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The Battle over Dyslexia

theguardian.com

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Re: The Battle over Dyslexia

#71

Post by scotty79 »

slg wrote: post #28
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…

Personally getting diagnosed with dyslexia was a huge help to me. Like the article mentions it allows a mindset change when you can put a name to why you can't do something despite a tremendous amount of effort that other people can seemingly do easily. It also becomes a valuable tool to help protect yourself when needed. There were multiple times in my elementary and middle school years in which the ADA needed to be…

I've always had great difficulty with remembering things that are not associated with any sort of understanding I could acquire.

Remembering things like names of countries, capitals, seas, rivers for geography class required tremendous effort from me to achieve barely passable result (and to pass I also had to exploit an error that teacher made). All despite me having IQ in top 1% of population.

I'm sure if I was diagnosed with dysrememberia or something this would have been tremendous help to me. But nobody invented such condition. So I just had to accept that I'm just at low end of ability to remember data unconnected to any sense-making.

The system is rigged though and to pass maturity exam I had to ensure dysortography diagnosis for myself so my spelling (which I suck at as well) was ignored while grading.

Re: The Battle over Dyslexia

#72

Post by scotty79 »

gonzo41 wrote: post #52
MivLives wrote: post #2

As someone who was diagnosed with dyslexia, and went to a special school because of it, a lot of things in this article brought back memories. I'm unsure how others are taught to read or spell, but the school I went to used an almost extended alphabet. Where combinations of english letters like CH were taught as if they were the roots of spelling. It did seem to work I went from three grades under my reading level to…

I'm dyslexic and my learning to read happened in a burst from ages 11 to 13. I got a lot of extra attention at school which was mostly around drilling phonics, like shhh sounds with ti, si, ci. And learning strategies on decomposing words. One one of the really impactful things I did that contributed to large improvements in my reading and spelling was working on a computer based system. It had you type words that yo…

I think a lot of reading difficulties could have been alleviated if teachers just abandoned prejudice against phonics.

Re: The Battle over Dyslexia

#73

Post by timhaak »

bsder wrote: post #41
bjo590 wrote: post #14

> The method for diagnosing dyslexia, known as the discrepancy model, was relatively straightforward: test a child’s IQ and their reading age, and if there was a discrepancy between the two – average-to-high IQ, low literacy – that child was dyslexic. Elliott felt unsure about these assessments. The children he tested for dyslexia all struggled to read and write – that much was clear – but their literacy difficulties…

> I'm a dyslexic, and I was given extra attention is school that significantly helped me. And I suspect that is probably true for most "dyslexics". I have a pet suspicion that there is an actual dyslexia but that most diagnoses are simply a manifestation of 2 standard deviations of "everybody's brain is wired slightly differently and some things require more effort." One of my relatives is really good at mathematical…

Sorry I’m going to disagree with you here.

I was diagnosed with Dyslexia as child but was also always very good with maths.

I remember actually really wanting to be able to read but just not being able to get it.

After being moved to a class which catered for this and with extra help I managed to eventually be able to start reading.

I generally read quiet a bit averaging at least a book a week. From your statement that should mean that the symptoms of dyslexia should be fixed but they aren’t.

I still struggle with writing and spelling. Yes, I have put effort in, but I still struggle.

The best way I can describe it that I'm blind to the errors. With the sentence structures once it's pointed out I can see them sometimes but not before.

My intelligence is on the higher end and I got through an engineer degree, which you don't do if you don't put the effort in.

Thankfully tools like Grammarly are helping. If not for my sake then at least for people who have to read what I write

Re: The Battle over Dyslexia

#74

Post by scotty79 »

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

This is rather unlikely result of message that will morph into "dyslexia is fake" when spread.

Re: The Battle over Dyslexia

#75

Post by qubex »

I was diagnosed with “light dyslexia” as a kid (way back in the late eighties) and it benefitted me modestly (I was already in a highly selective private school). I went from the lowest rung of reading ability to the highest in a matter of months, based on little more than parental campaigning and settling into the general gait of those whose company I was placed in.

I totally agree with this article’s two claims: that the disease is a mirage (not even a cluster of issues that provide similar symptoms) and that public policy needs to be broadly revised to not depend upon hitting some abstract set of criteria in order to qualify for tailored help that largely assists any student.

I’ll end my contentious statement by pointing out that a significant bias exists amongst all those who are providing personal anecdata because they consider themselves legitimately systemic once the criteria are deemed to have been fulfilled once by at least one partitioner, but do not retire their diagnosis if other practitioners disagree.

Re: The Battle over Dyslexia

#76

Post by shkkmo »

slg wrote: post #26
bjo590 wrote: post #14

> The method for diagnosing dyslexia, known as the discrepancy model, was relatively straightforward: test a child’s IQ and their reading age, and if there was a discrepancy between the two – average-to-high IQ, low literacy – that child was dyslexic. Elliott felt unsure about these assessments. The children he tested for dyslexia all struggled to read and write – that much was clear – but their literacy difficulties…

Another dyslexic here, I completely agree with your assessment of the situation and while the article mentions it I don't think it fully grasps it. The definition of dyslexia is basically any difficulty reading that isn't associated with intelligence, eyesight, or education. It is an umbrella definition for a wide variety of both named and unnamed conditions. Of course there isn't going to be a universal way to treat…

> Spending extra effort focusing on teaching a dyslexic student is going to help because extra direct teaching to any student is going to help them learn.

Nobody is disputing that. The issue is that predicating that extra direct teaching on a dyslexia diagnoses serves to further disadvantage the already disadvantaged. The argument is that extra direct teaching should be provided to anyone who has difficulty reading, regardless of diagnosis.

Re: The Battle over Dyslexia

#77

Post by C1sc0cat »

scotty79 wrote: post #74
sparsely wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This is rather unlikely result of message that will morph into "dyslexia is fake" when spread.

Which is the intention no doubt

Re: The Battle over Dyslexia

#78

Post by httpsterio »

C1sc0cat wrote: post #62
httpsterio wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Laugh it up, but it's real. Your utricle contains calcium crystals called canaliths which are basically used by your body as a gyroscope, informing the brain of the angle your head is in. This is why an ear infection or damage to the ear can cause balance issues like vertigo and nausea as the body cannot properly detect the angle you're in. Same reason why we also have motion sickness.

It's closely related to the types of dyslexia that are not caused by cognitive issues, rather issues with the vision.

Re: The Battle over Dyslexia

#79

Post by C1sc0cat »

httpsterio wrote: post #78
C1sc0cat wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably Gwyneth Paltrow sells the crystals on her website

Laugh it up, but it's real. Your utricle contains calcium crystals called canaliths which are basically used by your body as a gyroscope, informing the brain of the angle your head is in. This is why an ear infection or damage to the ear can cause balance issues like vertigo and nausea as the body cannot properly detect the angle you're in. Same reason why we also have motion sickness. It's closely related to the typ…

Right I believe you Backs away slowly

Re: The Battle over Dyslexia

#80

Post by hrktb »

bluGill wrote: post #16
bjo590 wrote: post #14

> The method for diagnosing dyslexia, known as the discrepancy model, was relatively straightforward: test a child’s IQ and their reading age, and if there was a discrepancy between the two – average-to-high IQ, low literacy – that child was dyslexic. Elliott felt unsure about these assessments. The children he tested for dyslexia all struggled to read and write – that much was clear – but their literacy difficulties…

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…

Bi-lingual kids can be in similar cases, especially when character sets are different. Some are fluent reader in one of the language, but have a hard time in the other, skipping or misreading characters as the parsing is completely different.

I talked to a school teacher trying to have a kid labeled as dyslexic because it would make everything easier to ask for extra time to follow the kid, get out of class hours with a specialist etc.

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