13/09/2026
🧠 DYSLEXIA IN SOUTH AFRICA: LET'S GET THE PROCESS RIGHT
There is an important conversation taking place about who identifies, who supports, who assesses and who diagnoses dyslexia in South Africa.
This conversation is necessary—but it must be based on accurate information.
🏫 EDUCATION HAS A VITAL ROLE
Teachers and parents are often the first to notice that a learner is experiencing persistent difficulties with reading, writing and spelling.
Educators have an essential role in:
✅ recognising warning signs
✅ identifying barriers to learning
✅ providing appropriate classroom support
✅ monitoring progress
✅ documenting concerns
✅ referring when further assessment is indicated
There is absolutely no argument that educators should wait for a diagnosis before providing appropriate educational support.
The DBE's SIAS Policy is specifically designed to identify barriers to learning, determine support needs and develop appropriate support programmes. It forms part of the implementation of Education White Paper 6 and places teachers and parents centrally within the educational support process.
This is exactly why educator identification matters so much – and why the Red Apple Dyslexia Association has been a stakeholder with the DBE since 2012, working alongside the department to strengthen exactly this kind of classroom-level identification.
BUT HERE IS THE CRITICAL DISTINCTION:
IDENTIFYING A BARRIER TO LEARNING IS NOT THE SAME AS DIAGNOSING DYSLEXIA.
A learner who struggles to read is not automatically dyslexic.
Reading, writing and spelling difficulties can have numerous causes, including inadequate acquisition of foundational literacy skills, instructional disruption, language differences, developmental difficulties, intellectual disability, sensory difficulties and other barriers that are exclusionary to a dyslexia diagnosis.
Therefore:
A READING DIFFICULTY SHOULD TRIGGER INVESTIGATION—NOT AN AUTOMATIC DYSLEXIA LABEL.
🧠 DYSLEXIA REQUIRES ACCURATE PROFESSIONAL ASSESSMENT
Dyslexia is a specific neurodevelopmental disorder.
Determining whether a learner actually has dyslexia therefore requires an appropriately qualified professional with the relevant professional training, registration and scope of practice to conduct the necessary assessment and differential diagnosis.
This is critical: no cognitive assessment (e.g. the Raven’s Progressive Matrices) may be conducted or performed by anyone other than an HPCSA-registered psychologist. Acting outside this scope of practice is an offence under the Health Professions Act 56 of 1974.
In South Africa, this is where HPCSA registration becomes critically important.
This is the work Dr Sandra Stark, a dyslexia researcher since 2008, has built her career around. The Stark Griffin™ Dyslexia Academy (SGDA) – a private company formerly known as Die Rooi Appel Disleksie Spesialiste, renamed to be more internationally accessible – is an accredited CPD service provider of the HPCSA and a SACE-accredited service provider. SGDA trains HPCSA-registered professionals across South Africa, in Namibia and abroad to assess dyslexia accurately. It also trains educators to identify the signs and indicators of dyslexia (not to diagnose it), and trains teachers to deliver purposive, direct therapy matched to a learner’s specific type and severity of dyslexia.
This distinction matters because ordinary scholastic reading and spelling tests cannot subtype dyslexia. Only the HPCSA-classified Stark Griffin™ Dyslexia Assessment subtypes dyslexia and its severity levels. The norm scales of this classified assessment are the trademarked and copyright-protected intellectual property of SGDA.
If someone is assessing or diagnosing dyslexia as a health-professional service, an important question for parents, schools and organisations should be:
❓ WHO IS DOING THE ASSESSMENT?
Are they an appropriately qualified HPCSA-registered professional?
Can their HPCSA registration be verified?
Is the assessment within their registered professional scope of practice and competence?
And, where the person is practising as a healthcare service provider:
❓ DO THEY HAVE A VALID BHF PRACTICE NUMBER?
The Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) Practice Code Numbering System (PCNS) allocates unique practice code numbers to registered healthcare service providers. The BHF states that the practice number is the identifier used for healthcare providers and is required for the reimbursement process for claims to medical-scheme members or providers.
The BHF's current PCNS application requirements specifically provide for HPCSA practitioners and require evidence of registration with the relevant regulatory body.
So, parents should not simply accept a report because it contains the word "dyslexia."
Ask:
🧠 Who assessed my child?
📜 What professional qualification do they hold?
🔎 What is their HPCSA registration number?
🏥 What is their BHF practice number?
📋 Was the assessment comprehensive and appropriate?
⚖️ Was differential diagnosis considered?
👩🏫 AND WHAT ABOUT SACE?
There is another important question that should be asked when someone presents themselves as an authority on South African educational policy:
When you convey information about the SIAS Policy and Education White Paper 6, do you have the appropriate educational professional credentials and, where applicable, SACE registration?
SACE states that persons who qualify for registration under the SACE Act must register, and that educators may not be employed as educators unless registered with the Council.
PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY MATTERS IN EDUCATION JUST AS IT DOES IN HEALTHCARE.
⚠️ WHY DOES THIS MATTER?
Because support and diagnosis answer different questions.
Education asks:
What barrier is preventing this learner from accessing learning, and what support does the learner need?
Professional assessment asks:
Why is this learner experiencing these difficulties, and does the learner meet the criteria for a specific learning disorder such as dyslexia?
We need both questions to be answered.
We must never create a false choice between:
❌ supporting the learner
and
❌ accurately diagnosing the learner.
🚨 AN INACCURATE DIAGNOSIS IS NOT HARMLESS
South Africa has limited educational and specialist resources.
If every learner experiencing reading difficulties is automatically regarded as dyslexic, we risk:
misidentifying the actual cause of the difficulty;
directing interventions towards the wrong problem;
incorrectly labelling learners;
compromising appropriate educational planning; and
placing additional pressure on already limited inclusive-education resources.
At the same time, failing to identify genuine dyslexia can leave a learner struggling for years without appropriate intervention and accommodation.
Both errors have consequences.
In South Africa: THE ACCURATE PROCESS SHOULD BE:
IDENTIFY EARLY → SUPPORT EARLY → MONITOR PROGRESS → REFER APPROPRIATELY → ASSESS COMPREHENSIVELY & ACCURATELY → DIAGNOSE ACCURATELY → WHEN CRITERIA ARE MET → INDIVIDUALISE INTERVENTION AND SUPPORT
THE MESSAGE IS SIMPLE:
Teachers do not need to diagnose dyslexia to be enormously important in a child's journey.
They need to recognise, support, monitor and refer.
Health professionals do not replace educators.
They bring the specialised assessment and diagnostic expertise required when a neurodevelopmental disorder is suspected.
SIAS does not replace diagnosis.
And diagnosis does not replace educational support.
🧠🏫 HEALTHCARE + EDUCATION + FAMILY
Different responsibilities.
Shared responsibility.
One learner.
And above all:
SUPPORT THE LEARNER — BUT MAKE SURE THE DIAGNOSIS IS RIGHT.
Accurate information protects learners, parents, educators, professionals and South Africa's already scarce support resources.
