According to a team of educational psychologists, a new definition of dyslexia is far overdue.

That’s because dyslexia was first discovered in 1877. While we’ve had big leaps in our understanding of the condition over the last 147 years, most of those huge strides happened in the 1960s and 1970s, leading to the definition of dyslexia being a little blurry.

In order to diagnose and support those with dyslexia properly, researchers argue in a recent paper in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, the condition needs to be redefined and set in stone.

In fact, Professor Julia Carroll from the University of Birmingham, UK, explained in a statement that the current definition that child psychologists and learning disability specialists have to work from is over 16 years old and not fit for purpose, considering how much our understanding develops over relatively short periods of time:

“There has not been a new attempt to define dyslexia since the Rose Review in 2009. The review provided a definition and argued for specialist teachers to help identify and support dyslexia. Despite the Rose definition significantly influencing practice, it has gathered criticism over the last 15 years and has not been universally accepted.

In addition to this, there is no clear universal pathway for the assessment of children with dyslexia in England, Wales and Northern Island, and the process for identifying learning needs and interventions can vary massively from place to place. Adopting a universal definition for dyslexia is the first step to improving support for children experiencing the challenges of dyslexia.”

Given that around 10% of the population have dyslexia, it is vital that the condition can be identified at an early age, so that children and young people can learn in ways that best suits them, allowing them to develop into happy, healthy adults who can tackle aspects of the world that they find most difficult.

With a proper definition, Professor Carroll continued, any complications arising from late diagnosis can be prevented:

“Dyslexia is a complex learning disorder that can look different from person to person. It can have lasting impacts on education and then on working life if not identified and addressed properly. By not having a universal process to identify and support people with dyslexia, we are letting down so many of our children and young people. If the government is serious about improving SEND provision in schools, then updating and standardising the definition and assessment for dyslexia should be a priority.”

Of course, the research team did not just claim that a new definition was needed.

Rather, they assembled an international team of almost 60 dyslexia experts, and worked together to compile a specific and targeted definition of the condition.

They worked together across their areas of expertise to address all of the areas in which the condition affects a person’s life, to come up with statements that defined dyslexia and a person’s life with it. Then, they voted.

A consensus of more than 80% of the experts’ votes meant that a statement was accepted by the committee, with the final definition comprising ten statements.

These statements spanned every area of a person’s life, including weaker areas of literacy attainment including learning to read, struggles with mathematics and second language acquisition, phonological processing speed, working memory issues, environmental and genetic factors, and co-occurrence with other developmental difficulties.

The new set of statements, known as the Delphi definition of dyslexia, is the next step in assessing and understanding the condition in today’s world.

In assembling their new definition, the researchers also diversified it, allowing it to be applicable across the world, with other factors newly taken into account too, as Professor Carroll explained:

“A definition of a learning disorder such as dyslexia, should allow researchers and practitioners to consistently establish what should, or should not be considered ‘dyslexia’, what the boundaries to diagnosis should include and what elements are important in assessment. Our new definition retains the idea of difficulties with reading and spelling relative to age, ability, or educational expectations.

However, it is less focused on English speakers and children. In line with evidence, we highlight that phonological processing has a causal link to dyslexia, but that other factors also play an important role in explaining variability in presentation. We also note the high rates of co-occurrence between dyslexia and other developmental difficulties.”

If life and learning can be made a little easier by a more overarching yet precise definition such as this, that can only be a good thing.

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