you are not dyslexic!

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I think it's fine to give people extra time and all, but if you've claimed a disability and used it to your advantage in exams, then you should also have to declare it on all job application forms etc. It's only fair that they know you had help to get those extra points. I think it's terrible if people claim a disability only when it suits them, you either have something or you don't.

My disability varies. I do not always need the extra time. Yes, the disability is always there; but the effects aren't always.

I would hardly call having extra time "help" - without the extra time and rest breaks, I will fall asleep. :redface:

(yes, I've done that and failed said exam) I am also a slow reader.

Why should people have to declare it on their job forms?

Reply 141

TheRandomer

Original post by OU Student

(yes, I've done that and failed said exam) I am also a slow reader.

Why should people have to declare it on their job forms?

Because if you will need rest breaks and extra time to do said job, then this needs to be taken into account when they're deciding who to hire. Some people might have the same grades as you, and I don't mean this to cause offence, but they will be more efficient because they don't need extra time. It's up to the employer to decide if your other skills make you a better candidate.

And how long are your exams if you fall asleep?! :s-smilie:

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 142

Tiger Rag

Original post by TheRandomer

That's discrimination and therefore, illegal.

And how long are your exams if you fall asleep?! :s-smilie:

A few hours or so.

Reply 143

TheRandomer

Original post by OU Student

That's discrimination and therefore, illegal.

A few hours or so.

But it isn't discrimination. If someone can do a better job than another person at something, then it makes sense to choose the most suitable candidate, surely? If someone has various physical impairments they can't be a pilot or in the army, if someone has nervous system problems they can't be a neurosurgeon - their hands would be too shaky, and if someone has a mental illness they can't be a psychologist. Fair enough if someone said 'oh you have a slight sight impairment therefore you can't work as a teacher', now that's unfair because it has nothing to do with how well they would be able to do their job. In this case if you were applying for something which might require you to sit and study texts/fill out forms/perform data analysis for many hours at a time without a break... then you're going to be having difficulty fulfilling the requirements of the job, no? Also if it isn't going to be relevant to the job, then what's the problem with stating you had extra time? They will hire you anyway!

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 144

TheRandomer

Care to at least reply if you're going to neg me?

Reply 145

Indieboohoo

My primary school noticed I had dyslexia but obviously I didn't understand at the time and in secondary school girls (I went to to all girls school) will bully people who went to this center to get extra help with learning difficulties and stupidly I let it get to me so I stopped going to avoid being taunted for it.
So I never got extra time like the others.
And they test you in various ways not just poor spelling. :rolleyes:

But at uni they reassessed me and I get extra help (I do an art based subject) and I don't feel the stigma of getting it. I don't think it's the fact more people have it it's just more people are aware of it.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 146

JnKnPt

Totally agree with 'TheRandomer' =)

Reply 147

hippieglitter

I do think that too many stupid people are wrongly diagnosed with having a learning difficulty. I have nothing against learning difficulties, I have one myself but some people really are just thick. Not every child who is disruptive has ADHD and not every kid who can't spell has dyslexia and not every kid who can't remember their times tables has dyscalculia, but I do think they are sometimes used as an excuse often by parents who don't have the faintest idea what they are talking about. In my GCSE year 5 of us had extra time, 20 is a lot and 40 is just excessive. Yes, their are schools that may have more children with a disability but 40 in just one year? When my mum was doing her PGCE she visited a very poorly performing school and they had 11 in the whole school and that was a lot for then.

Reply 148

Tiger Rag

Original post by Indieboohoo

Most people at uni seem to be more grown up about these things. I have a PA / notetaker which students are aware of, sometimes get the odd question; but that's it.

I did once have someone tell me it's "unfair" that I get the equipment I do.

Reply 149

Tiger Rag

Original post by hippieglitter

I do think that too many stupid people are wrongly diagnosed with having a learning difficulty.

Learning difficulties have nothing to do with being stupid. I have a friend who is Autistic and has a maths degree. Hardly "stupid".

Not every child who is disruptive has ADHD

I know someone who was told that her child has ADHD. The parent claimed that he's visually impaired (as diagnosed by medical professionals) and that he plays up because he's not getting the help he needs / can't do his work.

I was diagnosed as Dyslexic because I have reading difficulties and because a screening test said I was borderline. The education psychologist did a quick test and said that my memory and logic make it pretty much impossible.

Reply 150

the_spirit_room

Original post by see-are

I recently heard that at one of the top independent schools in the UK they get almost every pupil tested for dyslexia or other that may gain him/her extra time in exams. I heard that out of my friends year (approx 150) about forty get extra time - this is a school which has a formidable entrance exam and gets top results. I go to my local comp and in my year of 220 there are about 20 boys with extra time..

I simply do not believe that so many people at this high achieving school have these disorders.

It is a trend that I have noticed when discussing this story with other people - it now seems that more and more people are being deemed as dyslexic or dyspraxic or adhd etc etc

So, do you think they are faking it? Or the tests are too lenient? Or there just are more dyslexic people nowadays? How can you explain my story - it makes me so angry!

yes they do my brother's girlfrind went to top private school with lots of um how u say, inernationl student from china.. and girlfriend tell him girls there lie and fake dyslexia in pretnece to get extra english support to get extra time but my brother have actual disability you know (not dyslexia but something else) and tell me cant beleive people do this because he never get xtra time but hvae to deal with real problem but what to do is real worrld jaja

Original post by MrHappy_J

oh boo hoo, youre just worried about the competition in getting to oxford.

reasons for getting extra time other than dyslexia, hm let me see...there's hand and arm injuries, mental illness, and basically anything else that can impact on your writing speed if you can prove it with a doctor's certificate. oh and personal circumstances like bereavement also count.

this is such a non-issue i dont even know why you felt compelled to create a thread about it.

this i dont know about am from venezuela. that brother of mine is um divorced.. i mean i live with other family he live with other in england butfor him very hard because family not accept 'disabled' label is very um.. bad.. so feel very shame at first he tell me cant speak to family so its sad im lucky because well for now i work in a shop so far and learn anything on my own.. high school did not do very well jaja but somehow i will climb up.. i dont know what brother disability is but he did gcse in england and i remember him tell me using pen was very hard he has some disorder dont know wht was very attached with eraser.. i know sound weird

is true phenomenon of dyslexic overdiagnosed? this i never heard.. but will read. I thank my brother because as I say I did not do very well in high school here and when I hear him share his story a few years after i graduate i begin think like 'hmm how did i study' so i write on my own my pattern and then i break down to see if i can fix it... maybe in england they just test and use marks from test to decide diagnoses?

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 151

JustRollingAlong

Original post by OU Student

That's discrimination and therefore, illegal.

Discrimination is illegal but it is a fact of life that certain disabilities mean you cannot perform certain jobs. I use a wheelchair and would not expect to be hired as a shelf stacker in a supermarket, it's simply not a job I could do effectively. I would, however, expect to have an equal chance of getting a job working on the checkout in a supermarket.

If you fall asleep in the middle of doing a task, or when required to concentrate on something for a few hours there are going to be jobs you simply cannot do (for example, should you be working as an air traffic controller?) The employer needs to know about your condition to ensure that you are going to be able to safely and effectively do the job in question. Discrimination applies if an employer chooses a less qualified candidate over you for a job you would be able to perform. It doesn't apply if you are simply not able to do the job in question.

Reply 152

Tiger Rag

Original post by JustRollingAlong

It's not that simple with me and falling asleep. I know why I fall asleep and know what to do next time before it happens.

You have missed the point - there's a big difference between not hiring someone because their disability means they can't do a job and not hiring someone because you (employer) think they can't do the job - yet, there's no evidence for this. I am lucky that my assistant manager is partially sighted; so does understand more than the manager about my difficulties.

Reply 153

Clare~Bear

Dyslexia tests don't just test your spelling ability. They test stuff like spacial aware with shape problems etc. I could probably fake a test because my boyfriend is dyslexic, so all I'd have to do is ask him what areas he did badly in and fail those on purpose. It is possible to fake but not as simple as not spelling something right.

Reply 154

MrHappy_J

Original post by the_spirit_room

this whole paragraph is incomprehensible, sorry.

Reply 155

xDave-

Original post by Zangoose

It's so easy to pretend to have dyslexia just to have an extra 20 minutes in an exam. Dyslexia is possibly the greatest student hoax known to man.

There are far easier things to pretend to have. I got the option of extra time or extra marks because I have Tinnitus.

Reply 156

the_spirit_room

Original post by MrHappy_J

this whole paragraph is incomprehensible, sorry.

which part do you want to understand? english is my fourth language. would you like me to rewrite it?

--

Ok jaja here I go..

I mean to say this:

My brother whom I was talking about who did GCSE in England it was hard for him because of shame associated with it being called 'disability'. It is stigma and family did not understand how challenges in learning get to be called 'disability'. So for him not only struggle at certain parts of learning but also at relaying to family and then to accept himself..the way he is.

For me, brother and me got split up when we were young (therefore I remain in Venezuela until now), I did not do very well in high school.. I suspect some kind of learning challenges.. his story inspire me in that I learn to accept myself. In venezuela where I live this things are unheard of @ disability and support. So what I do is I don't care about all kinds of labels.. I do a kind of 'log' where I analyse my study habits.. for example feelings, challenges, patterns that thing.. So I break down and tackle all by myself. Hopefully I will have progress in this before I start my distance learning and then after I hope I will come to england someday to study degree in situ. What I have been doing after high school is work in a shop and read my own interest in many subjects. As for my brother I cannot remember what his learning disability is called, but I remember him telling me before his GCSE he had this difficulty whereby he could not use pen up til mock exam.. he was very attached with eraser. So he seek counselling on his own during which teacher observe his writing pattern and he had to be eased from using pencil eraser, to using erasable pen to using normal pen. This is just one facet of his learning challenge and this was in the past.

Is dyslexia really over-diagnosed in the uk? I didn't know this except for that instance in my brother's girlfriends' school. As I mentioned, the east asian international students would fake dyslexia (and tell each other to do so, eg how u say in england.. 'muck up?' results on purpose) to get concession like extra time.

Anyway, in that unintelligible post of mine I mentioned:

I thank my brother because as I say I did not do very well in high school here and when I hear him share his story a few years after i graduate i begin think like 'hmm how did i study' so i write on my own my pattern and then i break down to see if i can fix it... maybe in england they just test and use marks from test to decide diagnoses?

Maybe that can also be alternative explanation of why many people test as 'dyslexia' (i don't mean fake ones like classmates of my brother's girlfriend). Because as someone say here "psychologists are only human" so every testing tool has its limits.. in some ways official learning diagnosis (theory) like everything, can have flaws too. For now people can only fit in finite categories like 'dyslexia, dyspraxia, add' and some others I can't remember. So these are the only choices.

I was just offering an additional analysis that might be relevant to the thread...(and also tell an unintelligible story jaja)

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 157

JustRollingAlong

Original post by OU Student

There is some evidence that you would not be able to do some jobs, though. That evidence being that you can't get through a couple of hours of work without breaks. There are some jobs where you would not be able to take an extra break because you are at risk of falling asleep due to your disability. An A&E doctor for example can't take a break when treating a critically injured person, a bus driver can't take a break in the middle of their route.

I think you misunderstood my point. I wasn't saying you shouldn't have whatever job it is you currently have. I was saying that there are some jobs that you wouldn't be able to do as well as other qualified candidate. Not that the employer would

Reply 158

Zangoose

Original post by xDave-

There are far easier things to pretend to have. I got the option of extra time or extra marks because I have Tinnitus.

Is this your sly way of telling me you pretended to have tinnitus for extra time? 'Cuz you can't actually prove that you have it can you? It's just a claim with a forged Doctor's note attached.

Well played, mate.

Reply 159

Joker370

I think it is the way the system works that is slightly odd - my sister is not incredibly intelligent and she is very poor at spelling, and a couple of years ago was diagnosed with 'spelling dislexia,' which gives her extra time. Even she and my parents think that she simply isn't very good at spelling - not that she has any kind of disorder or learning disability. She is however incredibly talented at art and has no real desire for extra time because academia is not involved in the careers she wants to pursue, and we all feel that the school simply identified her as someone who would probably get lower marks in her humanity and language GCSEs and so just shipped her off to the educational psychologist almost as a precautionary measure in case my parents tried to blame her teachers/her syllabus.

Essentially all I'm trying to say is that in my experience at least, many people seem to be diagnosed with a learning disability simply because they aren't academic, but are arty or sporty or anything else instead. Obvs I know a lot of dyslexics who are genii, or near enough it seems lol, and this is in no way even a general rule, but people tend to notice the questionable diagnosis's rather than the reliable ones, which is probably why so many people have the view that the test is not specific enough or being faked.