The American Academy of Pediatrics has several very good pages about Learning Disabilities, but they have one curious flaw. In two of the pages, the authors make clear that visual problems do not cause Learning Disabilities, but on one about dyslexia the author perpetuates the reversals myth.
However, a young student with dyslexia (reading disabilities) may not overcome these problems. The difficulty can continue as the student gets older. To him, a “b” may look like a “d.” He may write “on” when he really means “no.” Your child may reverse a “6″ to make “9.” This is not a vision problem. The problem involves how the brain interprets the information it “sees.”
Sure, this is not a huge point about Learning Disabilities, but it still concerns me that the misinformation is so common. How can we combat this? Links to the AAP pages follow.
- Understanding Learning Disabilities
- Diagnosing and Treating Learning Disabilities
- Types of Learning Disabilities
Hey, John, how about assigning a graduate student the task of rewriting these sorts of sites as a term project? Then sending the results (assuming they are good) to the sites in question.