Thread: dyslexia
View Single Post
Unread 24 Aug 2006, 08:07   #17
Nodrog
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 8,476
Nodrog has ascended to a higher existance and no longer needs rep points to prove the size of his e-penis.Nodrog has ascended to a higher existance and no longer needs rep points to prove the size of his e-penis.Nodrog has ascended to a higher existance and no longer needs rep points to prove the size of his e-penis.Nodrog has ascended to a higher existance and no longer needs rep points to prove the size of his e-penis.Nodrog has ascended to a higher existance and no longer needs rep points to prove the size of his e-penis.Nodrog has ascended to a higher existance and no longer needs rep points to prove the size of his e-penis.Nodrog has ascended to a higher existance and no longer needs rep points to prove the size of his e-penis.Nodrog has ascended to a higher existance and no longer needs rep points to prove the size of his e-penis.Nodrog has ascended to a higher existance and no longer needs rep points to prove the size of his e-penis.Nodrog has ascended to a higher existance and no longer needs rep points to prove the size of his e-penis.Nodrog has ascended to a higher existance and no longer needs rep points to prove the size of his e-penis.
Re: dyslexia

'Dyslexia' is a very silly idea. Take any average group of kids and it isnt really surprising that youre going to have a high degree of variance in their abilities; some might struggle to grasp arithmetic, whereas others may be terrible at drawing, and others might have reading problems. Students should be ideally be given extra attention in the areas where they are struggling and encouraged to work harder to develop these skills, but pretending that there's some innate 'learning disorder' holding them back helps noone. I doubt that there's any real difference between struggling when it comes to reading ('dyslexia') and struggling in mathematics.

I was always very bad at 'practical' subjects while at school, and my drawing/crafts/painting/etc skills were signficantly worse than those around me, despite my english/maths being a lot better. It would be stupid to invent some 'practical ability learning disorder' to describe this though - I was just good at some things and not at others, like most people.



Quite apart from the scientific dubiousness of the dyslexia idea, youve also go tthe potentially serious problem that having students and their teachers believing that they're suffering from some innate 'disorder' is likely to have an adverse effect on their work ("I'll never be any good at maths so theres no point even trying").



Quote:
Originally Posted by Yahwe
We need to stop pretending that correct spelling comes easier to others than ourselves: it always takes effort. The word dyslexic means - 'I'm never going to try because I will always fail'. It's a useless word. A very destructive word.
I think its almost certainly true that correct spelling comes easier to some people than others. Different people tend to be 'naturally' better at different things; I didnt put any extra effort into maths at primary/secondary school and rarely bothered doing homework or any extra-curriculur practice, yet I was still a lot better at it than those around me (including those who worked harder than I did). On the converse side, I was never great at playing musical instruments, whereas some people show ridiculously high amounts of talent in this area from an early age. It's highly unlikely that I could ever match the piano skill of a child music prodigy, regardless of how much effort I put in (music is an interesting example, because there's such a blatently obvious difference in 'natural' talent evident in childhood between certain great musicians and normal people). It's hard to say how much 'natural' talent matters in most areas though, because I do think people have an unfortunate tendancy to believe that others are only good at things because of some innate magically ability they have rather than as a result of hard work (its easier on the ego to believe people are better than you due to luck rather than because they put more effort in).

For most skills, it probably isnt important whether they come 'naturally' to you, which is probably why noone has bothered inventing a disorder to cover them. Not being to draw or play the violin is unlikely to have a serious effect on your life, so most people are content to just say "I'm not very good at art/music" and make no effort to develop their skills. But when it comes to something as important as reading/writing, you cant really do this; basic literacy is fairly important in most areas of life, so most people should be encouraged to keep trying their best to improve their skills in this area, even if they are 'naturally' less talented here than the average person and have to work a lot harder than others in order to reach a decent level.


(I've put the word 'natural' in scare quotes all through this post because I dont want it to sound like I'm saying that this sort of ability is necessarily determined by genetics rather than upbringing. But regardless of the initial cause, it does seem to be fairly obvious in many people by the time they're midway through primary school).

Last edited by Nodrog; 24 Aug 2006 at 08:56.
Nodrog is offline   Reply With Quote