The Student Room Group

Dyslexia

I am assuming I am gonna get a ridiculous amount of Negs

Do you believe that the introduction of Dyslexia or Dysprexia was the correct choice? So rather than helping students we just label them as incapable of doing work, and so they suffer as they are singled out and put into remedial classes? Or do you think that it helps them to be given a medical term to make them seem like they have a reason not to work. I would like to hear from some people who are Dyslexic and Dysprexic, and how they think that they were treated in school and whether or not you appreciated being treated like that.

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Reply 1
I think it's good. It's recognising that they face an obstacle most people don't and it means they don't get punished for something they can't help. I also think it is much nicer to have the support systems that many schools offer to dyslexic students, I know when my uncle went through school his teachers just told him he was stupid. Being dyslexic doesn't mean you're stupid and having someone recognise that doesn't mean you're gonna use it as an excuse to be idle. Tbh, I don't really like what you're implying and I hope you do get negged.
Why is this in the philosophy sub-forum?
Reply 3
Original post by willbee
I think it's good. It's recognising that they face an obstacle most people don't and it means they don't get punished for something they can't help. I also think it is much nicer to have the support systems that many schools offer to dyslexic students, I know when my uncle went through school his teachers just told him he was stupid. Being dyslexic doesn't mean you're stupid and having someone recognise that doesn't mean you're gonna use it as an excuse to be idle. Tbh, I don't really like what you're implying and I hope you do get negged.


Didn't imply, I was just thinking about what it feels like to be marked as Dyslexic or Dyspraxic and told that you have learning difficulties as a child, so in a way you are told that you do have a learning difficulty so you do not have to learn or, that it is wrongly diagnosed because you are easily distracted and are genuinely not listening to a teacher when being taught.
I'm not sure, unless there are techniques which can minimise the effects of dyslexia, I'm not sure there is a point to classes. They may as well excuse them for spelling mistakes. For my cousin, it's just a basis of reading the word out loud because at least it sounds like it should. I don't really understand how it feels to be dyslexic because I'm so used to spelling even basic words correctly. I'm not really sure how it all happens, whether it's like a permanent brain freeze or whether it's something else. If someone is going to disprove dyslexia it's certainly not going to be me, however.

My cousin suffered at school as a result to the institution's ignorance of his dyslexia so it's probably a good thing that the condition is known so people don't think they're alone with it.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 5
Original post by somethingbeautiful
Why is this in the philosophy sub-forum?


Considered it as a fundamental problem, and I am just realising now that it was probably more suited to being in the society section, but this topic can be intertwined between society and philosophy I guess.
Dyslexia is a real disorder and by slapping that label on you're able to help them receive the help they need (if they want it)
If someone was mentally retared would it not be right to not diagnose them?

Stupid fail.
Original post by Booyah
I am assuming I am gonna get a ridiculous amount of Negs

Do you believe that the introduction of Dyslexia or Dysprexia was the correct choice? So rather than helping students we just label them as incapable of doing work, and so they suffer as they are singled out and put into remedial classes? Or do you think that it helps them to be given a medical term to make them seem like they have a reason not to work. I would like to hear from some people who are Dyslexic and Dysprexic, and how they think that they were treated in school and whether or not you appreciated being treated like that.


I am going to be negged ++ but I don't even think dyslexia exists. It is a modern invention for someone who is a bit slower at grasping things. I have so called "dyscalculia". I was terribly slow at picking up maths and transposed numbers all the time and couldn't get mathematical concepts. Then all of a sudden it clicked and I got an A*. I still transpose numbers all the time - telephone numbers are a nightmare, but I would not say I have special needs. There are bunches of specialists out there who are very quick to label kids as dys this and dys that when dare I say it all they need is extra time.
Reply 9
Original post by squeakysquirrel
I am going to be negged ++ but I don't even think dyslexia exists. It is a modern invention for someone who is a bit slower at grasping things. I have so called "dyscalculia". I was terribly slow at picking up maths and transposed numbers all the time and couldn't get mathematical concepts. Then all of a sudden it clicked and I got an A*. I still transpose numbers all the time - telephone numbers are a nightmare, but I would not say I have special needs. There are bunches of specialists out there who are very quick to label kids as dys this and dys that when dare I say it all they need is extra time.

I imagine the specialists know quite a bit more about it than you do.
Reply 10
Well, I might as well volunteer my personal experiences since it is relevant to the thread.

When I was around 6 I was taken to a specialist who suggested that I might have a mild form of dyslexia. At the time, my parents never told me.

Over 10 years later I got an A at English AS. So do I have a mild form of dyslexia? Perhaps, as I still make the odd spelling mistake. Still, I'd rather have not known and tried to persevere with the english language, than be told I might have dyslexia, give up and not have got anywhere.

For others with more extreme dyslexia, the conclusion drawn to might be different.
Original post by squeakysquirrel
I am going to be negged ++ but I don't even think dyslexia exists. It is a modern invention for someone who is a bit slower at grasping things.


I disagree.

Edit: Oops. I meant to say 'I agree with dis'. Damn dyslexia.
Original post by Booyah
I am assuming I am gonna get a ridiculous amount of Negs

Do you believe that the introduction of Dyslexia or Dysprexia was the correct choice? So rather than helping students we just label them as incapable of doing work, and so they suffer as they are singled out and put into remedial classes? Or do you think that it helps them to be given a medical term to make them seem like they have a reason not to work. I would like to hear from some people who are Dyslexic and Dysprexic, and how they think that they were treated in school and whether or not you appreciated being treated like that.



Well, I have a dual diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome and dyspraxia (sorry!) and these are my views:

1 - Yes.
2 - While I was put into remedial classes for P.E. and Mathematics (I couldn't draw diagrams) I certainly wasn't labelled as "incapable of doing work" -quite the opposite.
3 - No, it doesn't. If anything, it makes people with the condition work harder on their weaknesses and achieve more.
4 - I have attended a special school, an ordinary sixth-form and I'm currently in my final year of university. Apart from an extra 25% time allowance in written exams and being given the opportunity to study for GCSEs when I was 14, I have been treated exactly the same as my classmates throughout my studies. Nobody has ever treated me like I'm stupid.
5 - Why has this been put in the Philosophy sub-forum? Was this accidental, or intentional?
Reply 13
It's good since it means those who needs extra help will get it. Before they had to suffer in silence, now they can get the extra tuition & help that they need.

It's similar to why you have ability sets in school. You may have 1st/2nd/3rd maths set for instance for people of differing abilities. Putting a kid who should be in the 3rd set in the 1st one is idiotic because they will just not understand the material & give up. You need to set kids challenging material, but not so difficult that they simply can't do it - that's counter productive.

Kids with dyslexia aren't stupid either. They just have problems in certain areas that require a different style of teaching to ordinary students.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 14
I'm pretty sure I've always had sex daily.

Woops, meant dyslexia. That was a bad one.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 15
Original post by Lamperouge
Well, I have a dual diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome and dyspraxia (sorry!) and these are my views:

1 - Yes.
2 - While I was put into remedial classes for P.E. and Mathematics (I couldn't draw diagrams) I certainly wasn't labelled as "incapable of doing work" -quite the opposite.
3 - No, it doesn't. If anything, it makes people with the condition work harder on their weaknesses and achieve more.
4 - I have attended a special school, an ordinary sixth-form and I'm currently in my final year of university. Apart from an extra 25% time allowance in written exams and being given the opportunity to study for GCSEs when I was 14, I have been treated exactly the same as my classmates throughout my studies. Nobody has ever treated me like I'm stupid.
5 - Why has this been put in the Philosophy sub-forum? Was this accidental, or intentional?



Seeing as 2 people have commented on it being in the philosophy sub-forum, I guess I did it accidentally and it was a bad misinterpretation of the subject on which this thread is about.

Thanks for the reply!
Reply 16
Original post by blu tack
I imagine the specialists know quite a bit more about it than you do.


Experts may know more about what they classify as a disorder, but that doesn't mean it is a disorder. I've been diagnosed with a ton of things when I'm convinced I'm just part of the normal spectrum. Discalculia, social anxiety disorder... It's not clear what makes something a disorder, really, and I tend to err on the side that in a lot of cases it's whether anyone can make any money out of prescribing drugs for them (obviously not the case with dyslexia). There's a lot of debate among experts.

Dyslexia is a really interesting one. There's a ton of reasons to think it's a 'real' phenomenon in the sense that it's not just people being stupid, it's a particular defect in one part of their language processing... I can't remember the thing I listened to about this, but it was very good. Aaanyway. I think the interesting question is whether having a particular defect in one part of your processing should be considered a disorder and whether, say, you should get special allowances in exams for it. Of course people should be given as much help as possible and it's useful to isolate which areas people struggle in so that they can be helped in that area, but what's the difference between someone with discalculia and someone who's clever but just not very good at maths? I think I'm just someone who struggles with maths more than other subjects... it seems strange to me that people sometimes get extra time for this.. it's a bit like saying I should be given a head-start in a race because I'm bad at running. Then it's not really a race....


I think it's helpful to use these terms to identify areas in which people struggle without falsely implying that they're stupid because they struggle in these areas, but it's a really difficult area because it means you start pronouncing on what 'normal' is and getting in to a whole complicated question about what counts as a disadvantage and what counts as simply being worse at something.
Reply 17
I don't have dyslexia, but I think that it being recognised as legitimate is good. For example, I know a lot of people in my college who has dyslexia (both students and teachers) and they are enormously helped by the study support department. Most of them achieve As in their exams. I think with the right support, people with dyslexia can achieve their full potential.
Reply 18
Original post by Bimbleby

I think it's helpful to use these terms to identify areas in which people struggle without falsely implying that they're stupid because they struggle in these areas, but it's a really difficult area because it means you start pronouncing on what 'normal' is and getting in to a whole complicated question about what counts as a disadvantage and what counts as simply being worse at something.



In agreement with this kind of point, as soon as you put a medical term in front of a load of symptoms it makes it seem a lot worse. It then makes you wonder about what is classed as normal and what is classed as Dyslexic. There are obvious mental disorders that can be diagnosed almost straight away, such as cerebral palsey although an extreme example it does show that diagnoses of mental learning difficulties can be correct and just.
Reply 19
i have dyspraxia not dyslexia but the people i know with dyslexia tend to be better at music art and drama than the core subjects (not to be mean this is just my personal experience)

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