A member of the Manx Dyslexia Association’s committee, Joyce Monroe, who’s a senior educational psychologist, has been awarded a doctorate from University College London.

Joyce’s interest in psychology began at Castle Rushen High School where she taught science.

After completing an Open University degree in psychology she trained as an educational psychologist.

She left the island to do her masters in educational psychology at UCL, which included a year working in Surrey.

She also completed a post graduate diploma in specific learning difficulties (dyslexia) and became an associate member of the British Dyslexia Association, dyslexia having become her particular interest as two of Joyce’s children are dyslexic. All this gave Joyce three different perspectives on dyslexia; as a teacher, as a parent and as an educational psychologist.

On her return to the island Joyce began to offer training to schools.

She believed rather than trying to fix the problems (reading and writing) the key was to find ways around them. This led to Joyce’s decision to do her doctorate with her thesis being about using audio books to support the development of struggling readers’ vocabulary.