An exploration of teacher’s and Educational Psychologist’s perceptions about the role of the Educational Psychologists in labelling dyslexia

Across the country, there has been continuous debate around the topic of dyslexia and growing contention around the use of labels for literacy difficulties. In educational settings whilst the term dyslexia might be well-known, literature proposes that the term is still broadly misunderstood, and many misconceptions abound. Previous research has directly sought views of children, parents and teachers around the benefits and drawbacks of the term dyslexia as well as indicating that a key role of the Educational Psychologist (EP) is associated with individual assessment of children’s needs. This literature, alongside government recommendations regarding identification of dyslexia, suggests that EPs are diagnosing dyslexia. However, in practice this is not always the case. Researchers thus far have neglected to explore the potentially contrasting views between different educational professionals around the role of EPs in labelling dyslexia within the UK. This exploratory research therefore conducted semi-structured interviews in one local authority to investigate teachers and EPs perceptions about the role of EPs in labelling dyslexia and explore possible differences in perceptions. Reflexive Thematic Analysis was used to analyse the data and the following themes were generated: ‘The EP role’, ‘Definition of dyslexia’, ‘Equality in labelling’, ‘The utility of the label’, ‘Other professionals who have a role in labelling dyslexia’, ‘The importance of the EP relationship/interaction with key stakeholders’, ‘The meaning of the label’, ‘EP involvement’, and ‘The role of schools’. The findings are considered in the context of existing research and the limitations of the study are discussed. The contribution of this work provides an insight into the differences in educational professionals’ expectations of EP’s involvement, particularly regarding labelling literacy difficulties, and highlights issues for further exploration to facilitate effective collaboration between teachers and EPs. The implications for EPs and teachers are considered and suggestions for further research are recommended.