Yesterday a reader commented in my article dated February 20th 2010. I have copied the article he has referred to. This article says that the reading difficulty is a brain disorder which I disagree with. This is similar to saying that a left hander has a brain disorder. It is simply that dyslexics think and learn in a different way than the majority of the population just like left handers do things differently than the majority of the population. Would anyone dare say that people like Tom Cruise, Lee Kuan Yew, Whoopi Goldberg, Bill Gates , Steven Spielberg and many other dyslexics have a brain disorder.
Following is the article in full.
Dyslexia doesn't exist in Italy like it does in the U.S. and England!
Following is the article in full.
Dyslexia doesn't exist in Italy like it does in the U.S. and England!
Dyslexia is a learning disorder that manifests itself as a difficulty with reading and spelling. It is separate and distinct from reading difficulties resulting from other causes, such as a non-neurological deficiency with vision or hearing, or from poor or inadequate reading instruction. It is estimated that dyslexia affects between 5% to 17% of the U.S. population.
Dyslexia is thought to be the result of neurological defect, and though not an intellectual disability, it is variously considered a learning disability, a language disability, and a reading disability, among others. Dyslexia is diagnosed in people of all levels of intelligence.
A STUDY of dyslexic adults has shown that simplifying English spellings could be one way to help sufferers.
It also confirmed that the cause of the reading difficulty was a brain disorder. Experiments show for the first time that the neurological cause of dyslexia is the same in sufferers across Europe. But the disorder appears to be twice as common in the U.S. and England as in Italy/Spain because English has a more complex writing system, or orthography, than Italian/Spanish, which are more phonetic.
French, English, Spanish and Italian adult dyslexics all did equally poorly in tests that involved short-term memory, whereas Italian/Spanish dyslexics did better in reading tests.
The head of the team, Prof Eraldo Paulesu, of the University of Milan Bicocca and the Institute San Raffale, said: "There is an argument for reforming complex orthographies to improve literacy problems in these languages. English dyslexics would have an easier life if their writing system was more regular, with more unique correspondences between sounds and print."
7 comments:
Luqman,
In my personal opinion, dyslexia is NOT a brain disorder. Dyslexia is caused by kids not learning to write the alphabet fluently in the earliest grades, which can easily be prevented with appropriate teacher motivation and skill.
As a matter of fact, "dyslexia" doesn't even exist as a biogical entity.
I
It's even been called "dysteachea", a term with which I agree.
Thank you. No, dyslexia is not a brain disorder. Dyslexia can be prevented/overcome with appropriate teacher motivation and skill.
However, I ask myself as to why only a few of the students in a class taught by the same teacher are unable to read. If the teacher lacks motivation/skill then shouldn't all the students be unable to read?
Luqman,
In my opinion, though ALL schools are mandated to teach the writing of the alphabet letters, there is a great variance in the fluency with which various students write.
In our studies, all students who wrote at a rate exceeding 40 letters per minute in the early grades successfully learned to read.
If this is true, the current emphasis on keyboarding, rather than handwriting, should be reversed.
I do hope the schools in UK/US have not started using keyboard in the early grades.We in Malaysia still do emphasize the importance of handwriting.
Wish you all the best for 2013.
Anonymous 1 can you show me evedins about what you say "Dyslexia is caused by kids not learning to write the alphabet fluently in the earliest grades" if that is so why do i have dyslexia. my mom was teaching me the alphabet befor i started school and at grade kindergarten they tryed to teach me the alphabet and in grade 1 they did the alphabet as well as starting spelling and reading and thats wen they seen something wrong what me so they keeped me back and half a year later i was tested and was diagnosed what dyslexia. so after 3 year school finaly started for me. and if i may say thinking like that may harm a kid in the long run i'm still suffering with being a grade behind and a self-esteem issue for being treated and thinking i was stupid
Hi Lucas, I believe the definition of dyslexia by Stanovich may help you. I believe dyslexia has now been defined, by people interested in making money, to be more than what it is meant to be. I have dealt with this extensively in many of my posts.Wish you well.
Lucas, please read my article dated 26th October 2012. Specifically the definition of dyslexia by Stanovich.
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