DOES DYSLEXIA EXIST?

Interesting to read that an education professor has claimed that dyslexia "does not exist" because it has no valid scientific basis. Writing in the Times Education Supplement, Julian Elliott argues the term is largely an "emotional construct".

Experts have failed to agree what it is, and being diagnosed as dyslexic makes virtually no difference to the treatment that the individual requires, he writes. Professor Elliott, who teaches at Durham University, said poor readers wanted to be called dyslexic because of a "widespread, but wrong, perception that dyslexics are generally intellectually bright".

I wonder what the truth of the matter is? I know parents who say that their children are dyslexic, and I am sure that there must be some problem. But is it possible that dyslexia is a phanthom construct? Mmmm....or should that be mmmM?

Comments

[Hugh Green]

These days it seems to me that dyslexia strikes me not as a condition, but the absence of one i.e. the condition of being able to read and write properly.

I recall a conversation with a linguistics lecturer who, in reference to 'UFV' daubed on a wall outside Bushmills, expounded that dyslexia and consanguinuity go together like, well, cousin and cousin. Does this explain Princess Beatrice's difficulties?

[Mike Cunningham]

Whenever anyone discusses 'dyslexia', I am reminded of the old chestnut regarding the dylexic, agnostic, amnesiac who had forgotten to question if there was a Dog!

[JayN]

In my experience dyslexia defines a real set of symptoms. My little sis (22) reads, a lot, it's rare to see her without a book, be it a text book following her deep interest in forensic psychology or a novel. She has successfully done A levels and a degree, is extremely eloquent and capable of engaging anyone in debate on a wide range of subjects. But when she writes Bitch becomes Beach and all the rest of it. Reading and comprehension is always hard work.

Now whether dyslexia is used as an excuse for the lazy, that's a different issue. And I can quite believe that the term is being used as a useful catch all for equally lazy educators, but it's effect is certainly real for my Sis.

Oh, and my Parents aren't blood related ;)

[Hugh Green]

JayN

Yep, there are plenty of people like your sister whose difficulties reading and writing have little to do with their ability to communicate or think intelligently.

The problem is with terminology. This type of thing (which I've seen) ought not to be casually placed in the same category as someone whose difficulties arise from simply having not learnt to read properly due to external factors.

[Calum]

I'm sure there are some people who will use it as an excuse, but I have an example like the one by "JayN". I have a friend who is dyslexic. He is also a member of Mensa with an IQ of around 160 (I think). He reads books constantly, sometimes several in one go (which I've never understood how that's possible). He has always done this, to try to improve his abilities. Despite this he still mixes up written words and his spelling is really bad. In my experience reading more has improved my spelling but in his case it has made little difference. So, I am sure some, perhaps many people will have that label put on them when it just isn't true, but that doesn't show that dyslexia isn't real.

[Steve]

When I was about six, I had the highest reading age in the class but could barely write. Teachers and my parents assumed that it was because I was a lazy sod.

Many years later, my mother, a remidial teacher, did her dissertation on dyslexia. She said that she wished she had known all that stuff when I was a kid. She is now retired but she runs a business (charging peanuts) helping kids get over the sort of difficulties that I had.

Even now, without the spell checker I'd be stuffed. I can read stuff but the patterns of the words just don't stay with me. I can happily spell the same word four different ways in one paragraph and I just don't notice. That's why my comment contributions are all full of spelling mistakes. There's no bloody spell checker!

[Nationalist]

A great friend of mine is dyslexic but is as sharp as anyone I know. What he seemed to lack in reading and writing capability he more than made up with his graphical design capability. I have worked with many graphic artists and he far outshines 99% of them.

One funny story was in relation a businessman from Ballymena who wanted to create an online Ireland-wide Internet directory portal and mirror it offline with a regional based newspaper. He wanted to create 60,000 pieces of promotional material saying "Ballymena is the whole of Ireland" to try to get across that the whole of Ireland is covered by this Ballymena venture. Well my friend typed into the graphics "Ballymena is the hole of Ireland" - he typed it and spell-checked it in Word and saw there were no spelling mistakes and was happy with that. The Ballymena businessman wasn't though.

[Steve]

I can really sympathise with that!

[Nationalist]

Oh I didn't add that the businessman was in a rush and didn't want to proof the promotional piece and all 60,000 were printed.

[Ultonian Scottis American]

JayN:

"And I can quite believe that the term is being used as a useful catch all for equally lazy educators..."

Much like it's easier for teachers to tag a kid as Attention Deficit Disorder, etc.

But dyslexia does seem to be a real disease. I had friend, an enginer. Whilst discussing politics, he drew a map of the Eastern hemisphere. I said that it looked like he'd drawn it upside down. He blushed and said that he is dyslexic.

Another weird disease is a type of autism, called Asperger's Syndrome, first noted by a German doctor during WWII.

Those afflicted cannot recognize or interpret other people's body language and other unspoken social cues. This leads to isolation and social ostracism. It is quite odd.

[joc]

USA,

Tend to agree with you.
We have been touched by AS in our family - fortunately its not severe, but it is amazing the potential that gets unlocked with some sensitive teaching.

[Aileen]

David you shouldn't give me the chance to pontificate on one of my pet projects. I have three, anti-terrorism/appeasement, victims issues and neurological conditions and I don't pass up a chance to bang on about them.

Dylexia, Dyspraxia, ADHD, Aspergers etc are all part of the family of neurological "disorders" that are essentially about disparities in levels of information processing in the brain, generally accepted as malfuntioning in brain pathways. Information in the form of visual, aural, touch, sound, temperature etc and processing in terms of receiving it analysing it storing it retrieving it and conveying it.

Painting with a wide brush, and considering the full range of information processing
"normal" people have a relatively smooth profile in terms of how well this is done. People with these neurological conditions have a very jagged profile with significant disparities between the level of functioning in various areas.

People with general learning difficulties have generally low levels of functioning across the board. If they have trouble processing information in term of the written word (and sight is not a problem) then they are not dyslexic unless this is significantly worse than other processing. So the lower the general level of functioning the less significant the differences are. This is why it is associated with higher intelligence.

Dyslexia is probably the sexiest of these conditions and the only one I don’t have.

On the assessment tests for dyspraxiam that I did they split it four areas and worked out the associated percentile, i.e. the percentage of people who perfomed worse than I did in that area. On the intellectual information processing the percntile was 99, the highest, the lowest of the four, was visual processing and hand eye co-ordination, the percentile was 10! Only 10% of the population (and that includes those with very very low levels of overal information processing) did worse than I did. For normal people the four percentiles would be within a small range, the diffenence between my best and worst was 89%.

Those of us with the greatest disparity between or best and our worse, tend to be etI have some very strong Aspergers traits but not the full syndrome. But I am undoubtedly odd.her spectacularly good at things or spectacularly useless. We don't do mediocre. When we appear to be average it tends to be an area of life needing a combination of skills and the extremes cancel each other out. - On average my temperature in normal but my face is in the furnace and my feet are in the freezer.

BTW The conditions are not defined in exactly the same way in America and in the UK.
For someone who would be deemed to be Dyspraxic, but not having ADHD in the UK, they would be assessed in the USA as ADHD.

This is a link to an article that appeared in my local paper about my dyspraxia http://www.impartialreporter.com/archive/2003-07-10/news/story6194.html

[Jo]

..aww..you look lovely n cheerful :)

Thats an interesting article, wow, MENSA - you're smart!

I dont think you should have any problems looking in the mirror :)

[Becky]

Like many people on here, I have to add that the problem with your post is that it doesn't take into account that many dyslexics are avid readers and great writers (given a keyboard). The difference is in how they learned to read, which is much more difficult for them given traditional teaching instruction. Also, it depends on what you call writing well. A dyslexic may write as well as Tolstoy but spell all the words wrong and have terrible handwriting.

Most dyslexics are not brilliant- they are like the rest of us. Some are brilliant, some are not. Some are lazy, some are not. Nonetheless, they do have obstacles in the way of their education.

Dyslexia does not mean that one can't read well; it means that one learns to read differently.

[David Vance]

Becky,

Thanks for that. I have no expertise at all in this area and have enjoyed the range of knowledgeable comments. I merely found the primary story interesting, and am pleased others evidently agree. Thx to all!

[John Connor]

I just have been reading through my dyslexia report from when I was 15, which was 4 years ago. Gives me a IQ Composite of 109 but a writing speed of 9.5 words a second (average for a 15 year old being about 17.5). My spelling was also age equivalents of a 10 year old but in a visually-auditory learning test I came out with the age equivalents of a 20 year old. Sounds pretty specific to me. With the A-Level exams of History and Psychology the extra time I received was invaluable. I would like to point out that I tested my typing speed myself shortly after being tested, which came out at 19 WPM (above the averadge writing speed).

If spell checker missed anything, apologies

[Liz]

As I live in California, I could not watch the BBC program on dyslexia. However, I've corresponded with Professor Elliott. His position seems to be that there's a lack of intellectual rigor surrounding the subject.

I wonder why "dyspraxia" is rarely diagnosed in the US, compared to the UK. I've noted that, relative to the US, many unproven "treatments" for dyslexia seem to be common in the UK (DDAT, colored lenses, dietary supplements, flashing lights (the Brightstar method).

I commend to you, and your readers, Sally Shaywitz's "Overcoming Dyslexia" (ISBN 0679781595 for the US paperback edition). Shaywitz is the scientist who used functional MRIs to show that the parts of the brain dyslexic children use in reading are different than the brain pathways used by non-dyslexic children.

Dyslexia can be overcome, in the sense that all children of normal intelligence can learn to read, if properly taught.

[Aileen]

Liz

the reading thing is not the only issue that dyslexics can have. It's all the associated stuff as well. It and dyspraxia, ADHD Aspergers can be accomodated but it's hard to create the conditions for that to happen. It is one of my missions to change the world so that is is more accomodating and that we do not have to fit into the round holes, that more square ones are created that take proper account of our corners. ;0)

[Alexandra]

Everyone I meet that has dyslexia (supposedly), claims it when they have casual mixups. Why does dyslexia not seem to be present in ALL typing? Why does it seem to be selective and random? I don't believe Dyslexia exists any more than ADD does; I think they both lack scientific foundation and are pretty much excuses to be lazy.

[Teegan]

Dyslexia is not just the spelling and reading there are other factors involved such as sequencing and memory problems. It is not the same every time, people who have dyslexia have bad days and good days, which is why there are inconsistencies in whether spelling is good or bad.

[John]

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Thanks,

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[Oskar]

I have recently taken a test which shows I have a relatively high IQ however it also shows that I am subject to additional learning, my comprehension, cognitive memory, visual processor and reading speed is below average, very out of correlation with my verbal and non-verbal reasoning, I read a lot, sometimes 2 or 3 books at a time but I can't seem to get any faster. My spelling is fine and I don't confuse words but does this class me as dyslexic