Job Discussion Forums

[Sashadroogie]

No, no, I can spell 'myth'. Just attention-grabbing on the subject line. But it's a serious question. What do other teachers think: is dyslexia a real 'learning disability', or is it simply a question of 'poor reading skills'?

I remember reading one of Frank Smith's 'Reading' books (can't remember the exact title) and was surprised at how vociferously he attacked the whole notion of dyslexia. He blamed 'dyslexia' squarely on poor methods of teaching young learners how to read - phonics came in for particular criticism. Julian Elliot would seem to have very similar views.

What do other posters think?

I ask because many of my Russian friends and colleagues are truly baffled by this 'Western' phenomenon. Though there is a Russian word 'дислексия', most people here really do not know what this means. No one seems to suffer from it, though God knows what the true situation might be. In any case, this is surprising as the Cyrillic alphabet is, my better-informed friends tell me, harder than the Latin alphabet to process visually, due to its near absence of ascenders and descenders etc. Are Russians just lacking in evidence of an 'LD' present in their reading culture? Or is dyslexia simply a convenient myth to cover up teaching incompetence?

[spiral78]

Nyaah, it's related to less television-watching in other regions than the US.


(yeah, sorry - I realise that comes off as hasty/patronising/prejudices/many-other-nonPC-things). But kinda accurate anyway, I honestly think.

[Isla Guapa]

Keep in mind that dyslexia can be a lot more complicated than just reading "was" as "saw" and can involve all sorts of other problems processing written symbols, both letters and numerals.

[jpvanderwerf2001]

Sasha,

I think, in your example, it might be similar to autism. My nephew has autism, something 99% of my Russian friends had never heard of. In other words, I think it's a case of mis- or non-diagnosis.
Dyslexia, IMO, is real, and I'm sure it occurs everywhere in the world.

[Sashadroogie]

Hi Jeff

Very good point - just because the Russians have not heard of it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. Of course. However, I think there is a crucial difference. They may not know what autism per se is but I'm sure that they know generally what mental handicap is, as there are examples of it here as elsewhere. How doctors, here or at home, diagnose or differentiate between any of that is not something I am au fait with. But at home there seems to be some degree of uncertainty in diagnosing various syndromes like autism or Asperger's and there do not seem to be cast-iron definitions of any of them. A lot of overlap. Also, some say the autism is not a form of mental handicap at all. Even so, I think we all know on a very basic level when someone has one of these conditions and we wouldn't argue that they didn't exist.

Yet for dyslexia this may not be so - it could be plausible that it really doesn't exist as a condition separate from illiteracy. Is there any evidence for it in Russia? On my personal experience level only, I have never come across it, (or even many people who just never learnt to read), though I have encountered mental handicap. Should we infer that the latter is more widespread than the former? This seems strange as some dyslexia help groups assert that 5 to 10% of the population suffers from some form of dyslexia. Shouldn't we see more of it then, especially as we are teachers?

It may even be that it is a deliberate redefining of another problem, in this case reading disability. Remember the time when it was claimed that alcoholism was a disease like any other? I think the idea was that if alcoholics thought that they 'only' had a disease, then they'd seek help more readily than if they thought they were weak or immoral etc. Could it be true that dyslexia is only illiteracy re-packaged to remove any sense of blame or failure - from teachers as well as students?

I actually do not know what to believe, though I'm veering towards the non-existence side. It could also be that ADD is a real condition, or syndrome or however insurance companies term it. But I have serious doubt about it. When I were a lad, there was no hyperactivity, just high-spirited kids who were 'wild'. Certainly no expensive and controversial medication like Ritalin either. I think dyslexia belongs to the same category of manufactured conditions, but I could be wrong. Anyone else out there got any input?

[gaijinalways]

Hmm, I would state that dyslexia is a real problem. As to diagnosing things, yes, this is a problem with some conditions that may be prompted by psychosomatic causes. Both autism and dyslexia are not always easily recognizable, though when students start withdrawing too much or simply start writing backwards then it may become readily apparent to many people, medical degrees in hand or not (unless you're in Japan, then it simply may be part of your personality as to why you don't leave your bedroom for 4 years . Hell with takeout and Internet shopping, why not just stay home permanently?).

I certainly think the way mental illnesses are looked upon and treated may lead to people denying or simply thinking that such a condition doesn't exist. In the US, people with mental illnesses may engender too much sympathy (Twinkie defense anyone?) from others, but certain conditions can be very disabling. Whether prescribing lots of pills really helps correct the condition or simply masks it with new 'drug' related problems is a serious issue.

[johnslat]

Dear gaijinalways,

"In the US, people with mental illnesses may engender too much sympathy (Twinkie defense anyone?)"

"The "Twinkie defense" is so ingrained in our culture that it appears in law dictionaries, in sociology textbooks, in college exams and in more than 2,800 references on Google. Only a few of them call it what it is: a myth.

"I don't think Twinkies were ever mentioned in testimony," said chief defense attorney Douglas Schmidt, who recalls "HoHos and Ding Dongs," but no Twinkies. In fact, the cream-filled confections were mentioned, but only in passing. Junk food was an insignificant part of the defense. The matter was raised briefly in testimony by Marin psychiatrist Martin Blinder, one of five defense therapists. Today, the entire episode is characterized by Schmidt as "a throwaway witness . . . with a throwaway line.''

The main focus of the defense's case in May 1979 was diminished capacity -- that White had suffered from periodic bouts of depression, amounting to "a major mental illness." That, along with "the machinations of dirty politics at City Hall," White's co-counsel Stephen Scherr said in a recent interview, "drove him 'round the bend."

During his day on the stand, Blinder, a former mayor of San Anselmo and a onetime teacher at UCSF's medical school and at Hastings College of the Law, characterized White as his family's black sheep, a man with rigid values and locked-up emotions. In a recent interview, Blinder said his intent was to explore, "What is it that makes a good man kill?"

In his daylong accounting of how White's life "unraveled," one small aspect of something Blinder said -- "two minutes of a greater part of the day on the stand" -- was later turned into the irrational explanation for everything that came after. "Studies show," he said recently, "that if you have a general predisposition to bipolar mood swings, things you ingest can play a part." In the days leading up to the killings, the psychiatrist told the jury, White cast aside his normal habits and grew slovenly, quit working, shunned his wife, grew a stubble beard and rather than eat his healthful diet, indulged in Twinkies and Coke -- all symptoms, Blinder testified, of depression. The junk food, he said, only made White more depressed, which caused him to binge even more.

Today, a still-angry Blinder says, "It's preposterous to think that 12 middle class homeowner jurors would give a killer even a partial pass on the basis of what he ate the night before." He blames the press for perpetuating the myth. "If I found a cure for cancer," he said, "they'd still say I was the guy who invented 'The Twinkie defense.' "

http://www.pogash.com/twinkie.html

"The federal government is suing a North Carolina employer for what it calls a pervasive problem in the workplace: discrimination against employees with mental illness.

In the federal suit filed Sept. 21 in the Eastern District of North Carolina, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission contends that the Smith International Truck Center relied upon "myths, fears and stereotypes about mental impairments" when it unlawfully terminated an employee who took leave for a mental health issue.

According to the suit, the employee, Stephen Kerns, took one week off from work to obtain medical treatment and get his dosage adjusted for medicine he took for what the complaint calls a mental impairment. The man then returned to work with no restrictions, but was fired shortly thereafter, according to the EEOC.

The agency asserts that his employer fired Kerns because of his perceived disability -- in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act. "The employer just assumed, acting on stereotypes, that if he's getting treatment for any kind of mental impairment, that he must not be able to work, and that's the problem. They didn't look at his abilities," said Carol Miaskoff, assistant legal counsel to the EEOC.

Miaskoff said that discrimination against employees with mental illnesses has been an ongoing problem since the ADA was passed in 1990.

"There's just a lot of stigma about mental illness," she said, adding that the North Carolina case highlights the difficulties that individuals with mental illness face in landing a job and keeping one. "'Getting employers to slow down and not jump to these negative conclusions is not easy."

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202434019761


Too much sympathy? I don't think so.

Regards,
John

[scot47]

Dyslexia is an invention on a par with that 19th century diagnosis of a psychiatric condition which caused negro slaves to become obsessive about running away. An invention.

Try a Google on "Drapetomania" or "Dysaethesia Aethiopica"

[Dedicated]

Scot,

Whether you think dyslexia is a myth, at all UK universities, dyslexia is regarded as a learning disability, which affects about 5% -17% of the population. It affects reading decoding, fluency and comprehension, spelling, phonological processing and rapid visual/verbal responding.

Students are assessed by some special testing (I don't know what exactly, but we have a Dyslexia Officer), and then they can be given support, and up to 45 minutes extra in exams.

I doubt universities would do this if they felt the condition did not exist. Even with the cutbacks, dyslexia units are being maintained.

[JZer]

[JZer]

[Justin Trullinger]

Or a small, regular subset of sounds.

"gusto"

"guardia"

"girar"


In these three examples, the "g" has totally different sounds, regardless where you are.

"Caca"

"C�ceres."

THe "c" has two sounds as well...


It's phonetically a lot simpler than some languages, but while the idea that Spanish has a straight letter/sound connection is common, it's also not true.

My Italian is shoddy, but it seems that the same is true there....


best,
Justin

[Sashadroogie]

I agree with Justin. I do not think any language has an alphabet with a straight one-to-one letter/phoneme correspondence. As far as I know, this is virtually impossible due to factors like assimilation etc. E.g. We may join two words like 'sun' and 'burn' to make sunburn, but we all say 'suMburn'.

So, I am not sure that having a 'simplified' spelling system makes learning to read any easier, or if it has any relevancy to dyslexia or literacy. Certainly Frank Smith would say so, as, according to his side, we read 'whole words' and do not decode each letter in every word every time we read it (which seems to be the premise that 'phonics' instruction is based on).

[Teacher in Rome]

[Sashadroogie]

I may be very wrong, but it seems that the term dyslexia has been broadening its base in the last few years. First, it was just a reading disorder, though with claims that it had a neurological cause. Now it seems that it also extends to numeracy, spatial awareness, or even 'language/information processing', which has a very loose definition in any of the literature I have come across, and even seems to include problems understanding spoken language too. I find it harder and harder not to think dyslexia is just another word for 'thick' generally if it is not limited to reading problems only.

I'm also confused about the neurological processing problems that are said to be the root of dyslexia. Do dyslexics have problems processing traffic signs when they are driving, for example? Do they get knocked down at pedestrian crossings? Are dyslexics barred from flying planes or wiring houses, as the colour-blind are? Do they mix up 10-dollar-bills with 100-dollar-bills? I don't think they do - at least dyslexia is never blamed for it. Dyslexia only seems to be invoked for reading problems, and this seems strange to me.