Dyslexia, fact or fiction?

Question

some people say it doesn’t exist that a dyslexic and "normal" child can equally improve with the same extra help, and since intelligence seems to be separate (Einstein) is it really a good idea to label children or adults with basically a stupid sign, limitations on that persons potential, that cant help psychologically, to think you are dumber than every one else and will never do as well?

Answer 1

Dyslexia has been linked to a dominant mutation on the short arm of chromosome 6. The abnormal patterns of brain activity can be detected on a PET scan. There are certain parts of the brain that light up when a normal reader reads, which do not light up when a dyslexic reader reads. Those are proven scientific facts, and that doesn't sound like a fictitious condition to me.

I was diagnosed as dyslexic in 2nd grade. At the time, my IQ was measured at 124, but I wasn't reading basically at all. At the age of 6, I still couldn't reliably get the book rightside up, let alone read it. Last time I was tested (10th grade), my extrapolated IQ was anywhere between 100 and 134 depending on which sections were used to determine it. I don't know who much you know about IQ tests, but that's a really, really big difference. I've gone to the best private schools, had private tutors, and both my parents hold PhD's, but as of 10th grade, my reading rate was still at the 1st percentile. Now in college, I'm at the top of my class, I'm finding the hardest courses offered at my school to be barely challenging, and I've completely mastered the skill of writing an essay on a book I did not read because I can't keep up with the reading. Even though I've learned to cope with it for the most part, I couldn't have done it without knowing what was wrong in the first place, and I wouldn't making it through school now without certain accommodations like extra time on exams and books on tape. Dyslexia does exist, and pretending that it doesn't is not a good approach.

As for labeling people with a "stupid sign," that's what NOT diagnosing a learning disability does. So many learning disabled kids give up on school because they think they're stupid. I was lucky that I was diagnosed so young, and that my mom is a psychologist so she know a lot about it, because I understood that the reason I was having so much trouble with reading, writing, and arithmetic was that I was dyslexic, and NOT that I was stupid, and that I'd be able to keep up just fine in later grades. Saying that we should stop diagnosing a learning disability because people hold false prejudices about it is basically like saying we should dye everyone's skin the same color so no one will be a victim of racism, and using a dying process that severely damages their joints.

Answer 2

Dyslexia does exist. I have it, and it does not affect words for me-- just numbers and aggregates of letters and characters without symbolic meaning. Once this was recognized as my reason for consistently doing the incorrect assignments in class (page 52 instead of 25, etc) then I found ways to cope with it much better.

This is in spite of my reading The Hobbit at age 7. I have never had a problem with reading, so the diagnosis made no sense until I delved into what dyslexia actually is, biologically. It DOES have a biological basis, and therefore should not be dismissed as "fiction" by those who want to make others (and themselves) feel better.

I have never heard of someone dyslexic being called stupid, although undoubtedly it happens. I have known dyslexics my whole life who FEEL stupid (I know I did until I understood it) but in today's literate society the need to be able to overcome dyslexia means that a feel-good movement should not be allowed to tag it as "fiction."

Answer 3

Fact Or Fiction: You Can Outgrow Dyslexia?

This is FICTION - Dyslexia does not diminish over time, but compensating skills can be developed which diminish the impact of the specific reading disability on reading performance.

Dyslexia is diagnosed only after eliminating other factors that can also impact learning to read. These factors include low intelligence, physical disabilities such as poor vision or poor hearing, insufficient knowledge of language such as a reader whose native language is not English, and inadequate development of pre-reading skills.

In such cases, poor reading is not due to dyslexia - a specific reading disability - and the reader can indeed "grow out of it" if the underlying cause is corrected.

Many children with a dyslexic profile receive special educational services either in resource rooms or in their regualr classroom where they receive help from an aide or a special education teacher assigned to the classroom. Many children who have a dyslexic profile gain ground in programs that focus on developing phonics based word recognition strategies and they move to a focus on the rapid recognition of words using procedures that are designed to build automatic word recognition skills.

Answer 4

Dyslexia is real. And granted, it isn't a great thing to be labelled "dyslexic," but it is important to identify whether or not the child (or adult) has dyslexia.

If you don't identify the problem, then you can't remedy the problem. It's akin to something like obesity. I don't really want to be "labelled" as obese, but if I have it, the label identifies the problem that needs remedied.

Answer 5

Famous ppl with Dyslexia:

Ty Pennington (Extreem Makeover)
Jim Carey ("The Mask", & "Spotless Sunshine of Eternal Mind")

Developmental Dyslexia is a condition which causes difficulty with reading and writing. It is a learning disability that is likely present from birth. Its standard definition is a difficulty in reading and writing in spite of normal development of intelligence, cognitive and sensory abilities.

Between 5 and 15 percent of the population can be diagnosed as suffering from various degrees of dyslexia.

Dyslexia's main manifestation is a difficulty in developing reading skills in elementary school children. Those difficulties result from reduced ability to associate visual symbols with verbal sounds. While motivational factors must also be reviewed in assessing poor performance, dyslexia is considered to be present from birth. Most scientific criteria for dyslexia exclude cases that can be explained as arising from environmental factors such as lack of education or sensory deficits.

Answer 6

I have it. It comes and goes. Thank JR "Bob" Dobbs for spell check. Sometimes when I read, I see words or letters that aren't there as well as the typical backwards stuff. It has nothing to do with intelligence, it's just how the brain is wired.

Answer 7

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