[RobertWhite]

According to the British Dyslexia Association 10% of the population are dyslexic. No one knows the true cause to this condition or has any proof that it even exists. From an early age I was labelled as dyslexic because I was never very good at Maths or English. After evaluation by an educational psychologist three years ago this label was dropped when I performed higher than average in the test. Dyslexia is thought to be genetic. Cases like mine show this consensus is false or that there is a serious issue in the diagnosis of this condition. If dyslexia is not genetic can we really say it is a disability? Surely the problem would fall with the environmental factors that led to the child's under achievement?

So, how do we define between people who are dyslexic or simply stupid? I do believe dyslexia exists but I do not believe children are tested properly for it. This is not only inherently wrong but it means children will receive extra time in exams, will be treated different from other children, may have to cope with ridicule from their peers and may live with the false impression they cannot achieve academically (not that those with dyslexia cannot).

I think this label needs to be used more carefully and should stop being implanted on every child who performs under average. What do you think?

[SnoochToTheBooch]

I don't see how anyone could really answer this. Nobody knows what it's like inside someone else's mind, there's no way of knowing whether one in ten people really see letters jumbled up or whatever. I bet it probably is diagnosed too carelessly though.

[Cephalus]

No I believe the other 9% are just a bit stupid

[smokew33d]

no

[marcusfox]

I believe there are a number of people who are genuinely dyslexic, yes.

But I also believe that there are a number of people who are genuinely ignorant of spelling, and many others will be clutching at straws trying to justify some sort of alternative not-my-fault label so they are not labelled stupid or too lazy to learn.

Just as ADHD as a condition also exists, but many parents prefer to label with that rather than tackle problems with their child's upbringing that have caused them to misbehave.

Edit - Someone labelled with dyslexia or ADHD hating on the truth, how predictable.

[JordanS94]

no but I believe that 10% are saying they are I know quite a few who are and who aren't there are some who say that they are dyslexic but yet I have never seen them struggle, some are even better than me in every area, either I'm dyslexic or some of these people are faking...

[Gravlees]

No, just a bunch of morons in denial.

[lightburns]

In my personal experience (which means next to nothing, opinions should really be based on science, so feel free to correct me anyone), dyslexia exists but the figures may be overstated, and people who are not dyslexic may be wrongly diagnosed.

My Dad works in an engineering company, with most of his colleagues being physics graduates. I.e., they are not stupid, and they are not underachievers. However, he finds people with weird writing issues more often there than anywhere else. People who jumble up the words and completely miss out the small words etc. Highly intelligent people who, nonetheless, really can't put it into words very well. It's likely that these people have flocked to physics for being a non-wordy subject requiring high intelligence. I would say, therefore, that it's clear that reading/writing ability doesn't necessarily reflect intelligence.

But 10%? That's a ridiculous figure, surely. That must include people who have low reading/writing ability due to low intelligence as well.
I am, by the way, very willing to change my opinion if evidence is shown..

[RobertWhite]

(Original post by lightburns)
In my personal experience (which means next to nothing, opinions should really be based on science, so feel free to correct me anyone), dyslexia exists but the figures may be overstated, and people who are not dyslexic may be wrongly diagnosed.

My Dad works in an engineering company, with most of his colleagues being physics graduates. I.e., they are not stupid, and they are not underachievers. However, he finds people with weird writing issues more often there than anywhere else. People who jumble up the words and completely miss out the small words etc. Highly intelligent people who, nonetheless, really can't put it into words very well. It's likely that these people have flocked to physics for being a non-wordy subject requiring high intelligence. I would say, therefore, that it's clear that reading/writing ability doesn't necessarily reflect intelligence.

But 10%? That's a ridiculous figure, surely. That must include people who have low reading/writing ability due to low intelligence as well.
I am, by the way, very willing to change my opinion if evidence is shown..

This is a very sophisticated view. It was proposed to test children for dyslexia they should take an IQ test and reading ability test. If there was a great disparity between the two one could assume they were dyslexic.

[Annie72]

When I was at school I dont think anyone had ever heard of Dyslexia.That was a long time ago though,perhaps it was called something else back then.I think that people are being over diagnosed when there is nothing wrong with them.

My mum was never any good with numbers, in later years she said she could have dis calculia ( think thats right) but it never stopped her from being a nurse and dealing with drug doses.

[A Mysterious Lord]

Dyslexia and ADHD are just convenient excuses for bad parenting.

I don't doubt that such conditions exist, but nowhere near as widespread as the figures would suggest.

[nexttime]

Its just a word meaning disordered reading. Some people have it badly, others have it very mildy but still get the same label under the pressure of their middle-class parents. The tests are imperfect and they generally get the diagnosis they want.

The next fashionable thing to get your kid diagnosed with is dyspraxia. Watch as the diagnosed numbers shoot through the roof in coming years.

[Piprod01]

I guess some might just want the title to be a special snowflake. But I don't think something like the 10% figure is completely outrageous, and not being on the dyslexic spectrum, I'm not really in a place to comment about it. In the past many recognised mental health issues were widely regarded with a lot of suspicion, and disbelief and still have a lot of stigma attached to them. I imagine it would be pretty horrible to have people trivialise or disregard your mental health because they can't see what the issues are.

[RobertWhite]

(Original post by nexttime)
Some people do seem to have a genuine problem, where they are very intelligent in other ways but just can't communicate in writing. Trying to develop methods for these people to cope is valuable work. However, you the come across the kid who isn't doing well at school in anything really - you don't think he is 'dyslexic', but as has been said, you can't get inside someone's head, so if they are having problems reading, maybe they do have this condition? Then the middle class parents catch on and suddenly every kid under-performing at school has a medical condition to explain why they aren't dumb they've got a 'condition'.

The next fashionable thing to get your kid diagnosed with is dyspraxia. Watch as the diagnosed numbers shoot through the roof in coming years.

I was diagnosed with dyspraxia too. I don't doubt that diagnosis though as my speech sounded like a different language. My twin brother was also exactly the same.

[Ham22]

(Original post by RobertWhite)
This is a very sophisticated view. It was proposed to test children for dyslexia they should take an IQ test and reading ability test. If there was a great disparity between the two one could assume they were dyslexic.

This is already happening. People are screened for dyslexia by looking for enough of a disparity between different types of intelligence/abilities within the individual.

[Observatory]

I think it depends whether there is any objective test that can identify dyslexia. If the diagnosis is made just because someone is bad at reading or at maths, then that isn't obviously distinguishable from normal variations in IQ, and hypothesis that there is a disease called "dyslexia" seems to fall to Occam's Razor.

[Lunch_Box]

I don't know anyone dsyxliec, sorry.

[lightburns]

(Original post by RobertWhite)
This is a very sophisticated view. It was proposed to test children for dyslexia they should take an IQ test and reading ability test. If there was a great disparity between the two one could assume they were dyslexic.

I think that would be a good idea. I would say that it is more than likely that many people use the label of 'dyslexia' to cover up a lack of intellect. This then undermines it for intelligent people with reading/writing difficulties. As shown by other commenters here, thanks to people doing this, there are many who don't believe that dyslexia exists at all. This condemns truly dyslexic people to a life where they are thought of and treated according to their reading/writing level rather than their IQ level.

It's a very unfortunate state of affairs really. The 10% figure is so outlandishly large that I don't think it's helping the case for dyslexics. Just like the figure I hear sometimes for depression as being 1 in 4 people over a lifetime is just reinforcing the idea that being a bit sad = depression, and therefore clinically depressed people just need to cheer up and get over it.
Basically, groups which focus on a single mental health issue can sometimes say things to do more harm than good. They think that people will take more notice if they say "look, it affects a massive amount of the population!", but what people actually think is "hey, that's really not that big a deal if [high number] number of people in a group can be classified as it."

The classification boundaries are arbitrary - they shouldn't be so wide as to include a massive portion of the population, being people who aren't clearly and seriously abnormal. Also, seeing as dyslexics get more time in exams, it's unfair to diagnose people who only have a nose out of the boundaries of normality anyway.

[desdemonata]

As previous posters have said, yes I believe it exists, but I don't believe that it's that widespread. And I don't think being "intelligent" according to an IQ test and a slow reader/bad at spelling automatically mean that somebody is dyslexic. That doesn't seem like a very accurate way to diagnose somebody to me

[Joinedup]

Gut-feel: genuine condition with a lot of pushy parents trying to jump the bandwagon and get their kids diagnosed.

A rather old breakthrough with dyslexia was that some diagnosed dyslexics could read a lot better off coloured paper than white. Can't see how being lazy or thick could be an explanation for that. There must be something different happening in the brains of those people who's reading improved on coloured paper.