English is famously full of quirks such as ‘ghoti’ for fish or ‘read’ that changes tense without changing spelling, but for people with dyslexia these can make learning to read and write even harder. This talk explores how dyslexia affects the way we process written language, why English spelling poses particular challenges, and what research tells us about effective support

Catherine is a Research Fellow at UCL’s Institute of Education. She holds a PhD from Brunel University London, where her thesis, A Cross-Linguistic Investigation of Reading Behaviour Between a Consistent and an Inconsistent Orthography: An Eye-Tracking Experiment, examined cross-linguistic differences in reading processes. Before her doctorate, she taught English as a second language to primary-aged children in Madrid, Spain (ages 5–9), through a programme funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education. Her current research focuses on policy and provision for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), with a particular interest in the decision-making processes that shape policy and its implementation in practice.