Using the term dyslexia in the public schools

From the state of Indiana––—

First let me say I am the parent of two adult dyslexics. It is very difficult to get a child
diagnosed as dyslexic. As a result of this and other things I went back to school and
got an M.S. in Elementary Education and then Special Education (Learning Disabilities).

It is my understanding that dyslexia is not listed as a diagnosis by federal or state law.
Therefore, it cannot be diagnosed. However, specific learning disability can be diagnosed. This is the current term for dyslexia.

Our LD kids are not being taught properly in many cases. I am an Orton-Gillingham
tutor. Training for this is 8 credit hours at Butler University in Indianapolis. It is a
successful method and can be applied to all areas of the curriculum. If you would you
would like to know more about it, I would be glad to send you more information.

About the diagnosis of dyslexia—you might call the state education department in
your state. I retired from teaching last June but continue to tutor at the same school.

Good luck,

Would be glad to chat with you.
Shirley

Because if the school would use the term dyslexia they would be held to a higher
standard according to IDEA. There is specific criteria that they want to avoid.
Our school said it is a medical term not a educational term. They also gave us a
book that said if they told us it was dylexia that we the parents would feel bad.It
states in this book that we’d feel our child was brain damaged. It is many of parents
dreams that the school’s would use this term,so therefore get the right remediation
and help for all our children. The research is very clear what to do for dyslexia,but
for “reading disability” is broad and vague. This is what they want.

Hi Lisa,

I really don’t have an answer for you except that the term ‘dyslexia’ isn’t a diagnosis, it’s just a word that means ‘difficulty reading’. So the actual medical diagnosis would be the cause of why the child is having difficulty reading be it as a result of auditory or visual processing disorders, ADD, cognitive skill deficits or whatever. Of course, children can actually be termed dyslexic (difficulty reading) if they haven’t been taught using an effective reading method and all they need is appropriate instruction!

Blessings, momo

Hi Lisa,

I was told the same thing when I was going through graduate school, that the term is too general to be really useful, or it’s been overused, things like that. The term was first coined about a hundred years ago to describe seemingly bright youngsters who couldn’t seem to learn how to read… sounds to me that describes a lot of today’s youngsters also! It actually means “inability to read” and in that sense is a bit of a misnomer, because most dyslexics do learn to read eventually, just later than usual and with a great deal of effort. There’s a recent article in the news (you can probably find it on AOL or NYTimes websites) about how the neurological basis of dyslexia has now been firmly established, and how it affects children learning English far more than most other language systems, because of the complexity of our phonetic rules and the wide variety of languages that influence English. Dyslexics in Italy, for example, often have only slight difficulty learning to read, those in France more than that, but not as much as here in the US and Britain.

I’m an RSP also, and I find it helpful to refer instead to a disorder in phonological processing when talking to “public school” personnel, which seems to be a term everyone understands these days, without having to get that defensive reaction that “dyslexia” seems to evoke. And now that it’s been firmly established that this disorder in phonological processing is the basis of most “dyslexia”, it serves the same purpose as far as indicating a direction for treatment. Kids like this need to be taught using a systematic explicit multi-sensory phonics system, and the sooner our schools get such systems into use in most special ed classrooms, the better for everyone concerned.

Interestingly enough, most parents are not uncomfortable with the term, and a lot of neuropsychs are now using it again, often with the qualifier “auditory dyslexia” which makes it more specific. So perhaps it will come back into vogue again, in a different context. The common misperception that the disorder is primarily visual in nature, characterized mainly by reversals, may be an unfortunate situation, because it masks the true cause and most effective methods of remediation. There may indeed be a small percentage of cases where visual perceptual issues are also interfering, but the research is quite clear that the most common underlying dysfunction takes place in the auditory cortex of the brain. I remember also learning in graduate school (this was 15 years ago), that there was no hard scientific data to back up the existence of learning disabilities — luckily, this is no longer true.

Hope this helps clear up the confusion about terminology, and I think we all agree that the important thing is to get these kiddos the right kind of help at the right time, rather than arguing about what to call it…

Dyslexia is described in IDEA under learning disability. Infact, it may be the most common sort of LD that we encounter. I ask you, does it really matter that we do not use the term when we can classify as LD? The assessment reports and the IEP should address the student’s needs. Indeed, the term dyslexia has been overused and is vague to many persons. But, it is a learning disability, is it not?

It’s a learning disability, yes. But it’s a specific type of learning disability that requires a specific type of remediation. The problem with just saying “reading problem” or similar phrases is that if used, educators can basically use any old reading program they wish, whether they’re effective or not. People with dyslexia, as a rule, need a certain type of remediation to successfully learn to read, not just more of the same or water-down programs. Intensive, multisensory, sequential, one-on-one reading programs such as Orton-Gillingham generally offer the best chance of success. (I disagree that dyslexia has no real meaning. It describes a severe reading problem in a bright person that is neurologically based, as opposed to a reading problem that’s caused by other issues such as mental retardation, bad teaching, refusal to work, emotional disturbance, cultural deprivation, etc., etc.)

Yours truly,
Kathy G.