it is possible to diagnose pre-disposition to dyslexia at a very early age. pre-school certainly; by screening for phoemic awareness; the ability to recognise and reproduce individual letter sounds. Sounds simple , but it is NOT for someone with dyslexic tendencies.

The problem is easy to spot , and specialised teaching at this early stage can be put into place. All this before the child even begins to learn to read.

ana, hong kong,

Rather than putting a specialist in every school why not employ a developmental movement programmespecifically to aid learning for all children in early years. It would remove many of the problems and highlight the few who need extra input. Blanket coverage is needed because the problems are present for so many in different degrees. One specialist per school would only be able to deal with those identified but for each of them there are many more who go unnoticed.
This would be the most cost effective way to deal with the problem giving benefit to more than the selected few.
Gwyneth Jeyes Newark Notts

Gwyneth jeyes, Newark, Nottinghamshire

has it occurred to government that the estimated 75% of prison inmates with learning difficulties might not be where they are today (costing great human suffering and billions of pounds to the taxpayer) if their problems were sorted out at school as infants?

Georgie, Pewsey,

If we simply gave the children who were falling behind the extra help they needed, instead of insisting they are diagnosed with something before teachers can step in, there would be no problem.
Labelling a child who is mildly dyslexic, or simply a later developer than their peers, as having "special needs" does no-one any good.
It is not a "special need" to have a few extra lessons to bring a child up to standard, but literacy is a right that every child should have.

Camilla, Burnley,

How is this news? They obviously have SOME learning difficulty, they're not learning. Besides which, everybody wants to be dyslexic these days because they get all kinds of things free, ( computers, university fees etc etc).

judy, Liverpool, England

We hear so much about children with "learning difficulties" and not enough about teachers with "teaching difficulties". Children do not come off an assembly line - they are all different. Rudolph Steiner had the answer but no one was listening.

Terence Griffiths, St martin de Landelles, France

Dyslexia was not even thought of when I went to school and there were no help.

Its like being locked into a vacum when spelling - so it learned to memorise most words I use or keep things very short.

Glad Helen had the support.

Steve, London,

The results of this study does not surprise me. I was diagnosed with Dyslexia at the age of 18 at University - so I went through school not knowing that I had it and without any extra help.

To be honest, I'm very glad that I didn't know I had Dyslexia at school. I know several intelligent people who have been "written off" by parents & teachers because they, incorrectly, feel that Dyslexia will doom them to be a "failure in life". Of course, this is far from the truth (just a little more effort is required). If I had of known, I don't think my teachers or parents would have pushed to do well in studies or encouraged me to go to University.

So in my experience, it's not the Dyslexia itself which causes the problem(although it does make things more challenging), it's one's own and others reaction to it and negative view of it.

Helen, East Yorkshire, Hull