Dyslexia is NOT a disability, really it isn't!

[carocaro]

I really don't think it is, it's not a negative thing, just a different thing. It sounds as if it dis-ables you in some way, but it does not. I get what being disabled is, my step Dad has MS and is disabled as he needs a wheelchair and other things to get around. It's not a mental dis-ablement either, it's just the way the brain is wired and how it processes things, it is not a disability. Just because it's different from the norm does not make it a disability.

I just get fed up of the negativity to dyslexia and the presumption you are thick.

easyread costs £700!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everything to do with disability costs excessive ammounts of money, it's assumed you will have funding from somewhere to help. My husband is at college and it'll cost us £75 an hour for the specialist tuition he needs to pass at an equal level with the other students, needless to say we can't afford it so he will just be disadvantaged by his... disability ;)

My dad has dyslexia in a severe form. He can write names and read people names but that's about it. He has a phone that reads texts to him so he doesn't have to ask people to read them for him. He didn't get help growing up at all. Iv grown up having to read things to him including birthday cards and paperwork. It hasn't stopped him getting a job or anything though. He works in construction.

My brother also has dyslexia but it is a lot better then years ago. My mum even went on the news with him due to her fighting to get help for him in school. She was involved with a dyslexia charity too. My brothers reading age was very low and school would just say he was slow or thick. Mum and dad paid to have him assessed and even when came back he was dyslexic the school still wasn't interested so mum moved him and within a year his reading age shot up. He now reads with only slight problems. He has a bad memory though which causes him problems.

I wouldn't say it was a disability in my dads and brothers cases as they get on with life still. But saying that I have seen them both struggle with tasks others do with ease.

My dyslexic DS is 10. He is a clever kid (in many ways) but very dyslexic. He told me, unprompted , that he considers himself to be disabled. I thought that was an interesting perspective. I think he feels that he cannot keep up academically with kids he considers to be his intellectual equal.

it is up to you then to tell him the advantages of being dyslexic and not all his classmates are academically way ahead of him, far from it.

Dyslexia is not a disability, Dyslexia is not an impairment, Dyslexia is not disorder.
Dyslexia is a Symptom of one or more underlying cognitive deficits / disorders all of which tend to have more serious symptoms than dyslexia (problems with reading writing and spelling) All dyslexics need to identify What Causes Your Dyslexia and begin to understand the wider range of issues you may have.

dolfrog bit of a bizarre link there. Dyslexia is often co-morbid with other things such as autism and dyspraxia. Could you explain your post a little more please? Thanks

Migsy1

Dyslexia is a man made problem not a medical condition so it can not be co-morbid with anything.
There are three cognitive subtypes of developmental dyslexia, auditory, visual, and attentional. Which means that an auditory processing disorder (listening disability), a visual processing disorder, an attention disorder or any combination of the three can cause the dyslexic symptom, and each dyslexic should investigate t discover the underlying cause of their dyslexic symptom

Dyspraxia - Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) has a wide range of motor control issues

Autism ASD is diagnosed on the basis of specified observed behavioural traits, and as such has no clinical diagnosis, and research is still trying to define the various complex multiple underlying issues that combine to trigger the observed behaviour traits. There are potentially many co-morbid issues which can cause autism.
Autism and dyslexia possibly share some underlying cognitive issues.

dolfrog - I am interested in what you are saying. Could you give me some examples of what cause the dyslexic symptom please?

Of course, dyslexia is a cognitive problem, but I'm not entirely sure of the point you are making.

Presumably you are saying that dyslexia is a symptom of a neurological or visual problem?

Migsy1

Dyslexia is a only about having problems with reading , writing and spelling.

I am dyslexic, I have a clinical diagnosis of Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) which the cause of my dyslexic symptom. If I did not have APD I would not be dyslexic. There are a wide range other symptoms and issues related to my APD, and most are more serious than my dyslexic symptom.
There are others who can have various visual issues which can cause their dyslexic symptom including those who have Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome. And those who have various forms of attention issues which now all come under Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

And all of those issues are clinically diagnosable medical issues which can cause the dyslexic symptom.

Thanks. It sounds extremely complicated. I do wonder if my middle DS has APD. I have to tell him things several times before he understands what I am saying. His comprehension is poor and his speech is immature. He is behind with his writing and spelling too. His teacher tells me he does not listen. I honestly think that he finds it difficult to / can't listen.

Eldest DS is dyslexic. He understands the spoken word fine but his problem is with organisation and writing. Symbol recognition and processing are poor.
IME teachers do not understand these problems and it is very frustrating.

Why would APD affect reading, writing and spelling?

Migsy1

Just to add to the complications there quite a few subtypes or models of APD, and the more the researchers investigate the issues the more the existing models tend to be further broken down into more variations.
When i first started investigating APD back in 1998/9 there were 5 models of APD, the same researchers are now talking about a possible 12-13 models of APD. There are different auditory issues which can cause listening problems. And each person who has a diagnosis of APD can have different types and different severities of problems, and then there the different alternative compensating skills and abilities developed cope with the problems.

All who have dyslexia what ever the underlying cognitive subtype have to run coping strategies in our working memories. Working memory is like the RAM of a computer, it is where we run all the programs we need to perform all our daily tasks, and also like RAM has limited capacity. So to enable us to runcoping strategies and to prevent an overload crash some has to make way, and usually it is our self organisational skills and / or our sense of time. we priotise how we use our working memory subconsciously, and other limiting factors include coping with stress and illnesses.
Those who have APD like me, can have word recall problems, which can cause problems when writing, trying to find the right words to express what we want to say.

Unfortunately in 1984 the government of the day changed the teacher training corriculum to save money. Prior to 1984 Special Needs was a core subject, after 1984 special needs became an optional subject, and like most options subjects became ignored by most training ot become a teacher, so we now have generations of teacher who have little or no understanding of the issues involved with special needs.

On a good day when all our coping strategies are working we can appear top have no problems at all, but on a bad day, sometimes we just wished we had stayed in bed lol.

Migsy1
"Why would APD affect reading, writing and spelling?"

you have to go bac to the basics of language.

dyslexia is about having problems with a man made communication system the visual notation of speech, or decoding and recoding the graphic symbols society chooses to represent the sounds of speech.

Those who have APD have a listening disability, which means that thye have problems processing all sound based information which includes speech. Most who have APD can only reproduce the whole sound of a word, and can only match the whole sound of a word to the whole graphic representation of the same word. We can not use phonics.

Those who have APD have problems processing the gaps between sounds, this can be the sounds that make up a word, or the gaps between words in rapid speech. so although i understand the concept of phonics cognitively i can not use it to sound out new words.

Those who have APD also tends to have poor sequencing skills, which combined with our whole word spelling needs means sometimes we can get all the correct letters for a word but we do not write them in the correct order.

There are other more complex issues which would take up an enormouis amout of space to describe. i hope this helps.

Thanks dofrog, it helps a lot. My DS2 has word recall problems so, basically, he is not very articulate. DS1 also does all the things you describe above. You have given a very good description of both of my kids (I've got another who is displaying these tendencies too but he is only 6).

My son has been assessed as dyslexic, with poor auditory short term memory a major issue. He also has a very poor attention span (even for things he loves like football). He is however quite bright and even with his appalling handwriting and inability to follow instructions and therefore becoming bored and disruptive manages to perform 'averagely' in most subjects. This means we are finding it impossible to access assistance via the school despite some very dedicated and helpful members of staff. He takes his first GCSE exams in a couple of months and I would like to help him.

I do not think extra time would help as sitting in a room for even an hour stresses him out. We have tried using a laptop and even dictation. He struggles with typing and simply does not have the memory to work with dictation software. He needs help with planning but tbh what he needs most is confidence so he does not freeze and think it is not worth even trying after meeting a tough question.

Any suggestions gratefully received!