Research Section: Personal Constructs and Attribution for Academic Success and Failure in Dyslexia

Neil Humphrey published a previous article, on self–esteem and dyslexia, in BJSE . This paper, jointly authored by Dr Humphrey, recently appointed as a lecturer in the psychology of education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manchester, and Dr Patricia M. Mullins, senior lecturer in special educational needs at Liverpool John Moores University and the supervisor of Neil Humphrey’s PhD thesis, explores the relationships between dyslexia and the ways in which pupils perceive themselves as learners. Making extensive links with other relevant research, the authors conclude by suggesting that ‘the problems that children with dyslexia encounter have negative consequences for their self–development’. Humphrey and Mullins also propose that, while further research is needed, we already know enough about how to make schools more ‘dyslexia friendly’ to begin to tackle these difficulties at an early stage in children’s education.