Greek university students with dyslexia: an interview study

Abstract

This paper reports a study exploring the personal and educational experiences of Greek students with dyslexia in higher education. Interviews with 16 students with dyslexia (11 male and five female) were conducted to investigate how they experienced school, peer relations, labelling, family support, university, self‐esteem and how they made their future plans. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Primary school was remembered by interviewees as a series of unhappy and distressing memories that had a negative effect on their self‐esteem. As they grew older, problems were more limited to academic skills, and they developed friendships with peers. The time in which they were diagnosed as dyslexic was important because it opened the way to adaptation. Students with dyslexia experienced a variety of difficulties at university, and employed a number of coping strategies to deal with them. The findings of the present study seem to indicate that the recipe for a favourable outcome appears to be early diagnosis, explanation of the diagnosis to the student, parental support and suitable teaching and help at school and at university. Further research is needed into how to make schools and universities more ‘dyslexia friendly’, and on how the secondary effects of dyslexia can be reduced.