17th December 2009 9:00
By Blue Tutors
There have been countless books written on dyslexia, and every year the government commits millions of pounds to the struggle against the condition. However, if you’ve ever searched for a definition of dyslexia then you will have been found wanting.
Dyslexia is a Greek word, which literally means ‘difficulty with words’, but the term now does not simply apply to words, and is applied to a group of learning difficulties including problems with numbers and sounds. This obviously means that labelling someone as ‘dyslexic’ is not particularly helpful, because it doesn’t explain the specific learning difficulty.
The definition used by a particular organisation for dyslexia (although this would not be made publicly accessible) is: a student who is less able academically than they are expected to be. Obviously what is written above explains why this definition is necessarily general and subjective, but that doesn’t make it right. This definition suggests that if we take two students who have the same reading ability, one who has had the best education that money can buy, and one who has attended an inner city comprehensive, the privately educated student might be diagnosed with dyslexia and given specialist help and extra funding (because his/her reading ability is expected to be better), while the state educated student would not (because his/her reading ability is not expected to be better).
The important thing to appreciate is that just because of the subjective, and arguably unfair nature of a diagnosis of dyslexia, doesn’t mean that it is simply another word for unintelligent, and it’s perfectly reasonable to give specific support to students who need it.
There are numerous processes that take place in our brains when comprehending something experienced through our senses, and it’s reasonable to expect some people to be better (quicker, clearer) at those processes, and some people to be worse. Of course person A may excel at one process and struggle with another, and the converse may be true for person B. These processes exist on a continuous scale, it’s not the case that you’re either competent, or that you find it incredibly difficult. Everything is shades of grey.
All this is relevant because a student who excels at everything except say pattern recognition (which they find impossible), should be diagnosed with this specific problem, and given specialist help with it. They shouldn’t be labelled ‘dyslexic’ and given 15 minutes longer in an exam, which has nothing to do with pattern recognition, than their friend who excels at no particular process, but also who doesn’t really struggle at any either.