Support for Dyslexic Pupils

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Tuesday 11th November 2025 Westminster Hall

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

It is such a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I thank the hon. Members for Yeovil (Adam Dance) and Broxtowe (Juliet Campbell) for securing this vital discussion of dyslexia. Dyslexia is an evolving issue, with the definition being discussed as we speak. One in 10 children—more than a million—are potentially dyslexic, but the definition itself is too narrow to address the issue, which we have to work on.

Dyslexia diagnosis is difficult at the best of times, but unfortunately it is even more difficult for some than it is for others. There is real inequality of diagnosis. As the hon. Member for Broxtowe said, for too many families diagnosis depends not just on the child’s ability, but on the parents’ bank balance. The figures are really stark. Work done by the Sutton Trust and others shows that 90% of dyslexic children in households that earn more than £100,000 have a formal diagnosis, while only 43% in households earning less than £30,000 receive one. The inequality continues even after diagnosis, with just 30% of young people from lower-income households describing the support that they receive at school as “good”, whereas for children from wealthier families, that figure rises to 86%. When private assessments by a specialist teacher cost £540 on average, and by an educational psychologist £720, they are frankly out of reach for too many people. I read something many years ago in which a commentator summed it up very painfully:

“Rich parents have dyslexic children; poor parents have thick children”.

That is something we need to address.

Another issue widens the gap: race. Unfortunately, many children from black, Asian or ethnic minority communities simply do not know what the term dyslexia means. Expert Jannett Morgan notes that more than 80% of young, black British people who are dyslexic are not diagnosed

“until they are in university and are pushed to their limits.”

She has spoken about the burden of labels, such as being black and being female, and asked whether they need “another label” of being dyslexic. We see then how visible and hidden differences together compound disadvantages even further. Early research into neuro- diversity ignored race, and the experiences of many children were written out of the story altogether. That too must be addressed.

As the hon. Member for Broxtowe said, studies have shown that approximately 30% of our prison population have dyslexia—the true figure could be as high as 56%—so we need to help our children in order to help ourselves. Our schools also need adequate training resources. Teachers are doing their best, but the truth is that many do not have the capacity to identify and support dyslexic pupils effectively. Special educational needs co-ordinators are often overstretched and provision varies significantly between schools. There are currently no consistent national standards for SENCO training or for the level of support children should receive. Teachers want to help, but without time, funding and specialist guidance, their ability to do so is limited.

We also need more clinical research into tools and aids that actually assist our dyslexic population. I declare my interest here as an optometrist. We have provisions available for children, such as changing background colours, coloured overlays and tinted lenses, and it does work. I have seen grown men crying when, for the first time, they have been able to read to their children. Such measures are really effective, but the evidence is still incomplete. The Government should commission research to identify which tools genuinely make a difference, so that schools can adopt the evidence-based approaches, rather than just relying on anecdote and trial and error.

I am very lucky that in my constituency of Leicester South we have Every Cherry Publishing, which offers a specialist range of books for dyslexic children and adults, bringing classics like “Frankenstein” and “A Christmas Carol”, among other stories, to be enjoyed by people with dyslexia. Their books incorporate senses, signs and images to cater for students. That is the work of educator turned publisher Emma Steel, and these books are changing lives.

The British Dyslexia Association is calling for urgent and practical action. We need a national strategy for dyslexia, universal assessments and screening tools, a national standard for SENCO provision, greater investment in research, and real, sustained support for our schools.