Is dyslexia just an excuse for dumb parents and bad teachers?

Answer 1

no it's about the way the brain interprets words and letters and many famous people have it including Richard Branson.

Answer 2

Dumb parents and bad teachers: no.
It is an excuse for your genetic make up though. I am not denying that people with dyslexia can be very intelligent (try Albert Einstein), but I don't see any reason to make it a big deal. Some people are naturally rubbish at maths, does that mean they should be given more time in maths exams?

To take it to more of an extreme: if you make excuses for someone's spelling as being part of their genetic make up, what about making excuses for murderers, as they are naturally violent people?

That's obviously lunacy, but on a smaller scale that's the sort of thing which pandering to dyslexics is. If a dyslexic can't complete an exam in time: tough. In real life you have deadlines. If you can't do it fast enough: you need another job. You wouldn't expect a football team to employ a disabled person as a player.

Answer 3

To be absolutely fair about it, I know some people who use the concept of a "disabiity" as a convenient excuse for things they cannot do, and worse, I do know some teachers who throw the word around to describe their students without really knowing what it means. So yes, it is possible to be used in the wrong way, just as many things in this world are good in the hands of some, and bad in others.

But dyslexia really does exist. I have worked with children with the condition (note: NOT a disease or illness) and I know that people can live with it, excel with it, and find positive things about it. Its presence is confirmed in many ways, most notably through tests by neuropsychologists and developmental pediatricians.

If you have dyslexia or someone you know has it, it is not an excuse for you or him/her to be a second-rate inidividual. That is decided by something else other than the presence of a learning disability, believe me.

Answer 4

Some people will say they're dyslexic when truthfully they just can't read, write or spell properly, because they think it sounds better. Some people may think that they're dyslexic but they just haven't been taught properly, but real Dyslexia is a genuine condition where someone looks at words and they see the words or letters within the words jumbled up, in the wrong order etc. There are tests which can determine if someone is dyslexic or not.

Answer 5

No... I have dyslexia, my parents when i was a child both would read, etc with me regularly and my teachers all gave me extra help at school to try and combat it. So there were no excuses or bad teaching from my parents or teachers when i was in school!

Answer 6

it can be a convienent excuse (for either parents of teachers or both [dont forget the schools and politicians]), it isnt in al (or even most)l cases, Dyslexia is a genuine afflication there are associated probels of dyspraxia.

Dyslexia isnt a uniform condition there are lots of similar afflications rolled up under the banner of Dyslexia.

Answer 7

I think this is a generalisation but a lot of dyslexia is just because middle class parents can't accept that their child is a slow learner. So they pay money for an educational psychologist to tell them what they want to hear.

I have even known parents go from psychologist to psychologist until they found one who told them what they wanted.

Answer 8

No it's a disability which means that if you had it the words on this page would be jumping about all over the place as you were trying to read.
Aren't you the dumb one for asking such a dumb question?

Answer 9

No! Read "Overcoming Dyslexia" by Sally Shaywitz and then we will talk.

Answer 10

No, it's not just an excuse. Check out this website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyslexia

Answer 11

No, but it's the sort of phrase that has come to be sort of a catch-all for certain types of learning disabilities. It has to do with the way the brain processes information.

It is legitimate, however.