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The Battle over Dyslexia

theguardian.com

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Re: The Battle over Dyslexia

#61

Post by C1sc0cat »

advisedwang wrote: post #6
blakesterz wrote: post #5

"He also believes that the current system entrenches inequality, because children from poorer backgrounds tend to be less likely to be diagnosed with dyslexia." So if I'm taking away what I should from this article, the biggest problem they have with "dyslexia" is that there's inequality and there's not a good way to diagnose it? In the end they say anyone struggling with reading should get extra help, dyslexia or no…

The inequality is not the root for why they are arguing that we should stop using "dyslexia" but because it they say dyslexia outright doesn't exist. The inequality issue is that a spurious classification of children that gives access to better resources but is only available to parents that have the time/money/influence to get a diagnosis for their kids. The point is that having a incorrect label is not just a harml…

No its a way to not support neurodiverse kids in schools and save £££ is why local authorities love this guy.

Re: The Battle over Dyslexia

#62

Post by C1sc0cat »

httpsterio wrote: post #42
blakesterz wrote: post #5

"He also believes that the current system entrenches inequality, because children from poorer backgrounds tend to be less likely to be diagnosed with dyslexia." So if I'm taking away what I should from this article, the biggest problem they have with "dyslexia" is that there's inequality and there's not a good way to diagnose it? In the end they say anyone struggling with reading should get extra help, dyslexia or no…

Some cases of dyslexia are caused by the ear crystals being loose which will cause balance issues and it can be fixed with some balancing exercises. One of the pioneering researches is a Finnish docent called Tapani Rahko who studied the issues back in 2003.

Presumably Gwyneth Paltrow sells the crystals on her website

Re: The Battle over Dyslexia

#63

Post by C1sc0cat »

keithnoizu wrote: post #53
bluGill wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We do have a term: slow to learn to read. We don't need dyslexia or some more specific term unless those terms can be used for better treatment. In this case dyslexia is too specific: kids who don't fit the definition are being actively harmed because the treatment would help them just as much as it fit those who it helps. It may well be dyslexia (or a more specific term) may mean some other treatment can be helpful…

I was diagnosed, with dyslexia, dyscalculia and disgraphia, although for better or worse I also tested as profoundly gifted. I think it boils down to, is there a structural difference in the brain that if studied can give insights into learning differences and optimal approaches to addressing learning differences and potential areas where a person with dyslexia or some underlying structural difference might have natu…

I am dyslexic When I am writing sql queries other than trivial SELECTS, I visualise them and some times draw out the sets involved.

Re: The Battle over Dyslexia

#64

Post by sparsely »

C1sc0cat wrote: post #57

Article seems to be by a cherry picked outsider to allow the powers that be dodge their requirement to support neurodiverse students. Also the article is using decades old definitions of dyslexia as difficulty reading and an average or high IQ And the journalist doesn't have a background in disability reporting "Sirin Kale is a London-based journalist specialising in women's rights, politics, music, lifestyle, and cu…

My impression from the article is that they want all students who struggle to read to be supported, not just those from wealthy backgrounds

Re: The Battle over Dyslexia

#65

Post by lmm »

blakesterz wrote: post #5

"He also believes that the current system entrenches inequality, because children from poorer backgrounds tend to be less likely to be diagnosed with dyslexia." So if I'm taking away what I should from this article, the biggest problem they have with "dyslexia" is that there's inequality and there's not a good way to diagnose it? In the end they say anyone struggling with reading should get extra help, dyslexia or no…

> I'm sure they experts know better than I do, but dyslexia seems like SOMETHING more than just having big problems with reading.

What difference would that be? The article seems to be saying that no-one can consistently diagnose any such distinction, and the same treatments work equally well for people who are diagnosed dyslexic versus "just having big problems with reading".

Re: The Battle over Dyslexia

#66

Post by auganov »

narwally wrote: post #34
InfiniteRand wrote: post #17

I'm surprised the article only mentions in passing the aspect of dyslexia that I always heard as the defining condition, that letters get easily mixed up or moved around (I'm no expert, nor dyslexic, although I had some friends in school who were). Is that the issue for most people with dyslexia or is that just a pop-culture simplification?

It's just a simplification, many people experience dyslexia differently, but for some people with dyslexia that may be a good way to describe to someone what they experience. It's not actually a medical diagnosis, though can achieve the qualifications to test for it, it's a learning disability that doesn't have a well understood physilogical mechanism behind it. For me I was slow to learn to read, and was in remedial…

> My first job was a short term remote developing contract. My coworkers thought I was foreign for the first few weeks because of my poor spelling in code comments. It's better when I have access to good spelling or grammar checkers, but often times I misspell a word so completely that even the software has no idea what I'm trying to say. I also still mess up you're/your and their/there/they're all the time. In my head words are auditory not visual, so I have to put extra effort into resolving homophones.

I'd actually say these kinds of mistakes are often a good indication of someone being highly fluent in a language.

Isn't it more natural to write things as they're spoken rather than obey a bunch of arbitrary rules?

When you learn an initially foreign language you're much more likely to pay attention to these "rules" as you don't know any better. If you speak the language well already, you will care much less whether or not your serialization of speech into writing obeys rules exclusive to that domain.

Don't have any data on this but wouldn't be surprised if "dyslexia" shows up much less in people's second languages.

Re: The Battle over Dyslexia

#67

Post by scotty79 »

This way of thinking makes way more sense. A lot of human abilities are quite independent and lie on a spectrum. IQ correlates with some of them to a certain degree, but picking one and an arbitrary cutoff line of how much correlation with IQ is broken, and calling it a specific disorder is a bit much.

Some people are less able to learn to read and write, some are less able to recognize people, or remember names or faces, or detect emotions. We should develop mechanism for them to improve and cope with what they can't improve, but labelling it an illness doesn't feel right if there are no weird, specific additional symptoms that might indicate common, specific unnatural source of their difficulties that might have been a target for specific treatment.

Re: The Battle over Dyslexia

#69

Post by C1sc0cat »

sparsely wrote: post #64
C1sc0cat wrote: post #57

Article seems to be by a cherry picked outsider to allow the powers that be dodge their requirement to support neurodiverse students. Also the article is using decades old definitions of dyslexia as difficulty reading and an average or high IQ And the journalist doesn't have a background in disability reporting "Sirin Kale is a London-based journalist specialising in women's rights, politics, music, lifestyle, and cu…

My impression from the article is that they want all students who struggle to read to be supported, not just those from wealthy backgrounds

As a neurodiverse person this is not the impression I got this is and out of date and a single fringe persons view. They don't even use the more modern holistic view of dyslexia as one of a spectrum of conditions.

Exactly the sort of person that the current UK and US administrations love "classic Dom" as they say.

This is a very problematic piece by the guardian - if this was about BLM and used a 1950's/60's view point / terminology the guardian would be getting crucified

Re: The Battle over Dyslexia

#70

Post by marcus_holmes »

bjo590 wrote: post #23
bluGill wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We do have a term: slow to learn to read. We don't need dyslexia or some more specific term unless those terms can be used for better treatment. In this case dyslexia is too specific: kids who don't fit the definition are being actively harmed because the treatment would help them just as much as it fit those who it helps. It may well be dyslexia (or a more specific term) may mean some other treatment can be helpful…

> We do have a term: slow to learn to read. There are dozens of reasons a child can be slow to learn how to read. They could have not have access to education. They could has poor eye sight. They could be malnourished. They could have difficulties learning in general. Dyslexia means "Slow to learn how to read, despite no obvious influencing factors." It's a bit of a catch-all. There might be treatments for dyslexic c…

The point is not that dyslexia treatments don't help dyslexic kids; it's that those treatments help all kids that struggle with literacy, regardless of cause.

Some kids struggling to read because they "don't have access to education" or are malnourished is as much (or more) of a problem than wealthy kids struggling to read because of a neurological condition.

The article says it all: Dyslexia is a label that is being used to divert special needs funding from disadvanted struggling kids to wealthy struggling kids. No-one denies that all these kids are struggling, and that the special attention does help them with that struggle.

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