Annals of Dyslexia

, Volume 62, Issue 2, pp 120–134 | Cite as

Identifying high-functioning dyslexics: is self-report of early reading problems enough?

Article
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Abstract

We used a questionnaire to identify university students with self-reported difficulties in reading acquisition during elementary school (self-report; n = 31). The performance of the self-report group on standardized measures of word and non-word reading and fluency, passage comprehension and reading rate, and phonological awareness was compared to that of two other groups of university students: one with a recent diagnosis (diagnosed; n = 20) and one with no self-reported reading acquisition problems (comparison group; n = 33). The comparison group outperformed both groups with a history of reading difficulties (self-report and diagnosed) on almost all measures. The self-report and diagnosed groups performed similarly on most tasks, with the exception of untimed reading comprehension (better performance for diagnosed) and reading rate (better performance for self-report). The two recruitment methods likely sample from the same underlying population but identify individuals with different adaptive strategies.

Keywords

Compensated dyslexics High-functioning dyslexics Reading ability Recruitment 
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Copyright information

© The International Dyslexia Association 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  • S. Hélène Deacon
    • 1
  • Kathryn Cook
    • 1
  • Rauno Parrila
    • 2
  1. 1.Psychology Department Dalhousie UniversityLife Sciences CentreHalifaxCanada
  2. 2.Department of Educational Psychology 6-102 Education North EdmontonUniversity of AlbertaEdmontonCanada

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