TV Alert:: tonight, 8pm, More 4. Is dyslexia a myth?

[maverick]

Discussion of Manchester MP Graham Stringer's comments re. Dyslexia is a myth. Participants will include Kate Griggs of Xtraordinary People and Debbie Hepplewhite of the RRF www.rrf.org.uk

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Only 5 minutes worth but some good points put across including joint agreement on the uselessness of of the government funded and promoted whole-language programme 'Reading Recovery' for reading intervention.

See top right video 'Is dyslexia for real?'

link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1554364155

I will look forward to Mr Stringer being pulled apart by people who actually know something about dyslexia.

I've been at the sharp end of 'dyslexia' both personally and professionally for more than 15 years and I have to say (tin hat on!) that I agree with much, though not all, of what Graham Stringer said.

I think that we all agree that there are many, many children and adults with severe reading difficulties -the government's own figures say that every year 15-20% of children leave school with extremely poor reading skills.
Do all of these children have a brain glitch?
Well, a raft of professors (off the top of my head, Profs. Stanovich, Elliott, McGuinness, Tymms...) involved with literacy will tell you that there is no way of dividing up a group of poor readers into 'dyslexics and 'ordinary' poor readers -it's just not possible as there is no valid scientifically acceptable test to do it. So, it is the dyslexia label which is the problem - it's fine if the label is used to describe a person as having serious reading problems but not when it's used as a diagnosis, along with the implication that the child/adult has some sort of brain weakness -the research does not exist to support that, however much the various dyslexia associations might like to think so.

In addition to there being no valid way of sorting out a special 'dyslexic' group of readers, there are no special reading programmes that are most/only suitable for so called 'dyslexics' - reading intervention programmes that teach 'dyslexics' to read, work equally well with all children with reading difficulties.

What do you mean by being at the sharp end of dyslexia 'professionally' Maverick?

I'm an independent, specialist, remedial reading tutor.

My tutees fall approx. 50/50 between those who have had a professional (EP) diagnosis of 'dyslexia' and those whose parents bring them without a diagnosis.

Do you use the term remedial!

My son attended a school which specialised in teaching children with secific learning difficulties, mostly dyslexia and dyspraxia, from year 3-5.
Before being accepted the children were assessed to make sure that they did have SpLD and were not just a bit behind. However the headmistress did say that any child would benefit from the mix of teaching methods thay used which were tailored to the individuals way of learning.
A child with reading difficulties is going to learn how to read with these methods, whether dyslexic or not.
I wish people would realise that dyslexia is not just reading difficulties. It covers a whole host of problems and a professional assessment using IQ testing will show a large difference between their potential and performance.
It is not a myth to see your highly intelligent, articulate child not be able to get his ideas/thoughts onto paper. Just because he was taught to read by specialists and had a reading/comprehension age of 16 when he was 10 does not mean the problems have been overcome.