The impact of dyslexia in higher education

Good literacy skills are a prerequisite for higher education. Even though reading and writing are considered subconscious processes, some students fail to perform well on these skills, and therefore experience problems during their studies. Higher education students who suffer from these difficulties are frequently diagnosed with dyslexia. The understanding of the neurocognitive profiles of higher education students with dyslexia has increased. Previous research showed that these students encounter difficulties with word reading and word spelling, but also with other skills ranging from phonological processing to working memory. Nonetheless, the impact of dyslexia is wider. Students with dyslexia also demonstrate problems with reading comprehension, writing and second language (L2) learning, skills that are essential for academic success. However, research on these topics is limited, as few studies have focused on these so-called secondary consequences of dyslexia. This thesis investigates the wide-range impact of dyslexia in higher education, such as its effect on word and text reading – investigated by means of the novel Flamingo Test – as well as L1 (Dutch) and L2 (English) reading comprehension and writing. By comparing students with dyslexia to a matched control group, we found that students with dyslexia perform significantly poorer on word and text reading in Dutch. Both groups perform similarly on answering true/false and open questions after reading a text in Dutch, but poorer in English. Summary writing showed to be significantly more difficult in both languages for the students with dyslexia. Altogether, these findings stress the wide-reaching impact of dyslexia in higher education.