Is dyslexia a myth?

[Carl_S]

I believe dyslexia exists, but that it should not stop you from leading an amazingly fulfilled and rewarding life. In fact if it is classed as a disability, then it will come under legal provisions in the DDA, and thereby in theory facilitate fairer treatment in higher education and work.

[loks]

I'm not dyslexic but my keyboard is

[SMiFFAD]

I both agree and dissagree.

 

On one hand is does exist, in varying degrees of severity. I have very mild dyslexia, which mainly affects my reading. I have to read every word on a page or it comes out as completle tosh where as most people can skim read a lot faster.

 

On the other hand, its become the "thing" to have, and is probably in a lot of cases being used as a one size fits all excuse for crap teaching - "couldnt possibly be us, he/she must be thick/dyslexic/unteachable"

 

However, my first primary school as appauling and said "he's simply thick, he will never get into Dauntseys (local secondary school)" (direct quote from head teacher to my parents) I swiftly left said school and moved to a decent one, whos teaching levels were far far better and suddely i started learning and achieving. It was them who discovered i had mild dyxlexia, and gave me extra lessons once a week to combat it. I passed the exam to Dauntseys, went to Uni and now lead a happy supra fulfilled life. I really must go back and do a Nelson Muntz style HAAAAA HAAAA at my old head teacher

 

So i think its a mixed bag, it does exist but is an all too easy label to apply. If your a parent with a child whos struggling - try and get someone who knows what they are talking about to spend some time with them.

[fruity_south]

Im Dyslexic and i had an accesment at 9 years old, at the same time i had an IQ test which stated i had an IQ higher then Instien (not sure how you spell it). problem was my school didnt reconise it, i never wanted any special treatment for it but it would of been nice not to be made to stand up and spell a word over and over again just because i couldnt spell it right. when i went on to secondary school they treated me like a 4 year old, making me spell words like cat, sat, mat, train, brain at the age of 15. i was really insulted. i ended up buncking my one to one because of this and in the end took all my tests and course work like everyone else and i did fine. teachers did say though i was very creative and good with numbers which is common with Dyslexia. i then went and worked in a special need school and there they had the right stratagy with tackling dyslexia. i must admit the education system has improved over the last 5 years in reconising and dealing with it but there is still much improvement needed.

 

EDIT: just to fill you in a little more its the larger form of dyslexia i have, spelling age is 8 years behind and reading age is about right. also sorry for the spelling mistakes in this post, im sure theres many

[Carl_S]

I think the above two posts from Fruity and Smiffad are proof if any was needed of the existence of dyslexia, and the trials and tribs that diagnosis can bring, but conversely also the help it can bring.

 

There will always be people that abuse a good thing, either to mask their own inadequacies or cope with them.

 

Help for genuine dyslexics has to be one such good thing.

[NatsupraTT]

I believe dyslexia exists, but that it should not stop you from leading an amazingly fulfilled and rewarding life. In fact if it is classed as a disability, then it will come under legal provisions in the DDA, and thereby in theory facilitate fairer treatment in higher education and work.

My son is at college doing motor mechanics and he is dyslexic and dyspraxic and severe learning difficulties and registered as disabled,he gets extra help from the learning difficulties team and is doing really well and enjoying it.