Elliot qualified as a teacher and taught in mainstream and
special schools. He then practised as an
LEA educational psychologist. In 1990, he became an academic, and joined the
University of Sunderland as a lecturer. He was promoted to professor in 1998 with the award of a
personal chair within the School of Education. He rose to be Acting
Dean of the university's School of Education and Lifelong Learning. In 2004, he joined
Durham University as Professor of Education and the
Principal of
Collingwood College. This sparked controversy and has been widely cited. Elliott co-authored a book with
Elena L. Grigorenko titled
The Dyslexia Debate which was published in early 2014. The book, and his previous work, has argued that there is no difference between poor readers and
dyslexic people; dyslexia is a 'useless term' and a 'meaningless label' that should be discontinued. It also suggested that the diagnosis was being misused by middle-class parents to get additional support for their children, and that state schools are much less inclined to make a diagnosis because the pressures it would put on their limited budgets. He supports better funding of
literacy education would help to overcome this unbalanced system as the same techniques help both poor readers and dyslexic people, rather than a continuation of the present system. He suggested that funding should be redirected from targeted support to better teaching of literacy; 'A whole industry has sprung up around creating a medical condition when what is needed is better methods to teach children to read.'. Professor
John Stein of the
University of Oxford has disagreed with his conclusion saying that there dyslexia is separate to reading difficulties caused by low intelligence because dyslexia has genetic, immunological and nutritional causes. A joint statement from Sir Jim Rose, a former director of
OFSTED, and Dr John Rack, a director of
Dyslexia Action, spoke against Elliot's conclusion and supported the current definition of dyslexia. ==Honours==