Academic abilities and habits of college students with developmental dyslexia

Developmental dyslexia is characterized by poor spelling and decoding skills in children with typical intelligence, and aspects of dyslexia such as slow reading persist into adulthood. Numerous studies have examined the cognitive profiles of young adults with dyslexia, and other studies have used surveys to examine the subjective experience of young adults with dyslexia, but there is a persistent need to combine cognitive measures with the survey data. The present study asks: How do college students with dyslexia report their academic abilities and habits, and do their reports match their cognitive profiles? Data was collected from college students both with and without a history of dyslexia. A survey was conducted in which participants were asked to self-evaluate their a) inherent academic or cognitive abilities and b) learned academic skills or habits. Separate multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs) were conducted to compare academic abilities and habits in students with dyslexia and with typical reading. For academic abilities, there was no main effect of dyslexia status. However, the groups differed in their self-evaluation of reading fluency. Participants’ reading fluency self-evaluation and their scores from normative testing were then analyzed for correlations. Reading fluency self-evaluations correlated with real-word reading, nonword reading, reading fluency, and phonological awareness. For the analysis of academic habits, there was no main effect of dyslexia status or significantly different ratings. Reading fluency continues to be an area of difficulty for students with dyslexia in higher education. The results also suggest that many students with dyslexia have academic habits equivalent to their peers. Thus, the existing resources and accommodations for students with dyslexia in a university setting may be appropriate.