"Dyslexia is a Myth" ? -- by Ebren

"Dyslexia is a myth" is the title of Labour MP Graham Stringer's recent column for Manchester Confidential.

His argument – which you can read in full here: http://www.manchesterconfidential.com/index.asp?Sessionx=IpqiNw86JD7rIpqiNwF6IHqi&realname=Dyslexia_is_a_myth – is that dyslexia was invented to cover up poor teaching of reading and writing.

In his own words: "The reason that so many children fail to read and write is because the wrong teaching methods are used. The education establishment, rather than admit that their eclectic and incomplete methods for instruction are at fault, have invented a brain disorder called dyslexia.

"To label children as dyslexic because they're confused by poor teaching methods is wicked.

"Dyslexia is a cruel fiction, it is no more real than the 19th century scientific construction of 'the æther' to explain how light travels through a vacuum.

"The sooner it is consigned to the same dustbin of history, the better."

To back up his argument, Stringer - MP for Blackley in north Manchester – points out that other countries have literacy rates of close to 100%. If dyslexia were a genetic condition then this would not be possible.

He also argues that illiteracy is linked to crime rates – quoting that 80% of the residents of Strangeways prison are illiterate and 80% use illegal drugs. "I am not, for one minute, implying that all functionally illiterate people take illegal drugs and engage in criminal activities, but, the huge correlation between illiteracy and criminal activity is striking," he adds.

But there's a gap here. Arguing that illiteracy is the same as dyslexia, it's not. Many dyslexics can read and write – often to a high level. In fact, the best-selling novelist of all time, Agatha Christie, has been identified as dyslexic http://www.dyslexiamentor.com/famous/famousdyslexics_000.php.

What's more – Stringer uses some strange definition of literacy. "Functional literacy" is something that sounds nice – but you can't then compare it to international literacy rates ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate ). The UK has 99% literacy rates using international comparisons, the same or higher than South Korea and Nicaragua – the countries he lists when "proving" dyslexia doesn't exist.

The idea that the shadowy overlords of the "educational establishment" have invented dyslexia is another argument I find intriguing.

When I was six weeks old, the doctors thought I had a brain tumour. I was given a brain scan, and while I was clear of a tumour, the doctors noted I had a funny-shaped brain. It didn't mean anything to them at the time, just something worth noting. At the age of six, after being asked to leave my junior school as they believed "he would never pass an exam", my mother had me tested for dyslexia.

My dyslexia and my funny-shaped brain were not something anyone connected until years later. I find it hard to believe the shadowy world of educators meeting to discuss my failure and blaming it on an invented disorder could quite have planned that far ahead – or faked a brain scan.

Now, I'm not saying that dyslexia is not over-diagnosed or seized-upon by parents and teachers as a reason that conveniently explains their own or their child's under-performance. Or that teaching is not often poor. But, really, what are the downsides to this "cruel fiction"?

Dyslexics, real or imagined, have trouble reading and writing. They are given help. Should we really deny help to people who have trouble reading and writing?

Personally, I never received help from the state – either in the form of financial aid or extra time in exams. I have, at times, had to work harder to get things done. But no more than someone who has no talent for art, maths or music has to work to pass those exams.

I received extra tuition in reading - not using the "synthetic phonics" system that Stringer seems to believe would help cure the nation of dyslexia, but using more old-fashioned teaching methods that are used to teach "normal" children, just with individual attention and patience on the part of the teacher. I struggled again when becoming an editor, but was given help by friends and colleagues (unaware of my dyslexia) and worked hard to overcome it.

The only "cruel fiction" I have ever found about dyslexia is that it is a disability. So my brain happens to be wired differently to "normal". The same could be said for people with aptitudes or difficulties at art, sport, music or maths.

Everyone has different natural strengths and weaknesses, claiming that one of these differences is a fiction – when there is so much information (http://ent.med.nyu.edu/conditions-we-treat/conditions/dyslexia) and scientific evidence (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4384414.stm) to the contrary seems at best ill-informed. Perhaps poor teaching is to blame?