Dyslexia 'is just a middle-class way to hide stupidity'
2007-05-29 21:41 - Links
Supporters of the condition argue that dyslexics are intelligent people who have difficulties processing information and need extra help and time than others who are poor readers.
I side with the doc on this one. The quoted statement sounds quite a lot like an oxymoron to me. If you "have difficulties processing information" and "need extra help and time" then guess what: you're not intelligent.
2007-05-30 09:08 - kathaclysm
I often think that people with abilities that come naturally to them often don't appreciate the work that others need to put in to accomplish the same task; I don't think intelligence and effort are mutually exclusive.
While I agree that Dyslexia is overused in today's society by some parents to give their kids a "leg up" by labeling them with a condition that affords them extra attention & assistance, I don't think that dyslexia as a whole is not a condition, nor would I think that someone with dyslexia couldn't also be intelligent.
I'm sure dyslexia something that lies on a continuum, considering how little we know about how the brain processes information it is not unlikely that some people would have biological reasons for difficulty in this area. If there are some people in this world with a photographic memory who can duplicate what they see exactly ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TibQ_1zH3U ) why wouldn't the opposite be true, where some people have difficulty interpreting & duplicating what they see?
This paragraph also comes to mind: Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.
Considering also how often I myself switch letters & numbers around, and have spelling trouble (though I never write letters backwards), and yet I have always scored high on standardized & intelligence tests, I may be a bit bias. I have often found myself quite embarrassed having mispronounced a word because I just read it wrong. I also know that I absorb visual & audial information much more readily than the written word.
There are even arguments as to how dyslexia would be somewhat advantageous in a prehistoric-society with no written language, as this would better allow individuals to identify birds, plants, animals, etc. by their profiles, from whatever direction they are viewed.