Here’s a link from India (I think; the domain name is registered to someone in California) to a medical information aggregation site I’ve been watching. I point to it because (a) it may be useful to some readers and (b) because it uses Learning Disabilities as a generic. I’m trying to decide whether to write to the MDs whose name are associated with it and raise the matter. Suggestions?
Sphere: Related ContentArchive for the 'Not LD' Category
In an article entitled “German Scientists Uncover Dyslexia Gene,” DW-Worldwide reports that a term of German scientists has further evidence about DCDC2 as the genetic basis for dyslexia. It’s not quite as much of a new discovery as DW-Worldwide makes it out to be, but it is corroborating evidence.
Dyslexia tends to affect family groups, a fact German geneticists were well aware of when they began their search for a gene responsible for the disease. Now, researchers at the National Genome Research Network say they have located the dyslexia gene, known as DCDC2.
Link to the DW Worldwide article. (Note the very cute picture of the dog and the clever caption that perptuate the reversals myth.) Links to previous coverage of DCDC2 in LD Blog here and here (the latter includes links to several sources for further information).
Sphere: Related ContentThe 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
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) is a highly regarded organization, but its Web site has a weak treatment of Learning Disabilities. In addition to publishing the very influential Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, it provides Facts for Families© as a public service to promote understanding and treatment of various disorders. One of the documents in that series for families addresses Learning Disabilities. Sadly, it contains uneven and inaccurate, information. Here are two examples:
- “Learning disabilities affect at least 1 in 10 schoolchildren.” I guess the AACAP is using different diagnostic criteria than those used by the US public schools. A little more than 5% of students in US public schools have been identified as having Learning Disabilities. (Some of my colleagues in special education consider that percentage to be too high.) I know of no reputable epidemiologic study showing a 10% prevalence.
- The page lists signs of Learning Disablities, one of which occurs when a child “has difficulty distinguishing right from left; difficulty identifying words or a tendency to reverse letters, words, or numbers; (for example, confusing 25 with 52, ‘b’ with ‘d,’ or ‘on’ with ‘no’).” As we’ve noted repeatedly, reversals are not an indicator of Learning Disabilities.
Link to the AACAP page.
Sphere: Related ContentIn the UK, “Learning Disability” refers to what would be identified as “Mental Retardation” in the US, so there is reason for some slack for UK writers who misuse (by my standards) “Learning Disabilities” as a generic for “disability.” But, in this case, it appears that the confusion of terms is even beyond the limit of that play or give I’m willing to provide. From an article in the Evening Times of Scotland, I extracted this quote:
An estimated 20% of Scots have a learning disability, such as dyslexia, autism, dispraxia or Aspergers syndrome.
Link to the full story.
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More LD misinfo
In the community of people concerned about Learning Disabilities there are many people with good hearts and faulty facts. I stumbled across a blog entry entitled “Dyslexia a most misunderstood condition” from Yabba Yabba that illustrates this. Alex Rodriguez of Melboune (AU) used an encounter with a youth as a springboard to discuss dyslexia.
It’s nice that Mr. Rodriguez has provided a sympathetic view of Learning Disabilities (e.g., individuals with LD are not “thick”), but in the remainder of the article, he’s presented a lot of misinformation. He perpetuates the reversals myth and the modality learning styles idea and he recommends meditation as treatment.
Sometimes I wonder whether any attention is better than no attention.
Link to Mr. Rodriguez’s article.
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