Dislexia: Is the Shoe Perhaps on the Wrong Foot?

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 by: Susan du Plessis

Reading is the most important skill that a child must
acquire at school, because one must learn to read to be able to read to
learn. The implication of this is that the child who is a poor reader
will usually also be a poor learner.

Unfortunately poor reading skills, and therefore poor
learning skills, have become a reality for an alarming number of
people. The $14 million National Adult Literacy Survey of 1993 found
that even though most adults in this survey had finished high school,
96% of them could not read, write, and figure well enough to go to
college. Even more to the point, 25% were plainly unable to read.

Even more alarming is that reading difficulties are not
limited to people who are environmentally, culturally or economically
disadvantaged. Many children come from good homes, go to good schools
and score average to above average on IQ tests. Yet, they battle to
learn to read, and many never succeed.

Children with reading difficulties share a number of
common symptoms. They are inclined to reverse letters or words, to omit
letters, to lose their place, to remember little of what they have
read, or to read with poor comprehension. These children are considered
to suffer from a learning disability (LD), commonly called dyslexia.

According to the Orton Dyslexia Society at least one in
every ten of otherwise able people has serious dyslexia problems. The
Foundation of Children with Learning Disabilities states that
learning-disabled children represent more than ten million of the total
population of the U.S.A. Estimates of learning-disabled students being
dyslexic vary between 70 and 80 percent.

FIND THE CAUSE TO FIND A CURE

Most problems can only be solved if one knows what causes
the problem. A disease such as scurvy claimed the lives of thousands of
seamen during long sea voyages. The disease was cured fairly quickly
once the cause was discovered, viz. a Vitamin C deficiency. A viable
point of departure in LD research would therefore be to ask the
question, “What is the CAUSE of dyslexia?”

The idea that dyslexia is a certifiable biological
disorder, a physical problem that could be diagnosed and treated
accordingly, gained credence during the 1960s and 1970s, giving rise to
an armada of theories. One such a theory states that dyslexia is the
result when the link between the language, hearing and comprehension
centers of the brain is somehow misconfigured during fetal development.
Another theory states that dyslexia is caused by “faulty wiring in the
brain,” whereas another holds that a subtle impairment of vision may be
responsible, while yet another believes that a cerebellar-vestibular
dysfunction may be responsible for the learning disability. All these
theories – most of them blaming some difference in structure between
the brain of the dyslexic and that of the so-called normal reader –
have lead to nothing at all. Despite all these theories and all the
intervention efforts based on them, not to mention the vast amounts of
money expended in the process, the numbers of dyslexics continue to
escalate.

Except for the fact that proof of a neurological deficit
still eludes the researchers, this theory leaves many questions
unanswered. If dyslexia has a neurological basis, why is this
supposedly non-contagious “ailment” on the increase? Compare the
present situation with, for example, that of a century ago. In 1910 the
literacy rate in the U.S.A. was so high it was predicted, “the public
schools will in a short time practically eliminate illiteracy.” In
1935, a survey of the 375,000 men working in the Civilian Conservation
Corps – a government-sponsored work project to provide employment –
found an illiteracy rate of 1.9 percent. It is most noteworthy that
this last figure was found among men primarily of low socio-economic
status. It is even more noteworthy that the illiteracy rates of the
first half of the twentieth century reflected, for the most part,
people who had never had the advantage of schooling.

It is also impossible to explain how a neurological
dysfunction can be more prevalent in specific areas or countries. While
the National Commission on Excellence in 1983 warned that the American
nation was “at risk,” remedial reading facilities were not needed at
all in Japan due to the rarity of reading problems. Some would argue
that reading problems were virtually nonexistent in Japan because their
written language is easier than our Latin alphabet. That, however, is
simply not true. The Japanese Kanji ideograms consist of 1,850
characters. In addition there are two Kana syllabaries, which – like
our Latin alphabet – use symbols to represent sounds. Each Kana
syllabary has 46 basic letters compared to our 26.

DIFFERENCES IN BRAIN STRUCTURE NOT THE EQUIVALENT OF A NEUROLOGICAL DISORDER

It is also important to note that differences in brain
structures do not necessarily equal brain disorders. Differences
between dyslexics’ brains and those of normal readers are not
necessarily the cause of a reading difficulty. Such differences can
well be the EFFECT of a learning difficulty.

Latest neurological findings – for example through the
work of Michael Merzenich of the University of San Francisco – show
that, while certain areas of the brain are designated for specific
purposes, brain cells and cortical maps do change in response to
learning. An interesting study in London has found that an area of the
brain associated with navigation was larger in London’s famed taxi
drivers than in other people. The drivers’ brains have adapted to help
them store a detailed mental map of the city, shrinking in one area to
allow growth in another.

The tendency over the past nearly a century has been to
try and fit the dyslexia shoe on the foot of the children who fail to
learn to read. All efforts to make this shoe fit have failed. If a shoe
does not fit one foot, shouldn’t we try it on the other foot?

PUTTING THE SHOE ON THE OTHER FOOT

When a person fails to learn something, there are at
least two possible reasons why he failed. The first is that there may
be something wrong with the person. The second is that there may be
something wrong with the way in which he was taught. Unfortunately most
people have so far jumped to the very hasty conclusion that, when the
otherwise normal child fails to learn to read, it must be the first
possibility that applies.

When teaching, it is imperative to take note of the fact
that learning is a stratified process. One step needs to be mastered
well enough before subsequent steps can be learned. This means that
there is a sequence involved in learning. It is like climbing a ladder;
if you miss one of the rungs of the ladder, you will fall off. If you
miss out on one of the important steps in the learning process, you
will not be able to master subsequent steps.

A simple and practical example of this is the fact that
one has to learn to count before it becomes possible to learn to add
and subtract. If one tried to teach a child to add and subtract before
he had been taught to count, one would quickly discover that no amount
of effort would ever succeed in teaching the child these skills.
Conceivably people who abide by the learning disabilities idea would
then conclude that the child suffered from a neurological dysfunction,
or from “dyscalculia,” overlooking that the ability to count must be
acquired FIRST, BEFORE it becomes possible to learn to add and
subtract.

This principle is also of great importance on the
sports field. If we go to a soccer field to watch a soccer coach at
work, we shall soon find that he spends much time drilling his players
on basic skills, like heading, passing, dribbling, kicking, etc. The
players who are most proficient at these basic skills usually turn out
to be the best players in the actual game situation.

In the same way, there are also certain skills and
knowledge that a child must acquire FIRST, BEFORE it becomes possible
for him to become a good reader. Basic skills like concentration,
visual discrimination, accurate perception and memorizing, skills of
association, auditory memory and lateral interpretation are all
functions that form the foundation of good reading and spelling. Until
a child has mastered these basic skills first, reading will remain a
closed – or at most half-open – book to him.

Teaching these basic skills used to form part of the
educational system for many centuries, but have since been removed from
Western education by “innovative” educators such as John Dewey and his
cohorts. In this way the epidemic that is now called “dyslexia” was
created.

Already in 1974, in “Reading Teacher,” Bateman
suggested that the term “learning disabilities” be replaced by
“teaching disabilities.” The focus, he said, should be on the
inadequate skills of the adults who are supposed to teach the children,
instead of on blaming the children of mysterious brain dysfunctions. In
1987 Dr. Thomas Armstrong coined the word “dysteachia” to refer to
children suffering from “pedagogical illness” or inappropriate teaching
strategies.

Perhaps it is time that we investigate the possibility
that Bateman and Armstrong may have been correct when they said that
the shoe was on the wrong foot.

About the Author

Susan du Plessis is the co-author of “The Right to Read; Beating Dyslexia and Other Learning Disabilities,” and the author or co-author of four other books on learning and learning disabilities. She has been involved in helping children reach their full potential for 15 years. She holds BD and BA Hons (psychology). Visit her website at http://www.audiblox2000.com

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