Lots of children go through school thinking they are stupid, when actually they have dyslexia

Deborah Franks

Research by the students confirmed that both the sound and the spelling of words play an important role in determining word familiarity.

"If there was a simple lexical test for young children we could detect phonetic dyslexia in just a few minutes," Miss Franks said.

"Lots of young people fall through the net with dyslexia because teachers aren't trained to diagnose the condition."

Tests 'too late'

The tests which are currently available are only used when dyslexia is suspected in a child aged about 10 or over, she said.

"By that time the child may already be behind at school and thinking that he's not as bright as other children.

"We could prevent so much misery - lots of children go through school thinking they are stupid, when actually they have dyslexia," she said.

Many boys experience difficulties writing

The research involved drawing up two lists, one containing a mixture of English words and "non-words", the other a range of English words and pseudo-homophones, (words that sound correct but are spelt incorrectly), such as brane, rane and bloo.

Thirty people, aged between 20 and 45, were timed as they identified the genuine words.

The researchers found that it took longer to read and reject pseudo-homophones than the "non-words" and genuine words, signifying that people use sound and spelling when reading.

"Say you read the word 'praid' - it sounds right and it has the same meaning as 'prayed', but it's wrong and therefore it takes another second or so to check the spelling.

Mental lexicon

"Whereas a non-word is thrown out immediately because it doesn't match anything in the mental lexicon," Miss Franks explained.

Similarly, she added, a genuine word is recognised easily by the mental lexicon - a form of mental dictionary.

Both students are hoping to develop their research in a doctorate, if they are able to secure funding.

"Someone needs to pick this up - obviously we don't have much time at the moment because we're undergraduates," Miss Franks said.

'Ethical issues'

She envisages future research would involve going into primary schools and testing four and five-year-olds.

"There are ethical issues to resolve," Miss Franks said.

"Some people might be concerned about tests for children so young, but I think it could be done in such as way that they think it's all a game and then it wouldn't disrupt or psychologically scar them."

It was in recognition of such concerns that the undergraduates tested adults for the purposes of their research.

Miss Franks and Ms Volland will present their findings at the British Psychological Society conference this week.