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Coaching Adults with Dyslexia to Improve Performance at Work

Nancy Doyle C. Psychol.

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How does dyslexia impact on workplace performance?

To what extent does coaching dyslexics in the workplace improve their performance?

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‘Neuro-diversity’

Phonological Deficit: Book: Guest, 2009 / Research: Shaywitz et al. 1990sVisual Bias: Book: Eide and Eide, 2011 / Research Von Karolyi et al. 2001 +

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Workplace impact

Memory

• Remembering verbal instructions

• Keeping track in meetings

Organisational Skills

• Filing• Managing

emails• Keeping track

of equipment

Time Management

• Prioritising workload

• Meeting deadlines

• Estimating how long things will take

Literacy

• Basics – spelling and grammar

• Structuring reports

• Reading lengthy material

Difficulties: Bartlett, Moody & Kindersley, 2010

Entrepreneurialism: Logan, 2010

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Equality Act 2010

Dyslexia Prevalence in the working population 4-8% (Rose, 2009)

In the population of long term unemployed 28% (Kirby, 2012)

Access to Work refers 3000 dyslexics per year (Gifford, 2011)

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Evaluating the coaching

Who?

• 95 coaching clients in the UK mainly referred through Access to Work or Occupational Health

• 41 men, 44 women

• Aged between 23 and 59

• All receiving coaching to improve workplace productivity on account of being dyslexic and / or dyspraxic

• Average of 9.86 hours received over 4.6 sessions

How?

• Both manager and client asked to identify topics to cover and then independently give a score out of 10 for their current performance

• Coaching delivered by professional work based coaches with a level 5 certificate in coaching

• Researcher calls 1 month after coaching and asks for current performance again, without revealing the initial score

• Regression Analysis and ANOVA used to investigate distance travelled and key topics covered

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Worki

ng Mem

ory

Organisa

tional Sk

ills

Spell

ing

Grammar

Mangin

g Tim

e

Planning

Stress

Man

agem

ent

Communicating y

our nee

ds

Reading

Prioriti

sing

Writi

ng Styl

e

Dyslex

ia Aware

ness

Numeracy

Handwriti

ng

Finding D

irecti

ons0%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

Worki

ng Mem

ory

Organisa

tional Sk

ills

Mangin

g Tim

e

Spell

ing

Grammar

Planning

Stress

Man

agem

ent

Prioriti

sing

Reading

Writi

ng Styl

e

Communicating y

our nee

ds

Dyslex

ia Aware

ness

Numeracy

Handwriti

ng

Finding D

irecti

ons0%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

% Clients responding

% Managers responding

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Impact on Perceived Productivity

Clients report a 57% improvementManagers report a 28% improvement

clients managers0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

7.00

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Does the amount of coaching affect outcomes?

For clients, the number of sessions significantly affected their scores for:

Working memory (F=2.35 p=.019)Spelling (F= 2.201, p= .043)Organisation (F=2.064, p=.048)

The hours of coaching significantly affected scores for:

Planning scores (F=2.438, p=.021)

For managers, the number of sessions significantly affected:

Dyslexia Awareness (F=4.095, p=.028)Communicating their needs (F=3.403, p=.041)

Whereas the hours of coaching significantly affected:

Numeracy (F=3.822, p=.042)

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Do any topics have a ‘halo effect’?

Planning

Prioriti

sing

Short

term m

emory

Time m

anag

emen

t

Grammar

Stress

man

agem

ent

Handwriti

ng

**Fin

ding dire

ctions

Writi

ng

Organisa

tion

**Rea

ding

**Sp

elling

**Numera

cy

**Dysl

exia

aware

ness

**Communica

ting nee

ds0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

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So what?

Does this mean the assessors are doing

a good job?

Is there a different independent

variable that we haven’t measured ?

Are we looking at individual facets of

more global factors?

Does the distance travelled simply

reflect their expectations?

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What next?

How does this compare to technology alone?

Technology combined?

Can we correlate coach’s reflections on distance

travelled?

A further study relating self report measure and

external measures of performance

What are the other things the coaches are

doing that might impact, for example, discussions around diet and sleep?

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Signposting

What might you notice?

• Difficulty managing appointments• Forgetting or failing to follow up

on verbal advice• Poor articulation• Going off on tangents• Workplace stress absence• Poor personal organisation• Clumsiness, lack of driving skills

(dyspraxia)• Chaotic personal life, multiple

jobs (ADHD)

Where can be done?

• Referral to Access to Work• Referral to Occupational Health• Companies are legally obliged to

take neuro-diversity seriously and risk Unfair Dismissal cases if they fail to make ‘reasonable adjustments’

• Technology adjustments• Coaching programmes• Video Learning Journeys and

online specialist support

Albert Einstein

“If you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing it is stupid.”

67% of our clients report depression, anxiety, work-related stress and / or

insomnia

Correctly identifying the root cause is the first step to getting on the right track