Graham Stringer MP is right: dyslexia doesn’t exist and never has done
Dear Unity,
For someone who prides themselves on well-researched and weighty blog posts on different topics, you really have let yourself down this time. In response to Labour backbench MP Graham Stringer declaring that dyslexia was a “cruel fiction” that should be consigned to the “dustbin of history”, your post over at Liberal Conspiracy simply wittered on about a fairly irrelevant part of his comments and completely sidestepped the issue of the research evidence on the matter. In this post (which I apologise to my regular readers for being a bit longer than usual), I will try to squeeze in as much information as possible to hopefully explain to you and everyone else why dyslexia in indeed a cruel fiction and never existed in the first place.
Let’s begin with Graham Stringer’s remarks. In addition to the comments above, he believes that the reason many children cannot read and write properly is that the wrong teaching methods are used and that children should be taught to read and write by using a system called synthetic phonics. Mr Stringer also highlighted the fact that millions of pounds were being wasted on specialist teaching for what he called a “false” condition: “The education establishment, rather than admit that their eclectic and incomplete methods for instruction are at fault, have invented a brain disorder called dyslexia. To label children as dyslexic because they’re confused by poor teaching methods is wicked.” He then made reference to the 100% literacy rates in South Korea and Nicaragua, which you spent the vast majority of your post criticising instead of dealing with the evidence behind his claims. I’m happy to assume that your criticisms, despite being superficial, are correct.
The root of Graham Stringer’s assertions are probably based in part on the now infamous Dispatches programme back in 2005, in which Professor Julian Elliott made a remarkable claim: dyslexia is impossible to define and test as a discrete condition, and it is therefore impossible to diagnose dyslexia at all. After spending 30 years in this field, he pointed out that “nobody has been able to demonstrate scientifically that there is this subgroup of poor readers that should be termed dyslexic [and] dyslexia, as a term, is becoming meaningless.” Professor Elliott thinks that dyslexia is simply another way of expressing reading difficulty. I’ve read quite a bit of his primary research (which I’m guessing from your post that you haven’t) and it is fascinating work. When analysing the mistakes that ‘dyslexics’ make, some crucial patterns emerge. If, for example, you looked at the reading and writing errors made by a 7-year-old ‘dyslexic’ child, you would see that they bear a striking similarity to the reading and writing ability of a child one or two years younger than them who has no learning difficulties. In effect, children who supposedly have dyslexia are simply working at a lower reading age than their peers. This does not class as a learning difficulty and goes some way to supporting Graham Stringer’s remarks.
However, what I think needs to be looked at further are your comments on dyslexia. You said: “Dyslexia is one of a number of related conditions, including dyspraxia, disgraphia, discalculia, for which there is a solid body of research evidence supporting their existence – PubMed list over 6,000 research papers and journal articles on dyslexia alone, with almost 600 more currently in review.” Lots of research papers on a condition says NOTHING about whether a condition exists and I’m surprised that you think it does. Professor Elliott’s point about dyslexia is that it cannot be defined in its own right, it merely describes a cluster of symptoms that essentially describe a poor reader. This is no “solid body of research evidence” saying dyslexia exists because no-one knows how to define it. As Professor Elliott points out, he has found around 20 to 30 different definitions of dyslexia. As an example, the British Dyslexia Association (BDA) defines it thus:
“Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty which mainly affects the development of literacy and language related skills. It is likely to be present at birth and to be lifelong in its effects. It is characterised by difficulties with phonological processing, rapid naming, working memory, processing speed, and the automatic development of skills that may not match up to an individual’s other cognitive abilities. It tends to be resistant to conventional teaching methods, but its effects can be mitigated by appropriately specific intervention, including the application of information technology and supportive counselling.”
This is completely meaningless wishy-washy nonsense. There is nothing discrete or testable in this definition, which is a direct result of the fact that no-one knows what dyslexia is. At best, dyslexia merely refers to a cluster of symptoms that the vast majority of, if not all poor readers demonstrate – speech problems, writing problems, slow processing etc. The astonishing thing is that the BDA websites then goes on to list “possible difficulties” that those with dyslexia might show: “reading hesitantly, misreading (making understanding difficult), difficulty with sequences (e.g. getting dates in order), poor organisation or time management, difficulty organising thoughts clearly, erratic spelling.” What is this? Hmmm? Look at how absurd this is. Even the BDA are completely unable to pin down what makes dyslexia different from other conditions, which speaks volumes. The diagnostic tests that are used to catch dyslexia are even more comical. They use a whole battery of cognitive tests, reading tests, writing tests etc, none of which are able to clearly identify dyslexia as a separate condition.
The BDA and other organisations who support dyslexia as a condition say that it has a genetic basis which has been repeatedly identified and therefore dyslexia must exist. Rubbish. It has been known for years that reading difficulties can be passed on from parents to children and while children who have dyslexia may well have parents with dyslexia, this is simply the result of underlying reading problems being passed between generations and does nothing to confirm the existence of the condition itself. There may be also neurological problems associated with dyslexia, but again this is widespread among children and adults with reading difficulties. The use of coloured paper, coloured overlays and all the other accessories that go along with dyslexia have no scientific evidence supporting their use that I’m aware of and are merely another part of the dyslexia myth that people have created. They may anecdotally help some children but nothing more. The fact that, once diagnosed, children with dyslexia can get laptops, extra time in exams, extra help from teachers and all the rest of the package is an outrageous waste of taxpayers money and should be rechannelled into helping everyone learn to read properly in the first place.
On the subject of Graham Stringer’s claims that literacy problems can be eradicated by good teaching, he is absolutely correct. The BDA’s suggestion that dyslexia is ”resistant to conventional teaching methods” is unbelievably crass and ignorant. In Scotland, they have been running pilot studies using synthetic phonics for over ten years and the results are incredible. You, the BDA and anyone else can jump to the defence of dyslexia all you want but the Scottish studies in several areas including West Dunbartonshire make you all look rather naive. Through using synthetic phonics as a baseline in addition to catching reading problems very early in school and having a range of support mechanisms such as parental assistance, they have eradicated illiterary – it has effectively disappeared. After a ten year research programme, the number of children leaving school at age 16 who were unable to read and write in one of the most deprived areas of Scotland was…. three. Yes, three, and all of them got the extra help they needed after leaving school in any case. Now if dyslexia really did affect the millions of people that the BDA claim it does, how is this possible? In England where synthetic phonics is still lagging behind despite tacit government support, we have hundreds if not thousands of children leaving school in each LEA unable to read and write because the teaching is substandard, just like Graham Stringer said.
The indisputable fact of the matter is this: it is impossible to define dyslexia as a discrete condition, no-one knows how to separate dyslexic children from other poor readers, no-one has designed a test to diagnose dyslexia, and if you cannot accurately define or diagnose something then it cannot be said to exist. Graham Stringer’s remarks will surprise many people and to you they represent nothing more than a backbencher desperate for some publicity. How very sad. If you understood the research evidence on the subject, the conclusion that he reached is the only possible conclusion to reach.
Yours sincerely,
A.Tory
Witanagemot Blogs
Hm. I’m not totally convinced that Dyslexia doesn’t exist (worked in SEN for years) but I think Graham Stringer’s remarks have spoilt a very excellent point.
Whether the condition known as Dyslexia exists as a reality or it is simply a descriptive term for a specific set of difficulties (the same could be said of autism), the problem is the explosion in it. Its diagnosis is used as a cover up for bad teaching of reading and writing ; there are far too many children diagnosed as ‘dyslexic’ who simply have never learnt to read and write properly or have never learnt because of behaviour issues.
Writing that ‘Dyslexia doesn’t exist’ allows the people responsible for this poor teaching – not the teachers really, but a mixture of Government, the Education Mafia and Teacher Training colleges – to ignore this more important detail by starting a furore.
The same can be said of ADD/ADHD and especially ODD. In the first two cases, I’ve worked with children who have the ’symptoms’ and respond to the ‘treatment’ ; again this could simply be a specific subset of the poorly behaved. (ODD is a joke IMO, simply meaning children who won’t do as they are told. Confront them with three 6 footers armed with big sticks and I bet they suddenly can). But virtually all of those diagnosed with these things are simply poorly behaved children.
The absolute classic in this is Tourette’s ; there are people with these ‘ticks’, but 99 times out of 100 IME it’s used as a cop out for children who like swearing in a system that can’t or won’t stop them.
All this labelling allows the government and education system to hide from the consequences of their policies over the last 20 years or so IMO. Unfortunately, simplifying it to ‘Dyslexia doesn’t exist’ allows a row to be started which detracts from the reality.
Don’t get me started on the diagnostic criteria for ADHD and similar disorders. Society’s desire to attach a label to a child so that we can all feel better about how poorly educated and/or how poorly behaved they are is sickening.
My point that dyslexia doesn’t exist has already started a row but I totally stand by my judgement on this, having seen enough research to convince me that dyslexia cannot be defined or diagnosed by ANYONE and that reading difficulties can be dealt with through the correct intervention programmes.
I’m willing to accept that a multitude of conditions may get lumped in a catch-all of “dyslexia” but I can only speak from personal experience of what I do when writing and typing.
As I said on Lib Con the biggest problem I have always had has been the jumbling of upper and lower case letters when writing and the automatic writing of certain words and something else. I quite often write the word work instead of walk for example.
That was identified as a dyslexic condition when I was in my late twenties though. Annoyingly I have a tendency to miss words out when writing or typing as well. I think the word but then fail to write it down or type it for some reason. Often I don;t notice this until I have re-read something multiple times and even then I manage to miss it still occassionally.
since it was first diagnosed over 100 years ago I think your thesis is somewhat flawed. You might have a point about teaching methods failing children, but you have picked the wrong target.
since it was first diagnosed over 100 years ago
Sorry – I don’t see the relevance of that? Plenty of things were first diagnosed long before they were debunked.
If it is a genuine condition, it will either be definable or will be a candidate for further research as to its defining features. If it is still undefinable after 100 years, then that would (if anything) point in the opposite direction.
Alastair, please feel free to explain how dyslexia is accurately diagnosed because you would be the first person the planet to do so.
Newmania, have read through your email. The issue of getting a statement from the LEA being the holy grail for many parents, seeing as it forces the LEA to provide extra help for your child, is a very astute point.
Dizzy, thanks for your comments. I do not mean to take anything away from what you experience, but the symptoms you describe sound an awful lot like someone who has some degree of reading difficulties and problems with the automatic processing of words – often associated with dyslexia but also, in my humble opinion and from the research that I’ve read, a likely outcome of not being taught through synthetic phonics when you were younger. Synthetic phonics help readers to construct words from their sound, which believe it or not is not always the main technique used, and this makes it much easier to avoid errors in the long run.
LFAT, I think your post on this subject is quite a bit better than mine. Nice to see well researched, authoritative stuff
Wlel, onipoins deiffr on taht tipoc.
I was taught using synthetic phonics
Dizzy, sorry, I’m not saying that synthetic phonics is the only part of the solution.
In the Scottish pilots, they have only managed to eradicate literacy problems through a multi-faceted approach – getting parents more involved, more trained specialists in schools, more individual tuition, better catch-up classes etc. I don’t know how much of this you received and I couldn’t comment on the quality of teaching that you received either, but this appears to be how you teach all children to read properly according to the most recent longitudinal studies in the UK (I should have explained that better in my previous comment).
I think that, (as I blogged myself) regardless of the existence or non-existence of dyslexia as a medical condition, the most damaging thing you can do to a young child is tell them they have ‘learning difficulties’ and that they will be unable to grasp certain things. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Therefore, if dyslexia does exist, we shouldn’t be telling children that they have it.
I have exactly the same thing as Dizzy. Mirror letters and inverted W and M when writing, missing words out, trouble proof reading.
But I could read amazingly early, and always achieved very high grades in English language.
One teacher thought I was a genius.
Another thought I should just pay attention to what I was doing.
There is clearly a huge variation in terms of reading ability across the whole population.
What I would like to see is for schools to be given the funding and the curriculum control to give each pupil the help they need when learning to read, write and count. I didn’t talk about solutions in my post as that’s probably for another day but it’s immensely frustrating that reading problems can be dealt with without the need for any great fanfare or dramatic (and usually ineffective) government initiatives like Every Child A Reader – which is a shocking waste of money, by the way.
I’m not so sure about your “Solutions” LFaT – how does the fact that children are badly taught instead of suffering from an inherent condition mean that denying them laptops and other paraphernalia is required? Surely those at a disadvantage and not acting at full potential is a concern irrespective of source.
Laptops are extremely expensive. Of course every child with reading, writing or counting difficulties needs extra support but imagine how much specialised tuition you could pay for and how much extra training for teachers you could pay for with the £500 that gets spent on one laptop for the benefit of one child.
The money to crack our literacy and numeracy problems is already there but it’s being spent in the wrong way.
This is the gist of my take on this
When little Samantha and Sebastian are a bit on the thick side they are often ‘dyslexic’ . It is of a number of conditions it is virtually impossible to disprove the existence of having symptoms so extraordinarily like being a bit thick that an observer ( for such will be despatched ) and sympathetic Doctor will usually be willing to sign little lord thicko up.
Once you have achieved this you have unlocked the gate to squillions of tax funded assistance and more importantly you get your choice of school ahead of everyone else The sneaky middle classes that have become expert in manipulating the system and given the cost of private education the financial boon of choosing your own school, is worth a fortune . The holy grail of any decent parent is to achieve for their child the magical status of being statemented . In a given class in any normal school there will be several statemented children on the “autism spectrum” for example , and in many cases quite rightly .
The extent to which the system is defrauded however is an open secret among parents.You would not believe the number of people employed to sit around discussing the implications of Newmania fils throwing his plasticine ( dats my boy ). As ever when you have needs based hand outs everyone gets nweedy. This sort of tactic is now ingrained in the whole sure start needs world.
Thanks to the squanderer leaving the hose on for ten years we are approaching a period of tax rises and cuts to state spending . The public Sector has got to be slashed now or later and the question then arises what do we cut . It is not going to be sustainable to waste the colossal sums we are on fictitious conditions and the army of parasites they support. It is immoral now.
PS On Labels
There used to be such a thing as a nervous breakdown which was assumed to have some reality. That assumption only stopped the development of what is pretty much the witch doctor branch of medicine anyway. How much suffering did the error cause ?
Most of the progress of medicine in the 19th century was not so much discovering new things as realising everything they thought before was rubbish this is a vital step towards helping sufferers . Questioning a convenient label is not then necessarily a heartless attack on sufferers it is the only way to get at the real problems
I’m not going to argue over whether the problem of illiteracy is down to poor teaching methods, seeing as many adult illiterates subesequently learn to read it is clear that there are teaching methods that can eliminate illiteracy regardless of whether dyslexia is real or not. The evidence you present is quite convincing on the effectiveness of what is occurring in West Dumbarton.
However I disagree that because dyslexia is hard to define or discretely measure it therefore does not exist. Until recently any condition of the mind could only be assessed either by proxy measurements (like IQ tests to assess intellect) or by qualitive assessments (depression for example). Yet the concepts being assessed clearly exist. Neuro-imaging may change this in future by providing stuff which actually be measured.
“In effect, children who supposedly have dyslexia are simply working at a lower reading age than their peers. This does not class as a learning difficulty and goes some way to supporting Graham Stringer’s remarks.”
If the child’s general mental capacity is also two years behind their peers then it isn’t a learning difficulty as such. Yet where a child’s reading ability significantly lags behind the rest of their intellectual development then it can indicate a specific difference in how their mind works.
Thanks Newmania, interesting take.
Ross, neuroimaging might well throw up some useful data on the issue of reading difficulties (in fact, I’m pretty sure it already has) but neural scans are fraught with interpretation problems.
“where a child’s reading ability significantly lags behind the rest of their intellectual development then it can indicate a specific difference in how their mind works.”
Either that or they weren’t taught how to read properly in the first place. Good first teaching of reading is where it should always start, individual targeted interventions should follow. Ironically, a child’s reading being behind the rest of the intellectual development is one of the most common ways that dyslexia is ‘diagnosed’ as no other explanation of a child’s problems can be decided upon.
“Either that or they weren’t taught how to read properly in the first place. “
Sure, but even that raises the question of why they weren’t when their peers, who were taught in the same manner, can read.
“but neural scans are fraught with interpretation problems. “
Agreed, because it isn’t clear whether the results are the effect of nature or of the way the child has been taught. Ideally there should be a longitudinal study that scans children before they enter school and then observes reading levels after they’ve been taught.
On learning difficulties in general its something we all think about I `m sure .Watching my nephews and nieces and my own I have come to the conclusion that we start children at school pointlessly early and test them before the results can be very useful .I have lost count of the times one or other was supposedly dangerously off this or that curve only for it to even out .Vast amounts of money have been spent on what are healthy children letters meetings resources and so on. And this is pre school and reception
Some children do need additional help but I would say that in most cases learning difficulties should be dealt with at seven and eight at the earliest here is where targeted intensive teaching can get a child back into the swing with life changing results in the long term.. I am not considering autism and real; health problems of course but the generality of learning difficulties would , in my view , be better treated as that and later .This would give every child a fair chance of getting the help they need
This is the crucial point for me . The different abilities to lobby the system by aquisition of medical qualifications are spread in parents in exactly the wrong way for any fairness to result .The available money is mis spent when you should , IMHO , be putting in trouble shooting teams later in development . I have seen spectacular and lasting results when this happens .
I suppose you might equally argue that migraines don’t exist. I might agree, if it wasn’t for the headaches, sickness and blurred vision.
The medical research and diagnoses are well documented – I guess you are as capable of looking them up as I am.
Patently (is your last name absurd?) – the point is that dyslexia is not debunked, whatever LFAT and Stringer MP might think.
I could comment that in the past 5 year Graham Stringer MP has ranked 1st twice out of 657 MPs for additional cost allowance on his expenses, As I know nothing about what these costs involve I would be in my view irresponsible to comment. It should be noted that as far as I know Mr. Stringer has no interest in any committees or topics of interest relating school aged education. To note further I believe that Mr. Stringer has conducted no educational research, has no background and has not referenced a single educational paper. His comments in my opinion have as much academic rigger as would be expected from an 8 year old pontificating on the plastics industry (Mr. Stringer area of expertise).
SPLD dyslexia isn’t an excuse to be illiterate; it’s just harder to achieve certain processing skills than the average person. As with any cross section of society there are low ability, average and high ability people, this is no different for Dyslexia. The brain functions in a different way for dyslexics; this is shown in many studies of brain activity. Normal readers are found to use the left side of the brain in reading. By contrast, competent dyslexic readers use the right side of the brain; further to this, the more competent the dyslexic reader is, the less likely they are to use the left-hand side of the brain: “Dyslexics who read well consistently bypass the left temporal region.” (Abigail Marshall 2003). I’m dyslexic, but I am not illiterate. Having had a low reading age at primary school I received a 1st for my thesis and have had educational research papers published.
Interesting point, A one legged man who has a false limb is able to walk. Does this mean that the disability does not exist?
“Dyslexia is a myth invented by education chiefs to cover up poor teaching methods” Obviously a very old myth! Orton (1937) claimed that reversible letters (b/d. q/p) were literally perceived wrongly by dyslexic readers either through a lack of suppression of the mirror image, produced by the alternate hemisphere of the brain; or through misperception based on incomplete visual information being obtained from the stimulus. Or not quite as old: “Dyslexia an inability to read normally as a result of a dysfunction in the brain”. Myklebust and Johnson (1962)
Although individuals can learn to read, reading is never fully mastered by anyone. Definitions of what exactly dyslexia is have varied over the years, but there is a broad consensus that it is a phonological memory problem.
My belief is that public officials that think this kind of ignorant, tabloid nonsense is appropriate for public forum despite breaking the “Disability Discrimination Act” (1995) should not be in office. Mr. Stringers actions, by association, bring his party into disrepute and provide in my opinion strong grounds for his resignation.
Mr D Williams
Reference:
Marshall, A 2003 http://www.dyslexia.com/science/different_pathways.htm
Mykebust, HR and Johnson, DJ 1962 “Dyslexia in children” Exceptional Children, 29 14. In Naidoo, S 1972 “Specific dyslexia” Chap. 2 London: Pitman.
Orton, ST 1937 “Reading, writing and speech problems in children.” New York: Norton.
Reid, G 2003 Dyslexia A Practitioner’s Handbook Wiley p7
Singleton C 1999 : Dyslexia in Higher Education – Policy, Provision and Practice (Report of the National Working Party on Dyslexia in Higher Education). University of Hull.
Dave, the study you linked to cited a single piece of research on grown men who showed different patterns of brain activation when confronted with language tasks. How much variation do you get on this task with other individuals with reading problems? Do normal readers always use one side of the brain? What use is looking at adult brain scans when their difficulties have been cemented through years of education of varying quality?
The study concluded that “left brain areas associated with phonetic decoding are ineffective” in those who apparently have dyslexia, which again suggests that the method of teaching is crucial and that synthetic phonics may help in a large number of cases.
But, more importantly than all of that, did you notice that (purely by coincidence) this single study supported the conclusions of an author who just happens to be peddling their book, educational materials, workshops and reading programme about how to educate children with dyslexia on the very same website, and that their programme just happened to fit very nicely with the findings of the single study that they cited?!?!?! Unlike you, I don’t make a habit of listening to researchers who clearly have vested financial interests in the findings that they publish.
I largely agree with this article, however I am in my sixties, taught of course by the phonic method. Never had any problems myself but my best friend, an avid reader, has great difficulties with writing and spelling to this day. She cannot write anything without a dictionary and frequently transposes numbers. She is articulate and , as I said, an avid reader. I don’t know what the answer is but clearly something is wrong that dos not relate to teaching or reading ability.
I teach in a school where reading is taught extremely well using synthetic phonics, with individual teaching for those pupils who find it difficult -again using synthetic phonics. The majority of children learn to read very well and achieve high scores in national tests and, more importantly, develop a real love of reading. However every year out of the 40+ children there are a couple who struggle to learn to read and never really develop automatic accuracy or fluency.they usually also have great problems with spelling. Because we are a school where children come from a wide variety of social backgrounds it is obvious that this has no bearing on their reading ability- some children are highly articulate and obviously bright others are not. If this is not dyslexia what is it?
As someone who teaches synthetic phonics, I can assure people that it works very well. However, there are some children who miss out words (like Dizzy), some who miss out parts of words with lots of syllables, and some who transpose letters regularly. This does not make them illiterate, and this may be why 100% literacy is the figure they use in South Korea and elsewhere. However, these children (and adults) are held back by being dyslexic.
We can bandy figures around but the same people who deny dyslexia are also the types who deny ME exists too.
Thanks for referring me to your post, LFAT. Just like Emma, I have two friends – who I mentioned on my brief post on the subject – who are avid readers, but cannot write at any speed and have great difficulty in spelling. Can you explain any likely causes if it is not dyslexia?
Synthetic phonics is the first ‘wave’ of properly teaching reading. In fact, good synthetic phonics programmes will include methods of identifying poor readers very early on in their school career as some children certainly struggle more than others with their reading. There is of course huge variation in reading abilities but the best general technique is synthetic phonics according to the research literature. Programmes such as Every Child A Reader, one of Gordon Brown’s latest press release policies, have a terrible research base and are a spectacular waste of money.
The underlying problem with all poor readers (including those with dyslexia) is neurological and appears to be partly genetic but also partly environmental, meaning that with the right support – best delivered when a child is still young – it is more than likely that reading difficulties can be overcome in all but the most extreme cases. Intelligence and IQ has nothing to do with it as poor readers with high or low IQs make exactly the same mistakes when learning to read – that’s what people like Professor Elliott have been trying to tell everyone!
LFAT, A question for you.
In my mind there appears to be a middle ground – that dyslexia might actualy exist…in a very small group of children.
However, due to the lack of a good definition (or possibly a lack of definitions – multiple forms, each with a specific trait) causes not only those with a genuine condition but also those who are badly taught, are lazy or simply less able.
This could cause a cluster of conditions with similar gross symptoms to appear to be more common then they are and almost impossible to diagnose due to the difficulty in seperating them out into groups.
Or – a description of the current problem?
Unless I’m missing something?
I can’t help that feel the argument that because something is not easily defined it must not exist will upset a lot of theologians. Your argument seems flawed and I am left wondering what you base your own certainties on. I am sure there must exist just as many reports supporting the condition as those that doubt its existence.
You speak of no evidence of dyslexia but medical research has shown abnormal neurophysiological responses to various auditory stimuli as well as brain imaging studies showing anatomical, metabolic and activation differences in the cerebellum of dyslexics.
If you choose to ignore all (I cant get over your response to Dave which just seemed to ignore all the facts) then please be kind enough to explain why I struggle with reading and writing.
Since I was very young I have been a very keen reader. I have had drilled into me the rules of our mother tongue since before i even went to school and i was taught something very similar to synthetic phonics as one of a number of techniques to improve my reading while still at school. (Its really not such a new concept – its just been rediscovered)
I left school with 12 A* at GCSE (including English language) and went on to get 5 As at A level and a first class honours degree at an old red brick university. (Admittedly I dropped English after GCSE)
Despite this and despite the fact I’m an avid reader – (I read a new novel on average every two to three days) I still struggle reading. I find it impossible to read out loud – letters jump all over the place.
When doctors (these are people in the medical profession) recommended I be diagnosed for dyslexia I was sceptical. I went only after much persuasion. I must admit I was very naive about the condition. But after I explained the problems I had encountered all my life the person testing my condition showed me a list of symptoms which exactly mirrored my problems. Please explain this – are all illiterate people therefore exactly the same or could similar symptoms suggest a condition they each have in common?
Part of the test looked at my IQ – (much higher than average thank you) and my reading age – (much lower than it should be).
Surely for the amount I read and the effort put in to teach myself better reading techniques as a child would put my reading age above my own – (or at least on par) – unless something else was counteracting that?
If you claim I’ve just got a reading difficulty then surely you’re admitting such a condition exists and if so why is dyslexia (a reading condition) a myth?
If you claim I was not taught properly at school – even though most of my lunchtimes were taken up by teachers trying to teach me other ways to read because I was painfully slow – please explain why the rest of my class didn’t suffer a similar problem? – Surly this alone makes Graham Stringers attack on teaching methods erroneous!
I look forward to hearing your response as well as a clue as to your experience in this field.
M, if poor readers with dyslexia make the same mistakes as poor readers without dyslexia, why should we try to hive off one group of poor readers and throw tens of millions of pounds at them? It is possible that, as with ADHD, a very small number of cases have exactly the same cluster of symptoms that are not shown by any other poor readers, but this has yet to be demonstrated as far as I’m aware with dyslexia – which makes dyslexia as a distinct condition pretty worthless.
AR, of course reading difficulties exist and there is a huge spectrum of problems that young children have. However, labellling some children ‘dyslexic’ while other are simply labelled as ‘thick’ or ‘poor readers’ is unhelpful and has no scientific basis. Being taught by the same teacher doesn’t escape the fact that reading problems are partly neurological in origin, meaning that good teaching alone cannot overcome them in many cases. This is why the extra layers of support must be available to ALL poor readers, not just those who supposedly have a distinct condition called dyslexia. And since you asked, I have a postgraduate degree in Developmental Psychology as well as having spent months researching reading intervention programmes and also having read some of Professor Elliott’s research into this area.
I have two close friends, both of whom have been diagnosed with dyslexia and have been provided with laptops for their university courses and get extra exam time.
However, spending time with them both there are differences in their problems, one of them, no matter how hard he tries just cannot spell some words or comprhend why they are spelt in that way, though he manages to score consistently highly in exams and essays. The other one however, when concentrating has few problems with spellings, reading and the rules of reading outloud (silent ‘e’ words for example) and he scores a lot lower on exams/essays. The second guy even admits that he doesn’t think he’s dyslexic, just had a bit of trouble catching up in school which was never dealt with.
So, both of these people were diagnosed with dyslexia, and gained all the “benefits” that come with it, extra exam time etc. However, one of them doesn’t even believe himself to be dyslexic and the issues he has are qualitatively different to those of the other one.
Does dyslexia exist? Yes.
Does everyone diagnosed with dyslexia have it? No.
It is my belief that before someone with dyslexia is medically stamped with that label, they are given extra help reading and writing to see if there’s any improvement with a retest. For many people with dyslexia such help would make little or no difference to their reading age in comparison to their IQ. For those who are just a little behind such help will help them to catch up with their peers. Much better than being stuck with the label of an incurable condition, what’s the going to do to people’s self esteem?
People are always going to achieve differently in reading and some people will advance more quickly than others. Saying an 11 year old child should be at a certain level is rubbish. Education needs to be less about funding issues/targets and more about the children.
Oh and a little aside: I work as a part time tutor in English and Maths and many of the kids I work with who have been labelled dyslexic by their parents (so they get extra attention from the tutors), though there is often no visible evidence of this dyslexia than a kid who reads a little slowly/has messy hand writing. I see no reason why these parents wouldn’t go out of their way to get struggling little Sammy tested and re-tested until they can get certain help that goes with a SEN.
This is not to say that all parents do it, nor that there is anyway of stopping it.
(comment deleted for breaking the rules of this blog)
[...] up the full background to this post, you’ll need to read this article of mine at Lib Con, and this response from Letters From A Tory, [...]
I am horrified by your collective blindness with regard to dyslexia. I can only assume none of you actually has a dyslexic child. I would venture to say that none of you really knows what you are talking about. Until you see it on a daily basis and at close hand, you have no right to cast aspertions on the sufferers of dyslexia. Please try and curtail your ugly prejudices.
As a lecturer for 11 years in further and higher education I’ve seen plenty of dyslexic students. In my area of art and design, students with dyslexia can be incredible spatial, conceptual and creative thinkers but can struggle to write coherently. In art departments its quite prevalent, and I believe the condition does exist as a learning disability – there are definite differences in the writing errors to those of a standard poorly literate student.
In last decade I’ve seen a growth each year in the number of 17/18 yr old students given dyslexia statements, often after shoddy treatment and total denial at schools. In one case a young man was hounded out of his fee-paying 6th form so he didn’t damage their statistics, but found help in the FE sector. Sometimes the extra exam/coursework time entitlement helped to boost grades. But these success stories were exceptional, and usually only when learning support was given by a subject specialist. Colleges won’t fund tutors to support their own students, and the dyslexia help is usually done by generalists – well-meaning and capable but with little subject knowledge.
It is infuriating when many students just don’t turn up for their expensive support sessions, which are statutory under DSA regulations. Having sought the label they spurn the help on offer, perhaps through pride, or maybe because its just ineffectual. Springer’s point is sound – these wasted resources could be better spent on literacy in a wider sense.
A depressing number seem to view their dyslexia as merely a passport to assessment concessions and glamorous equipment, without any genuine commitment to improving their reading / writing. I have seen dyslexic students given £4000 of Mac kit & multimedia software, only to swiftly drop out of courses. One can’t help but see the whole thing as a box-ticking exercise by an equally cynical industry.