The following extract recommends the Vinegrad Checklist for the purpose of inexpensive (or free) screening of large adult populations, for instance cohorts of first year students in further or higher education.  Further details may be sought in the references given.

Background information is obtainable directly from dyslexic individuals by means of the Adult Dyslexia Checklist.  This originated in the Dyslexia Institute but is now pragmatically named by users in honour of its reviser, Dr Michael Vinegrad, lately of Goldsmiths College.

This consists of 20 questions (e.g. is your spelling poor? Do you mix up bus numbers like 95 and 59?) which may be answered Yes or No. This simple questionnaire has recently been given to 679 adults aged 18 to 68, 79% of whom were students.  32 students in the group had also been assessed as dyslexic and therefore a comparison was enabled between dyslexic (12.7 ‘Yes’ responses on average) and non-dyslexic (mean ‘Yes’ responses 4.4%).  90% of the total sample gave 8 or fewer ‘Yes’ responses.  Twelve questions were especially good indicators of dyslexia, discriminant function analysis revealed, including ‘Do you find difficulty in telling left from right?’

It is hard to see how the screening needs of further and higher Education institutions could be met more cheaply and effectively than by means of this “Vinegrad Checklist”.  The actual checklist is appended.

The method of administration is as follows:

1. Ask the students to fill out the questionnaire as honestly as possible, without any limit of time, but preferably while gathered together in a single session. Ten minutes ought to suffice.
2. Collect the questionnaires, checking that names (and any other information requested, such as year or residence) are given.
3. In the last column, record in the unshaded boxes a tick if the respondent has answered that question with ‘Yes’.
4. Record the total number of ‘Yes’ answers in the box provided at the foot of the page.
5. In the second line of the box, record the total number of ticks in the last column.
6. Select all questionnaires with eight or more ‘Yes’ responses.  This is likely to identify 11% of the student population.  Though this will include all the more dyslexic students, this is still too large a fraction to allow a reasonable chance of intervention.
7. From those identified further select respondents with the most Yes answers in the last column. Positive responses to six or more of these most dyslexia-sensitive questions “may be of greater significance than a high score on the questionnaire as a whole.” (Vinegrad, 1994, p. 22)

Martin Turner, Head of Psychology, The Dyslexia Institute, 6th May 1999

References

1. Vinegrad, M. A Revised Adult Dyslexia Checklist. Educare no. 48, pp. 21-23, March 1994.
2. From: Turner, M. Psychological Assessment of Dyslexia. London: Whurr, 1997, chapter 11.

Revised Adult Dyslexia Checklist

Click here to download a copy of the Adult Dyslexia Checklist