Is dyslexia real

[Cellach]

Stendec is pretty dyslexic. And hilarious.

[Theowolfe]

All I can say to you is that my son is dyslexic and now that it has been diagnosed and action has been taken, he is achieving very well. He managed to soldier on in primary school and it was not till 2nd level that it became more easily identifiable. Prior to this he memorized stories etc, and took some time to spot that he was not reading back to you but had memorized what he heard in school.
To cut a long story short..... we spotted in time and got the appropriate help. now post diagnosis he excelling again, less frustrated, confidence back and achieving good results
Not sure where you are going with your post... buts that's my twopence worth as a parent.

Where I am going is to address a serious debate. Professor Julian Elliot raised the question in 2007.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/lif...cle1847619.ece

And the reasons are perfectly reasonable for debate. When a student gets a diagnosis of dyslexia, in Britain at least, extra resources are available to give extra tuition etc, as a result. That money comes out of the overall budget and is not extra money.

The dilemma therefore is that the extra funding is money directed away from mainstream students. I assume there must be similar provision in Ireland.

Is this not a question worth debating?

[The Caped Cod]

Do you think that it's like ADD and ADHD in the US, where they use it as a kind of general, lazy diagnosis or are do you think that it flat out doesn't exist?

[Theowolfe]

Do you think that it's like ADD and ADHD in the US, where they use it as a kind of general, lazy diagnosis or are do you think that it flat out doesn't exist?

I don't know if it exists or not but there are now some questions being asked as to its extent.

There are certain advantages to having a dyslexic diagnosis. Extra tuition, extra time allowed in exams, social acceptability as a poor reader, the provision of extra resources and funding.

According to the article (link) above, in Britain “at universities students can get laptops, extra books and other equipment, sometimes to the value of almost £10,000 each."

So there may be a genuine incentive to have a diagnosis of dyslexia.

[Cellach]

They can read they're just faking it!

Seriously though Theowolfe does have a point, where there is free stuff to be had there will always be f**kers who abuse the system.

[myksav]

Yep, dyslexia is real. Until recently, it was completely undiagnosed in the less severe cases while more severe cases were often deemed unintelligent due to their inability to read very well, if at all.

I have a mild level of dyslexia which is why I get a bit irritated with incorrect spelling, as the easiest means of getting around dyslexia is to treat each word as a glyph or like a pictogram, the shape of the word counts. And mis-spelling changes the shape of the word. Disconcerting is the word. Thsi doesn't stop me parsing out what is written, it just takes more effort than some writing is worth.

Mind you, anyone having gone through the 'education muscular' of earlier times, would have had the spelling of a word was hammered into one. From memory as an automatic response. Rote learning, that.

AFAIK, no such grants for dyslexic students exist in Ireland.

[imokyrok]

To be officially diagnosed with dyslexia requires a psychological assessment using the WISC-R or WAIS-R and a variety of educational tests. A dyslexic will have a very specific, well recognized results profile. The dyslexic child with an average IQ usually gets picked up quite quickly in school as their performance in reading (and sometimes maths - dyscalculia) will not mirror their performance in general. The child who is well above average may not get picked up until college when their organisational skills in particular tend to let them down. To get extra benefits like you describe a child would have to have reading difficulties significantly below average and well out of kilter with their IQ. A child can also be dyslexic when they have average reading skills but perform at a very high (genius) otherwise but such a child would not be entitled to the benefits you describe. In Ireland getting access to an educational psychologist is an added problem with most schools only entitled to two assessments per annum. They tend to save those inputs for children with major problems educationally and behaviorally. Private assessments are costly. Addressing dyslexia requires a multi-sensorial teaching method which is time consuming and most teachers don't have the training (not even the remedial teachers). Many dyslexic children in Ireland attend Saturday workshops organised by the Dyslexia Association for their local area but again these are very expensive.

PS. Myksav is correct in saying little benefit accrues in Ireland other than exam accommodation.

[SevenStars]

Do you think that it's like ADD and ADHD in the US, where they use it as a kind of general, lazy diagnosis or are do you think that it flat out doesn't exist?

Personally I suspect that they are very much down to bad diet, computer games, rock/pop music and the whole way trash TV presents things. Concentration is something that can be trained.

[imokyrok]

Personally I suspect that they are very much down to bad diet, computer games, rock/pop music and the whole way trash TV presents things. Concentration is something that can be trained.

To an extent it can but cognitive testing will demonstrate that concentration and other cognitive functions deteriorate a lot with age. And not just old age - for example I'm in my mid 40's and would perform much poorer on such tests than I would have in my 20's. It's kinda demoralizing. So basically the brain function is what it is and mostly one compensates rather than remediates. Practice is helpful though.

[Mr Magoo]

Not sure about 3rd level here as yet but we do not get any extra tuition or resources so no funds being used or diverted on my young lad. The one concession we did get was that he was allowed an exemption from Irish, which was proving very very difficult from him. This did not come easily and we had to get assessments done which we paid for to present to the School/Dept. of Education.
After that I got some scanning software which he can use to scan in sections of schoolbooks and they read the text to him but i had to fund this.
It may well be as you say in US/UK but anything we have had to do we paid for, if that is of any help to your enquiry.