Dyslexia 'is just a middle-class way to hide stupidity' | the Daily Mail
Dyslexia is a social fig leaf used by middle-class parents who fear their children will be labelled as low achievers, a professor has claimed.
Julian Elliott, a leading educational psychologist at Durham University, says he has found no evidence to identify dyslexia as a medical condition after more than 30 years of research.
"There is a huge stigma attached to low intelligence," he said.
"After years of working with parents, I have seen how they don't want their child to be considered lazy, thick or stupid.
"If they get called this medically diagnosed term, dyslexic, then it is a signal to all that it's not to do with intelligence."
He added: "There are all sorts of reasons why people don't read well but we can't determine why that is. Dyslexia, as a term, is becoming meaningless."
One in ten people in the UK - including 375,000 schoolchildren - has been diagnosed with dyslexia.
Dyslexia is a social fig leaf used by middle-class parents who fear their children will be labelled as low achievers, a professor has claimed.
Julian Elliott, a leading educational psychologist at Durham University, says he has found no evidence to identify dyslexia as a medical condition after more than 30 years of research.
"There is a huge stigma attached to low intelligence," he said.
"After years of working with parents, I have seen how they don't want their child to be considered lazy, thick or stupid.
"If they get called this medically diagnosed term, dyslexic, then it is a signal to all that it's not to do with intelligence."
He added: "There are all sorts of reasons why people don't read well but we can't determine why that is. Dyslexia, as a term, is becoming meaningless."
One in ten people in the UK - including 375,000 schoolchildren - has been diagnosed with dyslexia.
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