LD Blog

Stephen Harris, who is pursuing an undergraduate degree in hopes of studying medicine, has dyslexia according to a story by Diana McKeon Charkalis published in USA Today. Ms. Charkalis features another aspect of Mr. Harris’ background—he played bass guitar under the stage name, “Kid Chaos”—in her story, a story that gets some things right and, sadly, some things wrong. Here’s Ms. Charkalis’ lead

As a kid growing up in Wales, Stephen Harris thought about becoming a doctor. But bad grades discouraged him, so he turned to music at age 11.

“I started playing guitar, and it was a practical thing that I could do well,” he says. “Success came when I was 18. I had already been out of school two years and, suddenly, I was on the front page of magazines.”

A bass player sporting long hair, leather and tattoos, Harris adopted the stage name Kid Chaos and performed at Madison Square Garden before he turned 21. The boy who had failed in school flourished on stage, and he toured with bands including goth rockers The Cult and Guns N’ Roses.

As Ms. Charkalis reports, Mr. Harris later returned to post-secondary education and, thanks to efforts by the Learning Disabilities office of a communnity college, learned that he has dyslexia. Four years later, he is progressing through a pre-med program of studies and hoping to attend a medical school in Wales (UK).

I find it valuable that Ms. Charkalis has covered this story. As an illustration of how people can persist—and succeed—in the face of disabilities, it is a worthwhile one. But it is also flawed, perpetuating some misinformation about dyslexia. Here are examples:

1. The article cites the National Center on Learning Disabilities as saying that “twenty-five million Americans have a learning disabilty.” That’s ~8.5 of the population (based on an estimated population of 295,734,134 (see the World Factbook from the US Central Intelligence Agency). This estimate is within reason, but it is only an estimate and there is wide variation among the estimates. Because LD is an educationally determined diagnosis, the only fact-based numbers on this topic for the US come from the annual child counts in the public schools. For example in 1999-2000 according to the US Education Department’s Report to Congress, there were 2,871,966 (4.5% based on the estimated resident population) children aged 6-21 who had been identified by the public schools as having LD. To be sure, for various reasons (age range represented; private school attendance; misdiagnosis; socio-cultural resistance to labeling; etc.) these numbers may be too low or high, but they represent the best data we have. Although some might consider this point mere quibbling about numbers, I submit that it is important to be clear about the people whom we identify as having LD; by using relatively unfounded estimates, we risk mitigating the importance of LD. (This is not a question about Mr. Harris’ diagnosis; I’m talking about the concept of LD here.)
2. Ms. Charkalis reported that Mr. Harris “realized…that he understands things best visually and needs learning to be a hands-on experience.” Mr. Harris may have reported this observation to Ms. Charkalis and he may well believe it. Whether it is true in an objective sense, however, is open to doubt. Sadly, special educators and others have sometimes misled people to look at aspects of learning that have little objective reality. In my squishy periods, I am willing to go out on a limb and suggest that some activities are more visual (distinguishing colors) or auditory (playing the bass), but my antennae become extended and erect when I catch a whiff of typing learners by modality. Even though we may interpret our own experiences as reflecting modality preferences, there is little or no evidence that we can reliably identify modality types of learners nor that types of learners benefit from modality-differentiated teaching.
3. A sidebar to the article refers to the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC; hooray) and then offers a list of 28 famous individuals said to have dyslexia. Two issues:
   1. The juxtaposition of CEC and the list of names makes it easy to infer that the list came from CEC. I searched the CEC site and found few references to the half-dozen names from the list that I entered.
   2. Although some of the people on the list may have had an actual diagnosis of dyslexia, the determination of dyslexia for many of them probably is based only on someone’s analysis of historical data that do not include the quality of evidence permitting a definitive diagnosis. Identifying famous historical figures as having dyslexia (or other disabilities) may serve the purpose of inspiring others to achieve or to accept dyslexia, but in can be misleading, too. Not all individuals with dyslexia will achieve such note. Furthermore, as I’ve argued previously, motivating individuals with LD is not sufficient to help them achieve and probably the most effective way to increase motivation is to help people with LD succeed on important tasks.

Mr. Harris’ efforts and growing success illustrate this last point. It is wonderful to know that he is persisting and progressing. I wish him well. Thanks to Ms. Charkalis for bringing the story to the public.

Link to Ms. Charkalis’ story about Mr. Harris.