Job Discussion Forums

[gaijinalways]

John,

I was saying that with a wink about the 'twinkie defense' , I guess you missed it (though my students try to use it sometimes, though here it's caused 'my train was delayed defense' even though other students using the identical line were miraculously on time).

As to the sympathy for the mentally ill in America, it varies as some are frightened, but people are often given time off for therapy unlike Japan where people often goes years before they snap and decide life isn't the great big party it's made out to be. Then again, maybe it is.... , just not for the Japanese.

GA

[johnslat]

Dear gaijinalways,

OK, then - but if you don't support mental health, I'll have to kill you.

Regards,
Ex-loony John
(Although can anyone really be an "ex-loony?" I believe you'd have to be crazy to think so.)

[Sashadroogie]

Oi hijackers! Can we get back on topic please? The topic is about agreeing with me, so come on. Get on with it.

[gaijinalways]

You're right Sasha, and I share your dismay at how the category label has broadened. If the category gets so broad that almost anyone could have the condition then the label is pretty useless.

It's like talking about the mental health of 'normal' teachers, I mean, what is that anyway, 'normal' I mean?

You're right John, let me give you my address now, earth, somewhere in Japan. Now all you need to do is use your twinkie powers....

[Sashadroogie]

This has been floating around the interweb for some time now:

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

It does seem to demonstrate the point the dyslexia is more likely to be reading problem due to the 'fallacy of phonics' than a real condition in itself.

[gaijinalways]

I don't know if you can read it without a problem, but certainly for higher level language learners it's doable. Lower level learners tend to be slowed down, so perhaps their sense of structure and likely words within that sentence structure is not as highly developed.

Not sure why you would think it is more due to phonics than an actual visual processing problem. Dyslexics do reverse numbers as well, so this problem does carry over to other things that people read.

[scot47]

Dedicated

Universities believe in Dyslexia so it must exist ? Mmmmmmmmmmm.
Something wrong with that argument surely ?

[Dedicated]

Scot47,

My actual words were :

[Jetgirly]

Last year I taught a fourteen-year-old Canadian boy who was shockingly mature, witty, composed, perceptive and intelligent. He also had pre-K reading skills. He had received intensive, one-on-one, pull-out reading instruction from K-3, then attended a special school that ONLY did reading and math intervention for 4-6, then came to my Special Ed program for 7-9. And in those TEN YEARS of interventions he was still decoding at a pre-K reading level. I brought in some psychologists as there was no formal diagnosis of dyslexia in his files, and they verbally "diagnosed" it as "deep dyslexia" which they felt could not be corrected. I hooked him up with text-to-speech and speech-to-text software, which he hated, but when working with the materials orally he was easily able to work at grade level. So yes, I do believe 100% in dyslexia... but I don't think I yet know enough to comment on whether it's nature or nurture.

[Mrs McClusky]