There is no such thing as dyslexia.

[VioletBaudelaire]

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

Lots of people would argue that giving (eg) extra time in exams is just to 'level the playing field' so that the exam can be more objective and measure the person's skills/knowledge, not just their dyslexia.... I have encountered examination officers in large high schools who have fundamental objections to giving any form of consideration to dyslexic pupils as they think it's 'cheating'. I have in the past used the analogy of suggesting that it's only the same as allowing the student with visual impairment to have a large print copy of the paper.

I agree, obviously, as my children benefit and they genuinely need the help.

But perhaps if the dyslexia definition was tightened up as I am arguing for if you read the whole thread, other people wouldn't react to the word by thinking it meant lazy/thick etc - it has become a bit meaningless and that is why it often isn't respected as a term . If people (including teachers/examiners/parents ) felt it was more than an ill-defined catch all for any problem(like the comparison with disabilty here - ie Not saying it doesn't exist, but what does it tell you about that person that is useful?), then we could all stop arguing. We could also be confident that resources are allocated fairly and I do not think they are at the moment. I am arguing for this as someome whose DS has struggled with reading (no dyslexia diagnosis and don't really care whether he has one or not) and whose DH has also had major problems (but again who knows why, he wasn't interested at school - is it cause or effect?)

We found it a convenient word and she is glad she has it as it explains how she can be clever, but still ask me how to spell "agreement" when she's 22. My son has ill defined stuff, apparently dyspraxic and dysgraphic but reports done would always describe the difficulties and then say come under those heads. His prep school had someone there on a regular basis assessing all the children and giving them extra help as and when required. But that's not in the state system.

We certainly struggled for years (those two are at university now) with the is it them being lazy and disinclined to work or a real disability issue as in some ways it was quite minor. My daughter can read. She's never written back to front. She was not massively behind at school.

There's certainly a general problem with children who can get right through primary school and stil lnot read and write properly and really it's a bit late by then to throw them into a massive secondary school. They need to be helped whatever the reason is.

Not going to get into a heated debate about this because frankly, I have better things to do tonight ....but - YES VVV I have had training in this area. And I completely disagree with your point. Being wrongly diagnosed as dyslexic is HUGELY disadvantageous to a child, and unfortunately, the situation is a world away than it was even 10 years ago in this country - you are far more likely to be wrongly labelled dyselxic in the modern state education system in this country than you are to be labelled 'thick' when you are actually dyslexic. That's been my firsthand experience of this issue, and I can tell you, it was a huge, heated issue behind staff room doors and is bound to surface as a 'hot topic' pretty soon.

Ye,s it's been interesting seeing my sister trying to work out (a) if there's anything wrong with her boys at all and ( b) whether what might be diagnosed is simply the words she's put into the mouths of the teachers/psychologists herself.

Don't even get me started on dyspraxia, Asperger's, 'autistic specturm', ADD, ADHD - all terms bandied about far too much by people barely qualified to diagnose...

People can bandy them round wrongly but if the child wants treatment or specialist help or extra time in exams then they will only get that if qualified professionals agree.

Haven't read the article that everyone is refering to, but I think that there are some misconceptions here. One that having a diagnosis of dyslexia gives an advantage in terms of support unless you are failing anyway (our son's school wasn't very interested at all, and he has had no etra support since his diagnosis), second that dyslexia is a "diagnosis", but it isn't really like that - it's a discriptive term, and used for shorthand for specific learning difficulties on the basis of a range of observational tests. As it runs very strongly in my family I am sure there is a genetic basis of some sort, but as with most things to do with the brain, no-one knows enough to make definitive decisions, hence the variations. However, talking to the six dyslexics in my immediate family it is clear to me that they just do think differently, and that knowing that is incredibly helpful in trying to cope with it. Finally that teaching phonics will "fix" dyslexia - ds's most "dyslexic" symptom is that he cannot sound out at all. It just doesn't make any sense to him, and trying to get him to read like that results in him going into compete melt down. He will have to learn most words off by heart, guess from context, and use other coping mechanisms. Reading for him will always be much much harder than it is for me, and I guess that's the difference between children who need extra support, but will catch up, and children with differences like dyslexa, which are there for life.

Sunday Mail columnist Peter Hitchins asks 'Does dyslexia exist?'

hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2007/06/does_dyslexia_e.html

I'm not sure how that squares with the finding that dyslexia has a genetic link, or that dyslexic brains have been found to work differently to "normal" brains. Or indeed that dyslexia did not only emerge after teaching styles changed in the 50's (especially given that it was fisrt identified in the 1800's). Perhaps the professor only accepts the Clatterbridge study as evidence? I certainly agree that reading should be taught better, but reliance on a single method, when learning styles are known to vary would seem foolish. Does anyone know how multisensory the synthetic phonetics programme is?

Is dyslexia linked to parental wealth. (ie. Parents who can afford educational psyhcologists have dyslexic children, but the kid who is on benefits and can't read is thick.)

It would be interesting to see what percentage of children who get perks like extra time in exams also get free school dinners. Logically you would expect that percentage of true dyslexic children from poor families would be higher if dyslexia is genetic.

Perhaps every child in the UK should be routinely assessed by an educational psycologist at the age of seven and eleven instead of doing SATs.

Nooka, lots of questions!

There is no genetic link with dyslexia -reading is a culture activity (man-made) so can't be linked to genetics. Whole swathes of the European continent are dyslexia-free. How much 'dyslexia' a particular country has depends on 2 factors only - how transparent is its spelling code and how the teaching of reading is taught. In countries that have a transparent code plus teach reading using synthetic phonics e.g. Austria and Germany, there is NO dyslexia - ALL children can read AND spell well after 12 weeks of school.

Dyslexia started to appear when whole-language reading methods were introduced into America and England, which was well before the 1950s.

Forget learning styles -they have no place in teaching -the empirical evidence does not support their use and they are a good example of a recent educational fad.

Synthetic phonics, when taught well, is multi-sensory, effective and fun :-)

Maverick, agree on learning styles. We are expected to use them in university lectures now and the "research" behind them is very weak.

I've just been reading about synthetic phonics, (Reading Reform site I think) and it does indeed look very well research based (and not just Clatterbridge). I'd like to see if it works for ds, because he cannot do sounding out at all. However dyslexia is known to run in families, and there is a chromosome associated with the disorder, so that would suggest a genetic link wouldn't it? I like the theory that it's a difference not a disablity (like being left handed), and until reading because a big deal, not an issue at all - my cousins (both dyslexic) went to a specialist school which gave them a strong sense of having special abilities, which I try and pass onto ds who would much rather reading and spelling were easier for him. He certainly has plenty of other skills, and all my dyslexic relations have gone on to do very well so I hope so.

my DS got toe-by-toe, which has helped.

Nooka, thank you for taking the time to investigate synthetic phonics.

I can assure you that there is no genetic connection with dyslexia. When up to 25% of English-speaking children have problems learning to read then every family will include or be related to one or several poor readers. Please get hold of a copy of 'Why children can't read' by Prof. Diane McGuinness for more on this subject.

I'm a remedial reading tutor and use a synthetic phonic programme, the 'Sound Reading System'. Find out more here:
www.aowm73.dsl.pipex.com/dyslexics/resources_and_further_16.htm

Dyslexics aren't necessarily poor readers.

Thanks Maverick. I'm sure that you know what you are talking about, and I will definately look up your scheme (haven't done very well finding ds a tutor so far) but my personal experience (and I have studied public health, so know that anecdotal evidence is not really to be relied on!) of all the boys bar one in the last three generations of my family having dyslexia and all describing their difficulties in very similar ways (all seperately) would suggest that something is different in the way their brains work to me (certainly comparing their thoughts to the rest of the family who were mostly bookworms from young ages). However from looking at synthetic phonics and thinking that I have no idea about the rules of how to read even though I am a very fluent reader I rather wonder that anyone learns to read at all without that grasp of the rules. ds is very bright and figures most of his reading out by context, but I can see what increadibly hard work that is. When we try sounding things out it all goes horribly wrong - ds gets upset and I get frustrated. We are using the ACE dictionary at the moment, which is great, but both of us find it hard to figure out the sounds and sylabals (but at least we are both in the same boat on that one!). The dyslexics in the family are all both creative and logical - I am sure rules that work would help!

Nooka

I definitly agree that synthetic phonics is fun and multisensory if done properly

My dd was being taught whole language and guessing at school and really struggled - she was ready to give up becasue she hated guessing and getting it wrong so in the end refused to guess. In desparation I looked elsewhere and came across Jolly Phonics - she and my (then) 3 yr old ds absolutley loved it. We had the DVD, the finger phonics books and the CD. I never

Interestingly dd preferred the actions whereas ds ignored those and rememebred the sounds from the songs. They both loved looking at the books and tracing the letters with thier fingers - we had a set in the car and I played the songs on the way to school / nursery

She became a 'free reader' at 5, reading chapter books like Wishing Chair, Horrid Henry etc Her spelling is excellent too - has only had 3 wrong in the whole of Year 1 spelling tests (10 words a week)

He is doing very well (5 in Nov) and is finally grasping the long vowel sounds, reading that series of the Jelly and Bean books. I think he will be a free reader in the next 6 - 12 months.

This has all come about becasue they have learnt synthetic phonics and we have practised every day for 5 mins

Do give it a try - it certainly cannot do any harm unlike some of the other methods!

I agree with you, Nooka.
I believe there most certainly is a genetic element.
The dyslexics I know have very differing problems with literacy, but other traits which are also very similar.
Anyway, irrespective of whether a genetic link is an issue, the English state school system fails dyslexic people in a spectacular fashion, and all private support is phenomenally expensive.

Now I'm feeling a bit depressed - clearly there is something that would really help ds (he has virtually all the soft signs, and an assessment of high intelligence/poor phonological ability along with acute distractability when asked to do things he struggles with) and me too, but I'm still not sure how to access it! It looks essential to get the right person otherwise things will probably get worse, but I'm still not sure where to find them! Still it's nice to know that dd is using Letters and Sounds so will have all the advantages of good teaching (I hope!). We are hoping to move to Canada in the next year - do you know if they use synthetic phonics there? Anyway thanks Maverick. It's been very interesting to explore further. If you have any ideas about how to find a good tutor in synthetic phonices I would be very interested (we are SE London based)

Have you contacted Dyslexia Action (formerly The Dyslexia Institute)?

Should add that I really don't want to try and do it on my own - I'm not the most patient of persons, and it leads to such conflict (ie takes about half an hour of ds getting upset before we manage to learn his spellings) so I'd really rather have ds work with someone who knows what they are doing and so learn myself how to help him. ds at 8 is already very frustrated, and as I read fairly intuitively (and not very verbally) I'm really not much help to him!

Yes, had our assessment there. They said to contact the bda for details of tutors, but I've had no joy. School haven't offered any support (they think he has emotional/social problems instead, which his ed phyc said was rubbish - he's just not optimal in a classroom of 34)). To be honest I'm not bothered about forking out cash, it's the organisation that worries me. I work full time and don't drive, which is why I was hoping we might be able to access support in school hours/premesis.