Row erupts over dyslexia 'denial'

[Rob W 0]

Row erupts over dyslexia 'denial'

 

 

An education professor has cast doubt on the scientific validity of the term 'dyslexia', saying experts cannot agree on what it is or how to treat it.

 

Writing in the Times Educational Supplement, Julian Elliott said it was largely an "emotional construct". The Durham University professor questions the scientific validity of the term 'dyslexia', saying diagnosis does not lead to particular treatment.

 

The British Dyslexia Association says the claims are inflammatory.

 

Professor Elliott, a psychologist, said his argument was based on "an exhaustive review of the research literature". After 30 years in the field, he said, he had little confidence in his ability to diagnose dyslexia.

 

Professor Elliott told the BBC News website: "There is no consensus as to what it is and how to diagnose it. People describe all sorts of symptoms as dyslexia. And if you do diagnose it, it does not point to any intervention in particular. It's one of those terms that is like the Cheshire Cat - if it does exist, we don't know what to do about it." He said, contrary to talk of 'miracle cures', there was no sound, widely-accepted body of scientific work that had shown that any particular teaching approach was more appropriate for 'dyslexic' children than for other poor readers".

 

Dyslexia is defined by BBC health expert Dr Rob Hicks as "a congenital and developmental condition that causes neurological anomalies in the brain.

 

"It includes a range of types of learning difficulties where a person of normal intelligence has persistent and significant problems with reading, writing, spelling and sometimes mathematics and musical notation."

 

'Delusional'

 

Professor Elliott's claims have angered the British Dyslexia Association.

 

The charity's chief executive Professor Susan Tresman said: "I cannot accept that view, given the number of researchers into dyslexia that we work with. There were 900 delegates from 35 countries at our conference last year. There is as much a consensus view as in any area you would care to investigate. In excess of one million people download information from our website every month. Is he suggesting that they are all suffering from some kind of emotional delusion?"

 

Professor Tresman said people with dyslexia often had different symptoms - not just problems with words - and that Professor Elliott seemed to be viewing dyslexia just in terms of poor reading skills. She said there were a series of well-recognised and highly sophisticated techniques used by psychologists to assess people for dyslexia.

 

In response, Professor Elliott said: "If you are going to include numbers and music the term is getting meaningless."

 

Government figures suggest that one in 10 Britons is dyslexic, with four out of 10 of those being severely so. Students formally diagnosed as having dyslexia are given up to 25% extra time in GCSEs, A-levels and vocational assessments.

[Guest alex]

Anyone else thinks it's a piss-take that dyslexia is difficult to spell correctly?

[themags 0]

Anyone else thinks it's a piss-take that dyslexia is difficult to spell correctly?

27277[/snapback]

 

[80-2 0]

IIRC, putting colour-tinted see-through plastic sheets over text can improve some Dyslexics' ability to read it. Some conclusion was drawn from that, but that I don't remember...

[Guest alex]

IIRC, putting colour-tinted see-through plastic sheets over text can improve some Dyslexics' ability to read it. Some conclusion was drawn from that, but that I don't remember...

27313[/snapback]

Surely the conclusion was putting colour-tinted see-through plastic sheets over text can improve some Dyslexics' ability to read it

[Rob W 0]

IIRC, putting colour-tinted see-through plastic sheets over text can improve some Dyslexics' ability to read it. Some conclusion was drawn from that, but that I don't remember...

27313[/snapback]

Surely the conclusion was putting colour-tinted see-through plastic sheets over text can improve some Dyslexics' ability to read it

27316[/snapback]

 

also that there's one academic who is bloody good at getting his beer money off the tax payer..........................

[80-2 0]

IIRC, putting colour-tinted see-through plastic sheets over text can improve some Dyslexics' ability to read it. Some conclusion was drawn from that, but that I don't remember...

27313[/snapback]

Surely the conclusion was putting colour-tinted see-through plastic sheets over text can improve some Dyslexics' ability to read it

27316[/snapback]

 

Aye, aye, ho ho ho etc. Nah, it was neurological in nature. Which part of the brain handles what and such. Its already known that things like Dyslexia, ADHD, Asperger's and such are linked one way or another - something of a continuum, after a fashion.

[snakehips 0]

LDS makes you dyslexic.

[80-2 0]

LDS makes you dyslexic.

27351[/snapback]

 

 

The Latter-Day Saints? What total bastards.

[Rob W 0]

Its having to give up the coffee and Coca Cola that does it I reckon...........

[Rob W 0]

yeah - its just an excuse for lazy bastards IMHO

[paddy 17]

if kids cannot read and write then its dyslexia, years ago they were just thick

[Papa Lazaru 0]

IIRC, putting colour-tinted see-through plastic sheets over text can improve some Dyslexics' ability to read it. Some conclusion was drawn from that, but that I don't remember...

27313[/snapback]

Surely the conclusion was putting colour-tinted see-through plastic sheets over text can improve some Dyslexics' ability to read it

27316[/snapback]

 

Aye, aye, ho ho ho etc. Nah, it was neurological in nature. Which part of the brain handles what and such. Its already known that things like Dyslexia, ADHD, Asperger's and such are linked one way or another - something of a continuum, after a fashion.

27334[/snapback]

 

Don't quite know what you're getting at, but some specialists also deny that ADHD exists too.

27876[/snapback]

 

ADHD is one of those things that ina few cases may exist, but is invariably just crap parenting leading to a child running riot and instead of actually do their job as parents, just blame it on a disorder, absolve yourself of responsibility and give them some drugs!

 

Like i say there will be kids who have something wrong with them, but you can see loads of them are just out of control through lack of discipline, responsibility and care.

[Sicklee Sausage Roll 0]

Most of the uproar will come from unqualified people. How dare someone with years of experience working in psychology speak about the subject.

[Sicklee Sausage Roll 0]

Sarah Ferguson's daughter Beatrice supposedly has dyslexia.

 

She got an A* in her GCSE history exam.

 

I would have too, had they given me an extra 25% of time to complete the exam, and half the questions were about my family.

Edited September 4, 2005 by Sicklee Sausage Roll

[Papa Lazaru 0]

There are obviously big risks attached to pumping little children full of powerful drugs like Ritalin (and massive benefits for the drugs companies who made a lot of money from such 'wonder drugs').

 

Improved diet and regular exercise for children (who often climb the walls with boredom if kept in the house all the time), can yield results. Sometimes it's just easier to give something a name, use drugs and not address the root of the problem.

 

They've shown in tests with really "hyper" kids (ie troublemaking little bastards!) that when they cut out all the fizzy drinks and other crap we eat and as you say gave them excercise and things to do they calmed down massively. And if you throw in parents actually doign their job you'll find 99 times out of 100 you can sort it without doping the kids up to the eyeballs!

[luckyluke 2]

IIRC, putting colour-tinted see-through plastic sheets over text can improve some Dyslexics' ability to read it. Some conclusion was drawn from that, but that I don't remember...

27313[/snapback]

Surely the conclusion was putting colour-tinted see-through plastic sheets over text can improve some Dyslexics' ability to read it

27316[/snapback]

 

Aye, aye, ho ho ho etc. Nah, it was neurological in nature. Which part of the brain handles what and such. Its already known that things like Dyslexia, ADHD, Asperger's and such are linked one way or another - something of a continuum, after a fashion.

27334[/snapback]

 

Don't quite know what you're getting at, but some specialists also deny that ADHD exists too.

27876[/snapback]

 

Most pyschiatric disorders/disabilities have been denied by someone or other.

[Rob W 0]

"Most pyschiatric disorders/disabilities have been denied by someone or other."

 

Thats because there is nothing clear about them - if you're suffering from Smallpox its prety clear to one & all but ADHD??????????

 

I also think that a number of the pyschiatric professionals want to find a "syndrome" for everything - naturally the rest of us reckon the old words (worky-ticket, coward, lazy bastard, thug etc ) are just as accurate