Merged Psychological conditions are illusory

[Bram Kaandorp]

Having difficulty reading is a phrase we understand. Dyslexia isn't.
The term "dyslexia" adds nothing to understanding what you have described.

"Hey, if I close my eyes, I can't see anything either. I don't understand what those blind people are on about."

That's what you sound like. I hope you realise that.

 

[Travis]

Wait........how would any of this be disempowering even if true?

 

[Safe-Keeper]

Problem with the reasoning of the OP, and for that matter the other thread that seemed to claim PTSD doesn't exist*, is that if you use it to discount these two conditions, you also need to discount all conditions, everything from depression to cancer. If PTSD doesn't exist, neither does leukemia. If dyslexia doesn't exist, then neither do allergies.

The OP's reasoning on asthma:
Individuals have a range of respiratory skills: hardly unexpected. To make victims from these normal distribution patterns a scientist or medic will arbitrarily declare certain reading ranges as a "condition", as if it has some defining property that distinguishes it from the rest. It does not, of course. Medics privilege the binary - one range is privileged over the other as being not a condition.

*oh. Same poster. Should've realized that right away, feel really bright now.

 

[Tracy Dalziel]

there are criteria for diagnosis, you can't just buy it. As much as I would have like to spell english phonetically, I can't. My mother saying "Sound out the word 'about'." just makes no sense to me, dysphonetic dyslexia. You can say it all you want, I had to memorize it a,b,o,u,t. Now I know it is ab+out but it made no nsense to me at the time.

Now the DSM labels it reading disorder:

Reading achievement. as measured by individually administered standardized tests of reading accuracy or comprehension. is substantially below that expected given the person's chronological age, measured intelligence, and age-appropriate education.

B. The disturbance in Criterion A significantly interferes with academic achievement or activities of daily living that require reading skills.

C. If a sensory deficit is present, the reading difficulties are in excess of those usually associated with it

Thanks for that clarification. I do not deny the existence of dyslexia, I just believe that it may go overlooked in some cases because of apathy on the part of parents and teachers meaning that the sufferer will go on to struggle with written language in later life whilst on the flipside may be overdiagnosed in others as an excuse for suboptimal performance and to gain academic advantages. Although the diagnostic criteria do exist I'm not sure I'd have much confidence in them because they seem somewhat subjective and arbitrary unlike say x-ray of a suspected fracture or finding tubercle bacilli in sputum. Again its similar to the example of depression that I mentioned earlier - if a pushy parent wanted the diagnosis they could get it.

 

[bruto]

Wait........how would any of this be disempowering even if true?

This was my immediate reaction. It's only disempowering if it leads to exclusion or limitation of options. Here in the U.S., at least in the parts I've inhabited, the opposite is generally true. Great efforts are made, with great success, to address dyslexia.
I actually know some people who are, or were, dyslexic. Identification of dyslexia is, when done right (sorry to have to use that terribly privileged term here, but I cling to the primitive notion that some things can be done right and some wrong) anything but disempowering. When a person with dyslexia is correctly identified and special efforts made to overcome it, that person will often end up able to read and continue with his education at a level that would have been impossible if the condition had not been addressed. Not so very long ago people who were dyslexic were labeled as stupid or slow, and denied many opportunities as a result. In other instances, the special education was once reserved only for the luckiest, and perhaps the richest, among us. When Nelson Rockefeller was growing up dyslexic, the special education he got was pretty rare. Two generations later, it's pretty common.

I don't know where Jonesboy comes from (if there's any there there for him at all), but from my American perspective his original post is not only nonsensical, but trivializes and insults the work done by the many educators who have succeeded in opening doors for dyslexic students which once were closed to them by people who, like Jonesboy, failed to recognize the condition and in so doing failed to provide the necessary teaching to get past it.

Jonesboy, even if you were correct in saying that dyslexia somehow doesn't exist, you would be dead wrong in calling it a "disempowering term of abuse." That's just sheer ignorance.

 

[Travis]

My dad has pretty bad dyslexia but he comes from a time when an inability to learn to read easily simply got you labeled "retarded." And then everyone gives up because who wants to waste time teaching the "retard" to read?

 

[Macgyver1968]

I think Jonesboy is a dog damned noroM.

 

[Finn McR]

How about this: I am an excellent reader, have been since I could read. But if you were to hold up flash cards alternately with "friend" and "freind" while I looked away, I doubt that I could consistently tell the difference. The only way I can correctly spell the word is, "a true friend is is a friend in the end." (and yes, I actually had to correct my typing, because I wrote it incorrectly the first time). There are plenty of other examples.

I have heard that there is an association between dyslexia and atypically symmetric brain structures (as if the two "parts" of the brain were fighting for dominance), but that is as good as an old wive's tale. I'd be glad to get some information one way or the other.

Also, there are a bunch of "tests" that are supposed to show handedness (other than writing) such as fold you hands with fingers interlaced, etc. When I do those, the results come out mixed. I don't believe that I am amibextrous (can't write with the left hand for a hill of beans), but I do regularly use two separate laboratory instrument controllers with a mouse in each hand and can *sword fight* equally well with either or both hands. (*obviously not life-and-death, but fencing and boffer fighting). I've often wondered if that is related, and responses to a single post on this site can equal a couple of hours of internet searching.

 

[Roboramma]

Then you are ignorant of what defines dyslexia. It does not disempower people, people who have it will not learn to read when they are taught with teh standard methods, they need other strategies.

Which is why the diagnosis of dyslexia is the opposite of "disempowering". I was diagnosed as dyslexic when I was in second grade. I was then put in a separate class where different methods were used to teach us to read. Suddenly everything was much more clear and easy. And while I read more slowly than my peers, and it seems still do, despite reading a lot, avoided having major problems thereafter.

So, if anything, the diagnosis helped to correct the problem and allowed me to go through the rest of my schooling as any other kid. That's the opposite of "disempowering".

 

[Soapy Sam]

I find it curious that if someone has problems reading or comprehending the alphabetic symbol set, he may be classified as dyslexic, yet my inability to make sense of mathematics is considered simple dimness.

Now dim sum, as the Chinese Latin teacher said, but ergo non mathematical? Pourquoi?

 

[Lowpro]

Which is why the diagnosis of dyslexia is the opposite of "disempowering". I was diagnosed as dyslexic when I was in second grade. I was then put in a separate class where different methods were used to teach us to read. Suddenly everything was much more clear and easy. And while I read more slowly than my peers, and it seems still do, despite reading a lot, avoided having major problems thereafter.

So, if anything, the diagnosis helped to correct the problem and allowed me to go through the rest of my schooling as any other kid. That's the opposite of "disempowering".

Nonono, you were disempowered. Ain't it obvious?

 

[Soapy Sam]

http://dyslexia.learninginfo.org/dysphonetic.htm

There are two apparent pathways, a visualization pathway and an auditory pathway which seem to be effected.

Now the funny thing is I can recreate music in my head, I can hear it easily. I can't sing it, more of that auditory reproduction, but I can tune it, I can replay it with time.

So while I can't sing on pitch, which is very annoying to others, I can hear the tones and play them on an instrument. But I can not sing worth a lick.

Interesting. I have much the same experience. (I don't play instruments . but I can "pick out" the correct notes OK .) No dyslexia though.
What's funny is that while I read English well at five, at 56 I have been struggling with the Cyrillic symbol set for several years with little progress.
Maybe a bit of my brain shut down a while back?
(Maybe more than a bit).

 

[quarky]

I can't tell left from right.
I know others like me.
"I" before "E" is mostly hopeless for me, and always has been.
I don't have a similar difficulty with "North" and "south", or the sequence of numbers.

The right and left dilemma may have stemmed from mirrors. i was after more absolute terms. The "I" before "E" trouble may have happened from the early childhood trauma upon hearing about the exceptions to the rule.
My child-like mind rejected exceptions to rules. I thought the rules were stupid if they had exceptions. I'm not even sure that I'm wrong. But I can't drive through busy cities because of this.

 

[Weak Kitten]

While I consider the OP to be a bit of a troll (if he/she actually holds the beliefs posted here) I must say that all of the support I hear from people about dyslexia is really heartening. I remember how hard it was for me to learn to read and how I would literally cry because the intense concentration made my head hurt. I still don't write things by had if I can help it, again because it gives me a splitting headache.

When I was a kid I used to make such a fuss about getting extra time to read my test and other help for my dyslexia. Looking back I am so grateful to all of the teachers who helped me out and worked so hard to make me understand that using copping mechanisms and techniques is not cheating, it's part of life. I will always need more time both to read and write but knowing that it's dyslexia and not stupidity or laziness makes me feel so much better about it all.

By the way, is the OP some sort of parody? Is Jonesboy just posting silly and controversial things just to get conversations started? He/she never seems to stick around for the results so I am a bit confused.

 

[Robrob]

Having difficulty reading is a phrase we understand. Dyslexia isn't.
The term "dyslexia" adds nothing to understanding what you have described.

Sounds like someone is angry being diagnosed. If you don't like the term used to describe a verifiable condition, fine, use another or make one up whole cloth. Just don't insist we agree with your claim the situation doesn't actually exist.

 

[Finn McR]

I can't tell left from right.
I know others like me.
"I" before "E" is mostly hopeless for me, and always has been.
I don't have a similar difficulty with "North" and "south", or the sequence of numbers.

The right and left dilemma may have stemmed from mirrors. i was after more absolute terms. The "I" before "E" trouble may have happened from the early childhood trauma upon hearing about the exceptions to the rule.
My child-like mind rejected exceptions to rules. I thought the rules were stupid if they had exceptions. I'm not even sure that I'm wrong. But I can't drive through busy cities because of this.

I think that I may have had similar mirror-image type experiences, aside from the typical mirror-image writing that children do. I tie my shoes with opposite chirality with respect to my parents and deal out solitaire games with opposite chirality. But on the 3-D tetris-like shapes on standardized tests, no problem.

... It's weird and interesting and we don't even have to invoke ET's, Deities, or ESP's. "O brave new world that has such people in't.

 

[quarky]

I think that I may have had similar mirror-image type experiences, aside from the typical mirror-image writing that children do. I tie my shoes with opposite chirality with respect to my parents and deal out solitaire games with opposite chirality. But on the 3-D tetris-like shapes on standardized tests, no problem.

... It's weird and interesting and we don't even have to invoke ET's, Deities, or ESP's. "O brave new world that has such people in't.

I love what you wrote about the chirality of tying shoes.
I've never even thought to look at how I've tied them, all these years.
Its one of those things you do everyday that can somehow slip beneath the radar.
I am quite mechanically adept, and have built many novel structures and devices. yet, when it comes to tightening a nut, I must always try both directions. It simply doesn't come to me.
Yet, i don't have trouble envisioning and executing the overall vision.
I even had a job, long ago, truing wheels for racing bikes. I was actually good at it, even though every time I turned a spoke, i had to try it in both directions. Good thing about the sound pitch...it gave me a sound direction for tightening...yet to this day, i don't know which direction is tighten; which is loosen.
Whatever brain cells are missing here, its been the case since early childhood. Clockwise and anti-clock-wise falls apart for me, because i can easily imagine observing from the back side of the clock.

This sort of handicap is usually pretty easy to disguise.
There are, however, specific circumstances wherein it is a serious hazard.
Like driving through cities.

 

[Finn McR]

I love what you wrote about the chirality of tying shoes.
I've never even thought to look at how I've tied them, all these years.
Its one of those things you do everyday that can somehow slip beneath the radar.
I am quite mechanically adept, and have built many novel structures and devices. yet, when it comes to tightening a nut, I must always try both directions. It simply doesn't come to me.
Yet, i don't have trouble envisioning and executing the overall vision.
I even had a job, long ago, truing wheels for racing bikes. I was actually good at it, even though every time I turned a spoke, i had to try it in both directions. Good thing about the sound pitch...it gave me a sound direction for tightening...yet to this day, i don't know which direction is tighten; which is loosen.
Whatever brain cells are missing here, its been the case since early childhood. Clockwise and anti-clock-wise falls apart for me, because i can easily imagine observing from the back side of the clock.

This sort of handicap is usually pretty easy to disguise.
There are, however, specific circumstances wherein it is a serious hazard.
Like driving through cities.

Every single time I turn a screw or open/close a valve (which, in my job, would be for hazardous material transfer), I do the "right hand rule" gesture. Make a loose fist with the thumb sticking out orthogonally (in a hitch-hiking gesture if you are in the same cultural milieu), the fingers point in the direction of turn and thumb points in the direction of the screw's axial motion. This works for nuts on fixed screws as well. That is, it works for all "right-hand" threads. Almost all threads are right-handed. There should be grooves on the head of a screw or nut that is not right-handed to warn you of the fact.

I use this aid with knowledge of screw and valve stem motion to avoid mistakes. Every. Single Time.

I know the mechanism, but have to confirm the direction of turn.

 

[quarky]

crazy.
Good tip.

 

[Halfcentaur]

I find it curious that if someone has problems reading or comprehending the alphabetic symbol set, he may be classified as dyslexic, yet my inability to make sense of mathematics is considered simple dimness.

Now dim sum, as the Chinese Latin teacher said, but ergo non mathematical? Pourquoi?

Perhaps you're influenced by dyscalculia. How are you at automatically counting 4-8 objects if a display was flashed at you? I'd recommend you look it up, it's a problem I deal with and it made math much more difficult for me than it should have been.