Return-Path: <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id j2CFiJC15743; Sat, 12 Mar 2005 10:44:20 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 10:44:20 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <20050312154300.40AB575E@frontend2.messagingengine.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "VB" <veb8899@fastmail.fm> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-LD:4639] Re: Dyslexia Research X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook, Build 11.0.5510 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 3846 Lines: 82 Hi Andrea, Hi Andrea, <<I think that most "learning disabilities" would be caught by a test for a phonological deficit. >> Not to beat a dead horse but as an FYI, people with non verbal learning disabilities usually do not have a phonological deficit. Their main reading difficulties have to do with comprehension. Sorry, I am still sensing this belief on this list that Dyslexia is the only learning disability when nothing could be further from the truth. Not as common but it exists more than you might think, are people like me who have both NLD and Dyslexia. As reading instructors, this is important for you to know, because people with NLD do not have good visual special skills usually. In English, that the usual methods you might teach regarding compensation such as visualization, are not going to usually work for this particular population. <<But a skillful teacher may be able to remediate the problem; the brain's plasticity in many cases enables the learner to construct alternate pathways to the goal of being able to read and write better.>> Not to sound doom and gloomish but even though a learner constructs alternate pathways in reading and writing, they are still never going to be as proficient as people without a disability. The definition of a disability to me as someone who experiences LD every day is that if I have impairments that prevent me from doing something as well as most people in our society, that is a disability. I realize that everyone has strengths and weaknesses but the difference between someone like me and someone without LD is that the gaps between my strengths and weaknesses are a lot greater than if for a person who doesn't have LD. In other cases, I may be able to do something as well as someone without a disability but it takes me several times as long to do it. The exception I will make is that with dyslexia kids around 6 years old, research has shown that after intense remediation, their brains looked just like brains without dyslexia. <<The language here trips us all up. When I think "disability" I think of a problem that arises in fetal development: ectopias, when the neurons don't hook up properly to their targets. Albert Galaburda, a neuroscientist at Boston's Beth istrael Hospital, described what he found when doing post mortem studies on "dyslexics"--ectopias. And even neuroimaging isn't fool proof, as the brain may "light up" the same way for a person with ectopias as that of a person who had poor teaching in school.>> Fair point and Sally Shaywitiz mentions that also by saying that she found in her research that the imprint for teaching people to read was there in their brains but for some reason, it was never activated. If I remember correctly, she really didn't elaborate on that but it sure sounded like dysteachia to me. <<So I think it all goes back to the teacher's "tool kit," experience, as much knowledge as possible of neuroscience, and understanding, also, of the legal consequences of saying a person is "learning disabled.">> What legal consequence are you talking about? The worst devastation in my opinion is minimizing someone's difficulties by claiming they really don't have a disability when they definitely do. There are legitimate arguments for suggesting that someone's reading problems might be due to the person having been taught incorrectly but there are lot of problems due to LD that have nothing to do with dysteachia. They are neurological in nature and nothing can change that fact. That doesn't mean we should all throw our arms up and say it is hopeless because obviously, it isn't. But at the same, to deny that LD is a real disorder and is simply an overused label also is not very helpful. I realize it is a delicate balancing act but it is one we need to strive for. Vivian Andrea
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