Impact of the Time of Diagnosis on the Perceived Competence of Adolescents with Dyslexia

Intergroup comparison studies have shown that children with specific learning disorders hold lower self-perceptions regarding their abilities than their typically developing peers, especially in an academic setting. This small-scale study investigated the potential effect of diagnostic timing on competency perceptions within a sample of adolescents with dyslexia, either diagnosed in primary or secondary school, but paired on duration of intervention and academic impairment. Perceived competence was assessed via self-report on an academic, social, and more general level. These measures were complemented by open-ended questions investigating pupils' understanding and tolerance of their dyslexia. Early-diagnosed adolescents were found to hold higher academic and general competency perceptions. Moreover, pupils' personal statements to the open-ended questions revealed a statistically significant association between time of diagnosis and understanding as well as tolerance of dyslexia, indicating that early-diagnosed adolescents, compared with their late-diagnosed peers, have more adequate representations of their reading disorder as specific and non-stigmatizing and are more open to announcing their dyslexia to others. These preliminary findings suggest that diagnostic timing might lead early-diagnosed adolescents to a more adequate understanding of their dyslexia, which might also be related to higher competency perceptions.