Being Dyslexic Forums: Replying To Cure Dyslexia Before it Begins - Being Dyslexic Forums

teacherman, on 06 July 2010 - 09:49 AM, said:

In my estimation, there are many children who have the brain pattern that we call 'dyslexic' but who nevertheless manage to aquire literacy well enough that they do not sink so low in the education system and are therefore never tested and never identified as dyslexic. Particularly if the school in question is averse to screening the students.

They may well have have poor short term memory, strong visual/spatial thinking, have difficulty telling left from right, be great problem solvers/lateral thinkers, have difficulty tracking time, be gifted at reading emotions in others etc etc etc.

Now - please let's move to a thread with a better heading. I know you have moved on since you first wrote that and so it probably doesen't reflect your present views.

I have to agree with Rod that I have to start posting on a new thread - and I will starting today. I apologize once again to anyone who has taken offence to the title, because that was never my intention. I do have one question in closing, though.

If a child leaves first grade reading, writing and spelling on (or above) grade level, and continues to exhibit no problems reading, writing and spelling as the years go by, would that child ever be labeled "dyslexic"?

Let me suggest that perhaps the new label could be "gifted and talented".

Sincerely,
Teacherman

This is directly aimed at Teacherman


The Greek meaning may explain the work itself (dyslexia) however this site explains

the disorder.

I am no expert, I was pretty oblivious about my disorder until a couple of years ago.

1. Dyslexia is a problem with language, communication, expressing ones self.
2. Dyslexia is part of the same family as Autism (perhaps you should go read up
about that.)
3. Dyslexics have a range of difficulties which show up differently for everyone,
there are no 2 dyslexics the same.
and the list goes on.
4. You can not re-wire a brain, or re-develop its language side.

The medication that helps schizophrenics, does that cure them or does it modify their behavior so they are more able to cope with every day life?

Where the dyslexic brain hindered in language it is hightened in other areas.

You are thinking to narrowly, you are only thinking in terms of reading, not the whole
picture of dyslexia as full bodied disorder.

So if the kid does suceed with his reading what about the writing isn't that just as important. Have you incorporated into your plan the different styles of writing, the inconsistancy in spelling?

I can read upside down does that mean I am cured?


"Quote teacherman:
I do not, by any stretch of the imagination, consider dyslexia a disease. I agree with

Ron Davis – that it is a gift. However, I believe that unless a child is shown early-on

that he has this gift, problems arise very quickly. quote"


Again you are looking at it from one aspect reading! If you really talked to a dyslexic you would have found out that we are the masters when it comes to hiding, avoiding and coping and adapting to reading and writing, we can still get by it is not the be all the end all and we have successful lives.

You tell me what that gift is? Can you ? Do you have any idea?

You talk of spelling tests.
I was diagnosed in about grade 3 with dyslexia. I had to read allowed 50 words in a spelling test that year.
My mother practised and practiced with me and I got them all right. I only passed because I had it so hammered into me that I could not forget, however 2 weeks later I probably would have forgotten most of them.


So your subject title still says "cure dyslexia before it begins"
So what the child is reading and writing at a 2nd grade level right side up.
Are you or your system going to be there when he or she hits high school?
We may think we know how to spell, thought we knew, hoped we knew, knew yesterday, but the brain is running the show, and if it decides it is not having a good day then it is not having a good day, we don't have any control it is just so.

Your theory is all good and well, but most of us and most of future dyslexics will not be diagnosed in kindergarten, how will you help those that are diagnosed when they are 10, 12, 14.

I don't know about the rest of the world but the school system here, especially the public one is not that great, in this country you can easily have a child slip though the system who does not know how to read or write properly and they may not even be dyslexic.

"Quote teacherman
No more reading difficulty.
No more "dyslexia". Quote"

You don't listen do you, and you obviously don't do much research do you. Have you read anything that anybody has posted here?

By all means if you can help out a dyslexic read a bit better or understand reading
and writing go for it, but look at the whole picture, if you don't you are missing the boat.

Just because they learn to read and write does not mean they will not be labeled, a lot of dyslexics have social problems.

I left school in the first year of high school because my self esteem was so low, it was not beacause I was doing badly in school or could not cope with school work, it was because I could not make friends.

I have stuggled with myself and my mind for years, today I trust my own judgement.

Reading and writing may help you get a job, it will make it easier to go to the supermarket, However it will not help you deal with your mind, your frustrations, your fears, your limitations.

"Quote, / General information / dyslexic summary (this site)

The effects of dyslexia reach well beyond the classroom.

Quote"

Look in the common signs of dyslexia on this site and you will see that teaching them
to read and write does not guarantee comprehension of what they have read or written.

Hi Teacherman,

Welcome back.

You might be interested in the work of a guy who has been posting on Youtube about dyslexia. He believes dyslexia is caused by forcing children to scan text against their preferred scanning direction. (left to right or right to left). That could link in to your reading upside down observations - as upside down text is scanned in the opposite direction.

Here is one of his youtube vids: http://www.youtube.c...u/0/oZ9zJgXVbYs

He believes being forced to read in in the wrong direction 'causes' dyslexia. This direction of causality seems mixed up to me. But there does seem to be some overlap between your observations and his and it might be worth getting in touch.

I hope you can start posting on a new thread so we can get away from the heading 'cure dyslexia before it begins' - which I still find offensive.

All the best.

Hello Everyone,
I've got some significant progress to report. In addition to Dr. Dale Jordan I have a new supporter, Dr. Laura Weisel of POWERPATH fame. She was recommended and introduced to me by Dr. Jordan and described as one of the best known and highly regarded experts in the field of adult learning disabilities in the world today. Dr. Weisel has viewed most of the classroom videos of my 5 PI readers and agrees that I am definitely onto something significant. She and I both feel that somehow VSS goes hand in hand with Print Inverted reading, but we still aren't sure how they are connected.

Just as many of the Forum members have recommended in the past, Dr. Weisel feels that getting a Research College or University to do a scientifically based study is key to gaining recognition for my work and the validation I need. I am in the process of doing just that. I am also in the process of building a PI website to act as a clearing house for anything and everything to do with Upside Down reading and writing.

Also, Dr. Steven Waner (known as PASCHAL on the WWW) has given me significant support over the last 4 or 5 months. He has viewed the videos and believes that mirror reading and writing is tied closely with Print Inverted R&W. Dr. Waner is an expert in the field of MIRROR READING, and is, in fact a MIRROR READER himself. For those of you who are not familiar with mirror reading, it is exactly the same form of dyslexia that Leonardo DaVinci exhibited in his incredible journals. Dr. Waner has been working with thousands of Mirror Readers all over the world and specializes in computer technology that helps them function easily on the World Wide Web and in day-to-day living.

I will keep everyone posted as more develops.

Best wishes to all,
Teacherman

Hi Teacherman,
That's really great news!
I'm also glad to hear that the scientific study will be a 'long process', as that is what is required to get a scientific study internationally recognised.
Happy New Year to you as well!
Geoff,

Geoff,
I think that all of what you are suggesting is possible. Everyone is different.

But I think the most important thing you said here is;

"So importantly, it isn't that their is some 'problem with the brain', but just that they never learned to invert the image on the back of their eye, to see things correctly?"

YES!!!

As I've said before, I believe we create the PROBLEMS when we try to force the kids to read 2-dimensionally before their brains know how to do it.

Teacherman

P.S. The 5 PI kids in my class are starting to pull ahead of many students in the class. They are reading and writing "right-side-up and, surprisingly, are great spellers!

Wouldn't it be interesting if they end up being the TOP readers in the class?

Hi Teacherman,
Thanks for the new link which worked fine!
Also for the 2 new links about Marietta Everette.
But with her, all of her vision is upside down, though with the kids that you're working with, I think that you wrote earlier that it was only reading and writing that was upside down?
But I wonder if that might have been a wrong conclusion? Where maybe all of their vision is inverted?
But it is only noticeable to other people when they are reading or writing?
Where they have got used to seeing the world inverted? So that for them, it is just the normal way of seeing everything? Which they would probably think that is the way that everyone sees things?
Where it could be one of a group of Invisible Difficulties?
Where we don't know how other people 'see things'?
So we can't know if other people do it differently?
Though it would also be interesting to know about any research into the developmental process of seeing things the right way up? Where I would suggest that a newborn baby, would see everything inverted?
As the image formed on the back of the eye, is inverted after passing through the retina.
Which the brain then needs to learn how to turn it around?
But, we are never directly taught to see things the right way, it is just something that we happen to learn, rather by chance?
I have been researching other Invisible Difficulties, that could be similar to this?
For example, when you are reading, do you make the sound of the words in your mind, without saying them out aloud?
Most people can hear the words as they read, but some people don't?
I've worked with children and teenagers that don't hear words as they read.
Where the reason that they couldn't hear words as they read, was simply because no one ever told them people could do this? Then once that they found out about it, they then learned how to do it by practicing it.
So I'm wondering if PI could be a similar thing, where they simply never learned how to see things the right way up, and never knew that other people see the world the other way around?
So importantly, it isn't that their is some 'problem with the brain', but just that they never learned to invert the image on the back of their eye, to see things correctly?
Geoff,

Ishi, on 04 November 2009 - 05:03 AM, said:

Hi Ishi...

You are so right about that research being ancient, but there really isn't much out there that is new.

However, people are people, and reading is reading. I don't think people or reading have changed much at all.

Reading is taught basically the same way it has always been taught - either phonics based or whole language (or a melding of the two).I try to use the best features of both methods and I'm usually very successful.

However, there are always at least two or three kids in each class who seem to be bright in every other way except they can't read. No matter how much "intervention" I give them, they literally make no progress in the conventional way.

Anyway, here are two more "ancient" magazine articles about one PI reader in the United States - except this woman never "transitioned" to right-side-up.



*This is an article in JET magazine from 1969 about Marietta Everette, an Alabama woman who reads, writes and SEES upside down.
http://books.google....9-1&output=html


*This is a follow up magazine article (21 years after the first one) about a woman in Alabama who reads, writes and sees upside down. The article is 4 pages long so don't forget to hit the right arrow to se the whole thing.
http://books.google....emu69I4d&jtp=22

Enjoy,
Teacherman