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Original poster

There is no such thing as dyslexia.

248 replies

VioletBaudelaire · 30/05/2007 11:24

www.theherald.co.uk/display.var.1430434.0.0.php?utag=40859
I've had my say!

OP posts:
ScottishThistle · 30/05/2007 11:30

I better tell my friend who struggles to write her Nursing essays that she's just a bit thick!

tiredemma · 30/05/2007 11:31

??? saw the man on tv this morning.

what an idiot.

Original poster
VioletBaudelaire · 30/05/2007 11:32

Ah, so he's happily hawking his baseless theories to anyone who will listen?
I wonder if he's being paid?

OP posts:
Sherbert37 · 30/05/2007 11:32

Well I may have thought this in the past as I knew nothing about dyslexia. My DS2 has been diagnosed as severely dyslexic at the age of 10 and this has turned on a light for us all. He is bright but just cannot see the patterns in language that you or I just assimilate. We are going back to basics and have just about mastered 'magic e'. He could always read well as he did this by memory but his spelling was pure guess work. There is no way this is a made up middle class trick for excusing lazy kids. It was precisely because DS2 worked so hard and got nowhere that I took him for a private test.

Original poster
VioletBaudelaire · 30/05/2007 11:34

People like this give the education system the perfect excuse not to support dyslexics.
There is little enough/next to nothing as it is.

OP posts:
tiredemma · 30/05/2007 11:35

There are 3 girls on my nursing course who are dyslexic- they are also quite possibly the three most intelligent.

Dps dad is dyslexic, he has had a wonderful career and again, is a highly intelligent, articulate man.

Original poster
VioletBaudelaire · 30/05/2007 11:38

The article talks of a theory that some people like to be labelled as dyslexic so everyone will think them more intelligent.
People of all differing intelligence levels can be dyslexic, so that is a completely invalid point.
It makes me so cross when such badly researched views are taken as being true.

OP posts:
Mindles · 30/05/2007 11:38

I've heard that before. He doesn't seem to have much to base it on though. Have no personal experience of dyslexia but have a couple of friends with it... I'm sure they'll be relieved to hear they'll be able to spell once they put their minds to it

expatinscotland · 30/05/2007 11:38

Jamie Oliver is dyslexic.

Mindles · 30/05/2007 11:39

Also I think lots of things have similar symptoms - doesn't mean one or the other doesn't actually exist. Even if dyslexia was(hypothetically!!!!) just being bad at reading, is that really any excuse for not trying harder to help people with that problem?

Original poster
VioletBaudelaire · 30/05/2007 11:39

So is Keira Knightley, so it's not all good news.

OP posts:
hana · 30/05/2007 11:40

I thikn one of the reasons there are more children being diagnosed with dx is because there is more awareness of it. Dyslexia has always been out there but perhaps never recognised, so those students were just lost in the system. Saw them being interviewed yesterday am on bbc b'fast news.

Original poster
VioletBaudelaire · 30/05/2007 11:40

Exactly Mindles.

OP posts:
Kathyis6incheshigh · 30/05/2007 11:48

If this is the guy who did that tv doc he's being misrepresented.

He's not saying all dyslexics are thick or that there is no such thing as difficulty with reading, but that there is no real difference between those who are defined as being bad at reading and those who are defined as dyslexic.

His argument (from the tv prog) is that we shouldn't try to define a group as 'dyslexic', we should give equal help to all children who struggle with reading.

His evidence as I remember it is based on two things. Firstly it's distribution - there is no 'lump on the tail' of the curve as you would expect from a specific disorder - it's a smooth distribution along the scale of how good/bad people are at reading. Secondly, children who are just defined as bad at reading benefit just as much from extra help as the so-called 'dyslexics'. Dyslexia therefore becomes an empty term which means exactly the same as having trouble with reading. That's all.

FWIW as an academic I have taught some very bright students who have dyslexia and also one of my most talented colleagues has it, so I would be very sceptical indeed of anything that suggested that people with dyslexia are thick.

Mindles · 30/05/2007 11:51

Kathy that sounds more like what I read before. Either way, help the people to read, damn it! Surely it can't be that hard to give some kids a bit extra help with their reading?

FWIW, I was at primary school with a girl who was frightening clever. She didn't do the 11+ because of her dyslexia, but IIRC she did manage to get a scholarschip to some ridiculously posh private school on the grounds of how bloody clever she was.

hana · 30/05/2007 11:52

I didn't understand the prof to be saying being diagnosed with dyslexia equals being thick - think he was saying that sometimes people who are thick are being labelled as being dyslexic - it's not the same

beckybrastraps · 30/05/2007 11:56

In fact I think he says that reading is not related to IQ.

Kathyis6incheshigh · 30/05/2007 11:57

Absolutely, Mindles.
This guy seems to be being picked up by Daily Mail type publications and commentators who think he is actually saying dyslexics are just thick and would probably welcome the excuse to stop helping anyone at all.

lulumama · 30/05/2007 12:03

"Two years ago Professor Elliott said poor readers wanted to be called dyslexic because of a "wrong" perception that dyslexics were clever."

ok, my 7 year old DS is going to screened for dyslexia after the half term break..he has no idea there is an issue, no idea he might be dyslexic, or that any such thing exists, why on earth would he want a label because he thinks it makes him sound clever

what a load of bolleaux

appledumpling · 30/05/2007 12:06

DH is very dyslexic. He coud barely write or spell when he went to secondary school and says his writing was appalling becuase he was just making "shapes" that looked like words.

He was told he was thick and would never achieve anything. Fortunately he is the kind of person who kicks against things like that and worked his socks off to get his GCSE's then 3 A-levels and then an engineering degree. He finally got help at university but has never had any extra time in exams.

He is a very intelligent man whose maths and creative skills are his strengths. He just cannot deal with words and how they are made up and how they fit together.

beckybrastraps · 30/05/2007 12:07

Loads of children struggle with reading. Certaily in secondary school, that makes you 'thick' to your peers. If you are diagnosed as dyslexic, it is easier to refute that. I think that's what he means.

Mindles · 30/05/2007 12:08

Well correct if I'm wrong, but I would have thought most people being screened for dyslexia would be schoolchildren, and as you say Lulamama, why would they want that label? I just find the whole thing a bit daft, surely we should be helping all kids who struggling with reading rather than just the ones labelled dyslexic? Or vice versa, if that's the case, I don't know personally as have no experience.

Mindles · 30/05/2007 12:09

Fair point Becky, although I rather thought being perceived as clever was worse than thick come secondary school?

lulumama · 30/05/2007 12:10

exactly

Spoke to the SENCO at school , DS already gets extra help, which will carry on regardless of whether he is dyslexic or not..thankfully, he is at a school where children with potential learning issues do not slip through the net

beckybrastraps · 30/05/2007 12:12

But IME many schools don't provide enough help for children who struggle to read. Especially if it is thought to be because they are 'thick'.

As I understand it, this man's argument is that all children with reading difficulties benefit from intervention with a phonic-based programme. So all children with reading difficulties should have access to this. Possibly targetting resources towards those with a diagnosis of dyslexia may make those who are undiagnosed less likely to receive help?