Some school pupils are being labeled as dyslexic because the specialist bureaus which make the diagnoses have a vested interest in doing so, education minister Jet Bussemaker is quoted as saying by broadcaster NOS.

Bussemaker was responding to claims by a university professor on Thursday, who said that dyslexia is due to poor teaching.

Anna Bosman, a professor at Radboud University in Nijmegen who has researched the condition since 2007 told the AD she believes many children are diagnosed with serious difficulties with reading and mathematics unnecessarily.

‘They just don’t practice enough,’ she told the paper, advocating daily dictation lessons. ‘Children need to have the rules of spelling firmly in their heads. For example, that a g sound before a t is almost always a ‘ch’ and not a ‘g’.”

Bussemaker told NOS that this could be one reason for the surge in dyslexia cases. However, other things are also at stake, she said.

‘It is very simple,’ the minister said. ‘The people who assign the labels want to meet the parents’ wishes. And they want other parents and children to visit them as well.’

Dyslexia tests cost upwards of €500, with the most around the €800 mark. Tests are sometimes funded by local councils and health insurance companies but often parents have to foot the bill.

Conclusion

Bussemaker said she regarded Bosman’s research as extremely important but said she could not draw a definitive conclusion.’I do not want to say that the reason why more and more children are classed as dyslexic is due to this or that,’ she said. ‘But I do take this research extremely seriously.’

In some high schools, the AD reports, 30% of children are diagnosed with dyslexia, and other studies have suggested that almost one in seven secondary school pupils gets extra help with their exams due to dyslexia or other problems.

Last year, school inspectors pointed out that the children of well off parents are more likely to be labelled dyslexic or has having adhd, which also entitles them to extra teaching time.