Dyslexia is meaningless. But don't worry – so is ADHD

Dyslexia is meaningless. But don't worry – so is ADHD
How many illnesses of modern childhood are excuses for bad behaviour, stupidity or parental neurosis?


There is a beautiful symmetry to all things, I think, and probably related somehow to the concept of karma. Only two weeks ago, a bunch of researchers at Durham University came up with a report which insisted that dyslexia is a meaningless term. You and I know that, of course, but we dare not say so in public. For decades now dyslexia has been the crutch upon which middle-class parents support themselves when they discover that their children — Oliver, eight, and Poppy, ten — are actually denser than a ton of highly enriched uranium, contrary to their expectations. The fact that these kids cannot spell their own names is the consequence not of a magnificent, breathtaking stupidity, but is the result of a disease, or an affliction or an illness — something which does not reflect too badly upon the parents and which the state has a duty to combat and put right. ‘Poppy is such a brilliant, intelligent child,’ they will tell you, ‘it’s just that when it comes to words, she is stricken with this terrible disorder.’

Nope. Afraid not. She’s a dingbat who finds stuff like spelling ‘cat’ a bit on the taxing side; lower your expectations for the child. Given the appropriate parental support, she’ll end up stacking shelves in Waitrose, rather than Aldi (‘Remind me again, how do you spell hummus?’). Anyway, the team from Durham — that most middle-class of all universities, just to rub it in — suggested that the word ‘dyslexia’ be consigned to the history books. It is utterly meaningless. It is a pretentious word for ‘thick’.

Read more:

http://www.spectator.co.uk/columnists/rod-liddle/9157681/dyslexia-isnt-real-but-dont-worry-neither-is-adhd/

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It's a very debatable subject. I notice the article doesn't mention Autism - which I don't think you can mistake for anything else tbh.
The article also covers food allergies and even, shockingly asthma!

What do others think?

This is also extremely interesting:

http://www.healthcentral.com/adhd/c/268155/162810/add-adhd-fiction-real-disease/

"On his death bed, this psychiatrist pioneer admitted that ADHD is essentially a “fictitious disease,” which means that millions of young children today are being needlessly prescribed severe mind-altering drugs that will set them up for a life of drug addiction and failure".

dyslexia is real but there is probably a number of cases like the above too.
ADHD is far less common than it is diagnosed.

My mother was (retired last year) a special Ed teacher that is her opinion
she can tell the real dyslexics she think it has to do with them trying to take in the whole word at once since to fix it you just have to drill into them breaking it down to each letter

veya_victaous wrote:dyslexia is real but there is probably a number of cases like the above too.
ADHD is far less common than it is diagnosed.

My mother was (retired last year) a special Ed teacher that is her opinion
she can tell the real dyslexics she think it has to do with them trying to take in the whole word at once since to fix it you just have to drill into them breaking it down to each letter

One of the more talented writers I ever worked with -- a woman who writes with true creativity and warmth -- struggled with dyslexia for most of her childhood and still had a few problems as an adult.

I think there are few things worse than a person who, despite lack of expertise, decides a child who struggles because of a documented disorder is really just stupid.

Dyslexia is a phyiscal problem of how the eye sends messages to the brain. In some cases coloured glasses (sometimes different colours for each eye) can make it easier for the person to read.

risingsun wrote:Dyslexia is a phyiscal problem of how the eye sends messages to the brain.  In some cases coloured glasses (sometimes different colours for each eye) can make it easier for the person to read.  

No it has nothing to do with how the eye sends messages to the brain

However you correct that coloured glasses have been known to help
but the reasons behind that are a bit of a mystery

i am dyslexic as many of you know i also have dis-calculus

I tend to spell things as they sound "phonetically " i have particular difficulty with small words rather than long ones
punctuation is more a miss than a hit
i cant keep numbers in my head i can` re-site my times tables never could
but i can strangely get a better grip on formulas that have letters and numbers

its a pain in the arse to be honest
when i was younger it annoyed me a lot ....now not so much i am in great company

but as they say what you loose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts

and i gained a lot on the roundabouts

veya_victaous wrote:dyslexia is real but there is probably a number of cases like the above too.
ADHD is far less common than it is diagnosed.

My mother was (retired last year) a special Ed teacher that is her opinion
she can tell the real dyslexics she think it has to do with them trying to take in the whole word at once since to fix it you just have to drill into them breaking it down to each letter

there their they`e i can never get but i know the difference in meaning
i just cant even see the word in my head(just asked the wife how to spell them) words with silent letters are a particular bugbear

korban dallas wrote:

veya_victaous wrote:dyslexia is real but there is probably a number of cases like the above too.
ADHD is far less common than it is diagnosed.

My mother was (retired last year) a special Ed teacher that is her opinion
she can tell the real dyslexics she think it has to do with them trying to take in the whole word at once since to fix it you just have to drill into them breaking it down to each letter

there their they`e  i can never get but i know the difference in meaning
i just cant even see the word in my head(just asked the wife how to spell them) words with silent letters are a particular bugbear

Not being rude, just blunt, why don't you simply remember how to spell them then? Does it affect your memory?

For instance I had to learn they're/their/there as a child and I remembered it like this:

They are = they're (you've taken the "a" out and put in a ' instead)

Their - this is the only one with an "i" - so to remember it, think: "I had it now it's theirs"

There - has the word "here" within it - "It was here now it's there"

eddie wrote:

korban dallas wrote:
there their they`e  i can never get but i know the difference in meaning
i just cant even see the word in my head(just asked the wife how to spell them) words with silent letters are a particular bugbear

Not being rude, just blunt, why don't you simply remember how to spell them then? Does it affect your memory?

For instance I had to learn they're/their/there as a child and I remembered it like this:

They are = they're (you've taken the "a" out and put in a ' instead)

Their - this is the only one with an "i" - so to remember it, think:  "I had it now it's theirs"

There - has the word "here" within it - "It was here now it's there"

your not being rude eddie
I appreciate honest questions asked in good faith

i know the difference in there meanings in conversation or writing .i know what version is correct dependent on the context

i can see its wrong when i make a mistake with the wrong one

its like coming up to a wall in my head
i know when i spell things wrong i can actually see it
but trying to correct it is very frustrating because i dont see the words in my head , like i do with the ones i can spell
but its the small words that give me the most trouble especial ones with silent letters


what you rarely see is how many mistakes i actually make when writing ,the spell checker helps a lot but does`n catch everything
and words can be spelt correctly but the wrong word for the sentence
its a pain