Jamie Oliver-Beyond the Screener: Why Dyslexia Needs More Than a One-Click Solution
“Children don’t fit neatly into boxes. Screeners may be missing vulnerable students”
Jamie Oliver’s recent Channel 4 documentary, Jamie’s Dyslexia Revolution, sparked a much-needed national conversation, one that echoes deeply for so many educators, parents, and, most importantly, for the thousands of children who are still being missed.
Jamie himself was one of them. Undiagnosed at school. Misunderstood. Underestimated. Today, he is using his platform to shine a light on a systemic blind spot, calling for early screening and better training for teachers to identify dyslexia in its earliest forms.
But here’s the truth we must say out loud: Screening alone is not the solution. Furthermore, some families have gone beyond screening and have full diagnostic assessments and require appropriate interventions.
The Problem with One-Size-Fits-All Screeners
Many schools are now using computer-based screeners to identify children at risk of dyslexia. While these tools may promise speed and efficiency, they often lack what truly matters: relationship, observation, and the nuanced insight that comes from trained human beings.
Computer-based screeners capture a snapshot, a few minutes in time. But dyslexia is not a moment. It’s a lived, layered experience that reveals itself in patterns of struggle, resilience, frustration, and genius. It shows up in between the places where the data points measure output and scores. They’re invisible to algorithms.
Qualified assessors don’t just “score” dyslexia.
They witness it, the nuances and coping strategies. They see the avoidance, the masking, the melt-downs. They see the child trying hard yet struggling to achieve. They can observe how they coped and which tests put them under stress, how they responded to that stress, what strategy did they put in place. Assessors can listen to the tone when reading, the hesitation, the self-doubt. They can observe the strategy used to answer comprehension questions, not simply as ‘yes/no’ or ‘correct/incorrect’ answer. In fact, these nuances can help assessors to form informed decisions and perhaps even onward refer to language therapists or occupational therapists. This kind of witnessing can’t be programmed into a machine.
When we rely solely on staff who have not ben trained to assess and automated tools, we risk missing the very children who need us most.
Who Gets Missed?
The same children who always do. Those who mask well. Those who are well-behaved but “slow”. Those who act out because they’re frustrated.
There is also the danger that some families may misunderstand a screening as a diagnosis. It is not. Far more can be discovered and individualised recommendations made by a full diagnostic assessment. When screeners are treated as diagnosis tools, especially by staff with little or no training in dyslexia, we can miss a child who may be struggling or miss the opportunity to onward refer for other conditions which co-exist. The Delphi Definition has indicated that it is unlikely that dyslexia stands alone, and Professor Amanda Kirby has suggested it is more likely the norm that there are co-existing learning difficulties.
This is something which my co-writers and I explored in our book What if it’s not Dyslexia? Often, we found we needed to onward refer to other colleagues in other disciplines, such as speech and language, occupational therapy, audiology or specialist behavioural optometrists. In our book we discuss how at times, the children we have worked with in fact needed other interventions before specialist dyslexia intervention should be introduced, in such cases as sensory integration difficulties or language development delay for example, children would have benefited from therapy first or at least concurrently to enable them to get the most from dyslexia intervention.
From Snapshot to Story: What True Identification Requires
Professor Julia Carroll and Dr Penelope Hannant have spoken wisely about the limitations of our current system in a recent article from Birmingham University: Read more here
- Screeners aren’t designed to predict long-term outcomes.
- Dyslexia doesn’t follow one neat profile, it’s diverse and complex.
- Teachers, not tools, hold the deepest insight through daily observation and relational trust.
To truly support dyslexic learners, we need more than a tick-box approach. We need a system that sees the child behind the score.
That’s why the call for in-house dyslexia specialists is so vital.
These are not just interventionists. They are guides, mentors, and bridges between students and the support they need. They don’t just deliver strategies they help embed inclusive practice throughout the school.
The Real Revolution: A Whole-System Shift
Jamie Oliver’s documentary outlines two major proposals:
- Universal screening – which could be a starting point if backed by expertise and follow-up.
- Better teacher training which includes training on dyslexia – essential, but not a quick fix.
However, as highlighted, dyslexia rarely stands alone and therefore we need teacher training to go wider than just dyslexia. I’m not suggesting that we ask teachers to become specialists in all areas of neurodivergence. However, having an insight of when it’s not dyslexia or when an additional condition is co-existing, this puts a very different lens on how and when intervention should take place, even who should deliver it. In our book, What if it’s not Dyslexia?, we reflect on the many conditions which might present as dyslexia or even impact reading and spelling development. We recognise of course that dyslexia is more than just literacy achievements. However, by missing other conditions we may be failing to give the appropriate support which can be farther reaching than just literacy development. An individual who has ASD, ADHD, auditory processing difficulties or selective mutism, very much require additional levels of support.
I consider we should have the opportunity to train more teachers in areas of specialism and agree with Professor Julia Carroll and Dr Penelope Hannant that more funding is required for specialist teachers within schools. However, there needs to be a system where multi-disciplinary teams meet to discuss children with complex difficulties. In my experience, I see children’s EHCPs discussed at annual reviews and too often we expect one TA to be delivering classroom support, dyslexia intervention and speech and language support, maybe some OT recommendations too. We cannot put such a weight on TAs, especially one person.
This is even more important give the current political rumours to support more children with SEN within mainstream schools, rather than specialist schools and reviewing the current system of issuing EHCPs. Headteachers are already stating they do not have the resources to support children with SEN within mainstream schools.
I understand that diagnostic assessments can be expensive and for families that can be a stretch too far to access assessments privately. However, children with SEN don’t just need a diagnosis or label, they need appropriate support, from trained staff in a specific area of specialism, using specialist intervention programmes.
If you’d like to know more about CodeBreakers dyslexia intervention for your school contact me here.
Let’s offers immediate, classroom-based strategies. Not just labels. Support.
Let’s build systems that:
- Train every teacher in neurodiversity from day one and keep training them across their careers.
- Fund in-house experts who support students and staff every step of the way.
Because a screener might catch a risk factor. But only a well-trained adult can catch a child before they fall through the cracks.
If you’re a parent, school or adult, looking for support or assessments we have a brand-new UK wide directory coming on 1st August. ND360Hub is a FREE platform for parents, educators and adults to search for allied service providers across the UK, who provide services to children and adults who are neurodivergent.
