How do primary school children make sense of their being diagnosed with dyslexia? : a grounded theory study

Abstract

With the increasing awareness of specific learning difficulties, and continuous demands on the educational psychologist working in a school setting, to assess and diagnose, it is valuable to explore children鈥檚 experience of getting a diagnosis, how they construct their understanding of the diagnosis and how they assimilate it. Research considering children鈥檚 views on receiving and assimilating the diagnosis of dyslexia and their meaning making of dyslexia after disclosure and its impact on them is very limited. To address this gap, five 7-10-year-old children participated in four group sessions that explored how children with dyslexia construct the meaning of their diagnosis and its implication for their well-being. Grounded theory analysis identified 鈥淧ositive meaning making contributes to hope鈥� as the core category that highlighted a process that children go through in the meaning making of dyslexia diagnosis. This comprised of the categories 鈥淔eeling scared鈥�, 鈥淚 have dyslexia, but it is OK鈥�, 鈥淔acing adversities鈥� and 鈥淐oping with dyslexia.鈥� The core category was positioned in the context of Snyder鈥檚 theory of Hope (1994). The study contributes a fresh insight on dyslexia contrary to the prevalent deficit lens. The findings help professionals reflect on how to best approach the communication of a dyslexia diagnosis to children and what support services best to offer children in their journey towards a positive meaning making of this challenge.