionably beneficial to me making it this far.

If dyslexia is not a real problem then I would like to know what is wrong with all the people out there that find it so difficult to read, write and comprehend at a basic level.

T. BICKFORD
Basingstoke, Hants

Sir, If students with dyslexia are allowed more time to complete an exam, should others who read particularly well be allowed less?

If the whole point of an exam is to assess a specific ability, then giving more time to those who are likely to do poorly, for whatever reason, simply results in that assessment being less accurate.

IAN WRIGHT
Isle of Man

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