QuoteAn MP has claimed that the learning disorder dyslexia does not exist and is merely a "cruel fiction" to cover up poor teaching. Skip related content

Graham Stringer, MP for Blackley in Manchester, said it was "wicked" to label children as dyslexic because they were confused by bad teaching methods.

"The education establishment, rather than admit that their eclectic and incomplete methods for instruction are at fault, have invented a brain disorder called dyslexia," Stringer wrote in a column for the Manchester Confidential website.

"Dyslexia is a cruel fiction. The sooner it is consigned to the same dustbin of history, the better."

About 6 million people suffer from the condition, according to the charity Dyslexia Action.

It said that it was not the same as having reading problems and was a combination of difficulties that could also affect spelling, writing, maths or memory.

"Once again dyslexia seems to be making the headlines for all the wrong reasons," said Shirley Cramer, the charitys chief executive.

"It is frustrating that the focus should be on whether dyslexia exists or not, when there is so much evidence to support that it does."

Stringer said if dyslexia existed then countries such as Nicaragua and South Korea would not have nearly 100 percent literacy rates.

He said a scheme in Scotlands West Dunbartonshire area, which used to have a literacy problem among secondary school pupils, had eliminated illiteracy by teaching children to read using the synthetic phonics method.

"It is time that the dyslexia industry was killed off and we recognised that there are well known methods for teaching everybody to read and write," he said.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20090114/thl-uk-britain-dyslexia-b2e59e8.html

Anyone wish to shove his head where the sun dont shine?

I guess he must have had very poor education growing up and just became a MP by shear luck and family conections.

Read that on Teletext just a minute ago and it caused an instant facepalm.

But according to the article, though he made a bad choice of words, he does appear to be advocating alternative learning techniques to teach people. He hasnt outright said "Dyslexia is just a word used by the lazy", he said that its used by the establishment to cover up some figures, and that techniques have been found, such as phonetics, which work. I wonder whether the rest of the quote which didnt make it into the article went on to discuss things like why such techniques arent more mainstream and why if they work they havent been employed?

Quote from: bearI guess he must have had very poor education growing up and just became a MP by shear luck and family conections.

nope, you need a poor education in this country to become an MP

I must admit my own personal opinion is that dyslexia doesnt exist per se as many people understand it. I think its bandied around a lot by people who have either fallen prey to laziness or are victims of our rigid education system that doesnt support teaching prople who learn in different ways. That said the way the MP worded his argument does him no favours whatsoever, if he wanted to broach the subject then a bit of tact was called for.

Dyslexia exist allright and if recognised early enough there is no problem within normal schooling as long as the theacher is aware and the right equipment ( mostly computers) is available.

Quote from: Chris HI must admit my own personal opinion is that dyslexia doesnt exist per se as many people understand it. I think its bandied around a lot by people who have either fallen prey to laziness or are victims of our rigid education system that doesnt support teaching prople who learn in different ways.

^^^ this

I dont see why people who excel in some areas and under perform in others should be categorized as suffering from a particular condition whereas people who unperformed generally are just thick. IMO its just natural variation.

Quoteyslexia exist allright

AFAIK it only exists because we say it exists, i.e people who exhibit XYZ characteristics are classified as being dyslexic the fact is that the tests for these characteristics weve decided should be classified as a condition are pretty crude at best.  Wed do better to forget labels, forget attempting to medicalise a social problem and simply invest money in ensuring all kids who are struggling are given the appropriate level of help rather than concentrating efforts on special categories of kids decided by arbitrary rules/crude and inaccurate tests.

Im classed as dyslexic, I did a 3 hour 1on1 exam with some sort of "specialist tester woman"... I go from scoring off the top of the chart in some areas (the test I did could only test me up to 98th percentile) to 12th percentile in others (like spelling) (something like the spelling ability of the average 6 year old)

but I also think theres a lot of people out there who say theyre dyslexic and theyre not really... or not enough to make a difference...

but theres some things you just cant ignore, like smart people whove had a good education who can barley read at age 40.... it doesnt sound like a big deal here... but its pretty shocking when you actually meet these people....

I have to agree somewhat that Ive never really tried to improve my spelling, and Im sure I could improve it a bit if I really worked at it... but theres no way Im going to pull my spelling ability up to the level of my other abilities... if I could spell at 98th percentile Id be a gold medal winner at the spelling Olympics


EDIT/PS:  most of the information I read about being dyslexic I immediately dismiss as being bollocks.... theres a lot of people out there who don;t really know what theyre talking about but pretend they do !

Dyslexia is pretty well defined, and I am well aware that there are effective treatments for it. More should be done to identify the condition early and use suitable training methods to minimise or eliminate the effects.

Saying it doesnt exist though is like saying you dont get headaches because you can take aspirin and other drugs to stop the pain.

In some ways Fibrositis is even worse as there are no known tests for it and no known cause. The effects are just a group of symptoms that happen to be known to appear together in some people. Individually they will probably not get all of them but the set exists.

My bro is dyslexic, not by his admission but because teachers etc told him so when he was growing up.

Hes not the best academically so chose to just get on with sports which hes good at.




In my honest opinion the teachers who tried to teach him failed, so took the easy way out and slapped a label on him.

ive been "diagnosed" as having dyslexia. at the same test i was also assessed to be in the 98th percentile.
I have major problems with A level maths. I was really good at GCSE maths but as soon as it jumped to A level i was unable to grasp certain things. Rearranging equations was a major one. I dont think my teachers methods helped but then again they did work for the rest of the class, so he just thought i was thick, which didnt help to say the least.

I kind of agree with what that MP is saying tho. the teaching system is all to eager to label someone with having dyslexia and not finding out the root cause. Some people learn with traditional measures, others such as myself need different methods to learn something. Whether or  not thats dyslexia I cant say as im not really qualified to do so!

Quote from: matt5cottIn my honest opinion the teachers who tried to teach him failed, so took the easy way out and slapped a label on him.

mine were the same, especially in junior school.... its not so bad when you get older and have different teachers in different areas.... my english/french/history/etc.. teachers hated me but my science/maths teachers liked me so it evened out  (for me anyway)


id love to bump into some of my old junior school teachers to tell them what i really think of them......

I read the article and I pretty much agree with what the guy said.

I havent had the time to look into his examples but he reckons Nicragua and South Korea have almost complete literacy amongst the population. If this is correct how do you explain that we have some 6million dyslexics (10% of our population) but other nations have almost no cases? That only leads me to believe we are massively overstating the problem, misdiagnosing or just using it as an excuse for thick kids. Almost all the thick kids my missus teaches have some degree of dyslexia according to the teachers who taught them before her, she teaches late in Primary schooling.

QuoteSaying it doesnt exist though is like saying you dont get headaches because you can take aspirin and other drugs to stop the pain.

Is it?