Comments on: The Dyslexia Myth

By: Chris Tregenza

Chris Tregenza — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 14:29:13 +0000

Its clear to anyone who looks at the education system that it is failing a large chunk of the people in it including the teachers who have deal with behaviour and problems unimagined twenty years ago. But this is a social problem which won’t be fixed by new reading programs. TV and computer games are part of our children’s lives and thus infants’ audiotry and social skills are underdeveloped. We have to have an education which accepts this because its not going to get any better. Maybe this means manditory nursery from 2 years up so we can ensure the kids have basic level of skills before they enter the eduction system proper. Or we completely restructure infant schools to have 1:6 teacher:pupil ratios so that those kids who need it get the help they need earlier.
Whatever the solution is, it will have to accept society as it is, involve a lot of change in how we view the role and delivery of education and it will of course require a lot of money.

By: Margaret Riding

Margaret Riding — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 16:18:58 +0000

-Margaret Snowling and others have been promoting dyslexia as a mainly auditory processing problem. Their research does not look at dyslexia rather than the reading disabled. Has it occured to anyone that dyslexia is still present at other levels of education such as secondary and FE& HE.
- Even educational psychologist are now reserved in even diagnosing dyslexia as the definition has become so restricted to the word level. They have brought it down to a common denominator that does indeed reflect reading difficulty rather than dyslexia.
-The cost of resourcing dyslexia in schools is quite laughable. Only those with considerable difficulties are picked up(not necessarily dyslexic). Only children with well informed pearents get any help at all and often this misfires resulting in the child being labelled.
-At primary school ALS is administered by untrained staff.
-Dyslexia even when remediated still results in processing difficulties in many children and to complain about children getting extra time and support is completely out of order. In order to satisfy extra time considerations a lot of evidence has to be collected. The dyslexia label does not suffice.
-Very bright children can underachieve because their difficulties are not recognised. They do not necessarily get support especially when it is in terms of organisation and study skills Not all children go to private schools were provision is usually much better than state schools where the SENCO is often untrained and merely an administrator(I hope this does not offend as I realise its value) I am sure parents at state scools would be keen to pay for any useful provision.

By: Ron Waller

Ron Waller — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 08:20:52 +0000

The Channel Four programme (and the research on which it was based) made a great deal of sense, linking modern thinking on the brain, language acquisition and “IQ”, although Gardner’s thinking on intelligence was not mentioned.
For those in secondary school, the Cumbrian intervention programme gave a lot of food for thought but it was aimed (quite rightly) at junior level. I’d like to know if there is any research on what can be done at older ages to reconnect and develop those areas of the brain research suggests are under-developed or unconnected. At secondary level, we have the added challenge of the examination system and its stress on language, writing and reading and those pupils of varied “intelligence” who (for whatever reason)”rebel” against the individual or small group attention required to improve their reading as it places them in a position of failure immediately and their lack of self-esteem instinctively puts up the barriers.

By: Ron Waller

Ron Waller — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 08:17:32 +0000

The programme (and the research on which it was based) made a great deal of sense, linking modern thinking on the brain, language acquisition and “IQ”, although Gardner’s thinking on intelligence was not mentioned.
For those in secondary school, the Cumbrian intervention programme gave a lot of food for thought but it was aimed at junior level. I’d like to know if there is any research on what can be done at older ages to reconnect and develop those areas of the brain research suggests are under-developed or unconnected. At secondary level, we have the added challenge of the stress on language, writing and reading and pupils who (for whatever reason)”rebel” against the individual or small group attention required as it places them in a position of failure immediately and their lack of self-esteem puts up the barriers.