SIX million people in Britain are believed to suffer from dyslexia. Their problems include poor reading skills, difficulty with spelling and handwriting. Some have wider problems with concentration and co-ordination.

Professor Julian Elliott, from Durham University, questions the scientific validity of the condition.

He believes that dyslexia has become a social fig leaf for middle-class parents who do not want their children to be labelled as "lazy, thick or stupid".

But is he right? No parent likes to think that their children are anything but high achievers. Dyslexia undoubtedly sounds better than "thick".

Famously, Sir Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein and Sir Richard Branson all suffered from dyslexia. No one ever accused them of being lazy, thick or stupid.

In a sense, however it really does not matter if you agree with Prof Elliott or not. The label we attach to reading and writing problems is meaningless - what really counts is that there should be help available to overcome such a socially crippling problem.

A recent study by the National Union of Teachers found that fewer than one in seven teachers felt confident in identifying dyslexia in their pupils. Fewer still felt confident in their ability to teach a dyslexic child successfully.

This month, Xtraordinary People, a charitable initiative launched in association with the British Dyslexia Association, Patoss, Dyslexia Action and the Helen Arkell Centre, was awarded £1m to support dyslexia training in schools.

Whatever our views, we can all be thankful for that.