Anne Treisman Lecture 2023: Dyslexia Reconsidered: Multiple pathways from Language to Reading?

Professor Maggie Snowling, Emeritus Research Fellow in Psychology at the University of Oxford, delivered the 2023 Anne Treisman Lecture, which was chaired by Professor Kate Nation (Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford).
ABSTRACT
The classic view of dyslexia is of a specific learning disorder characterized by a selective impairment of phonological processing which compromises reading development. Research evidence now challenges this view and highlights the impact of poor language on learning to reading. With findings from a longitudinal study of children at high-risk of dyslexia as a backdrop, I will argue that oral language is the foundation for literacy and that there is more than one developmental pathway to poor reading. Comparing the developmental trajectories of children who develop ‘pure dyslexia’ with those who have dyslexia in the context of co-occurring impairments of oral language (DLD) confirms the view that risk factors accumulate to determine the severity of reading impairment. In closing I will draw out the implications of this multifactorial view of reading difficulties for intervention, educational policy and practice.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Professor Maggie Snowling joined St. John’s College in September 2012 and was President until 2022. She is an Honorary Professor in the Department of Experimental Psychology and also holds an honorary contract as a clinical psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry. Before this, she was Professor of Psychology at the University of York where she co-directed the Centre for Reading and Language.
She completed her first degree in Psychology at Bristol and her doctorate at University College London under the supervision of the eminent psychologist, Uta Frith. Later she qualified as a clinical psychologist. She is a Past-President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading and was one of the Joint Editors of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. She served as a member of Sir Jim Rose’s Expert Advisory Group on provision for Dyslexia in 2009 and as an expert member of the Education for All: Fast Track Initiative group in Washington DC in 2011. She has offered advice to the Government Departments of Education and of International Development, particularly in relation to the early years and specific learning difficulties (SpLD).
She is a Fellow of the British Academy and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. She holds honorary doctorates from Goldsmiths London (2010), University College London (2014), Warwick University (2016) and University of Bristol (2019) for contributions to the science of reading and dyslexia and was appointed CBE for services to science and the understanding of dyslexia in 2016.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Professor Maggie Snowling’s research focuses on children’s language and learning and she is specifically interested in the nature and causes of children’s reading difficulties and how best to ameliorate them. In recent years, her work has focused on longitudinal studies of children at high-risk of reading problems, and she have been involved in the implementation of randomised controlled trials assessing the efficacy of reading and language interventions in projects led by Charles Hulme in the Department of Education.