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Home Where They Belong ~ Artifically Induced Dyslexia?

10:29 AM, Nov. 18, 2009

Recently I was introduced to an article that piqued my interest. I read the article carefully to make sure I was understanding it, and to make sure I wasn't skipping any clues that the author might be a crack-pot. Plenty of people think I'm one, so I suppose I should be able to recognize one when I see it.

The article is called, "Can Dyslexia Be Artificially Induced in School? Yes, Says Researcher Edward Miller" and it's written by Samuel L. Blumenfeld, a name many homeschoolers should recognize because he's the author of Alpha Phonics.

Now, I admit that I know next to nothing about dyslexia. So I thought I'd do a little research on what dyslexia is. Interestingly, it isn't just about seeing and writing letters backwards or upside down, that is only one symptom, and someone with dyslexia may not have that symptom at all. Basically, it's anyone who struggles with reading. Not necessarily a dislike of reading, but someone who truly struggles with decoding and comprehension. That is not a medical description, but the sum of what I read from several dyslexia help websites. All of them agreed, however, that dyslexia is always either inherited or neurological in nature.

Mr. Blumenfeld and Mr. Miller disagree with the above theory. They believe that the cause of this artificially induced dyslexia is caused by the sight word reading method and they offer evidence that backs their theory. Read the article, it's very fascinating! (Note: There was one "bad" word in the article but not so bad that I didn't want to write this post and link you to the article. Just be aware that's it's there and I know that it's there.)

Now one of the things mentioned in the article are the Dr. Seuss books. Dr. Seuss himself apparently thought sight word reading was a lot of twaddle. Still, he wrote the books and made tons of money. Why this interested me is because two of my children went to bed one night with Green Eggs and Ham and the next day they could read nearly anything I put before them. Wallah! The mystery of decoding words was revealed! So if sight reading can cause dyslexia why could my daughters read anything and with a voracious appetite? The simple reason is that I had been teaching them phonics, not how to sight read. They didn't memorize the words in the book, they sounded them out.

My youngest daughter didn't learn to read until the end of her third grade year. She struggled with reading until that point. All of her symptoms pointed to dyslexia. After reading the linked to article, I began to think more about the change. If what the article says is true, then my youngest daughter should still be dyslexic, and yet three months after she started learning to read she was reading The Hobbit. It struck me that what I had been using to teach my daughter to read prior to the few months before her night with Green Eggs and Ham had been sight word books like Dick and Jane, and Rod and Staff Pathway readers. The books themselves don't teach using phonics, but I was still trying to use them to do just that and supplementing with phonics because I knew phonics was the best way to teach reading. My daughter was caught in that limbo state mentioned in the article.

Because my daughter struggled with reading, I kept reading her schoolwork to her knowing that when she was ready to read, she would. We never made a big deal out of it. Then in the middle of her third grade year I switched to just a phonics reading program. The night my daughter went to bed with Green Eggs and Ham she read the words by sound, not sight. She then took off with her reading, the method of reading set. Praise the Lord it was phonics and not sight reading! By fourth grade many of the students reading method is set, and for many of those it was set before then. I think my daughter wasn't set before that because we weren't forcing her to learn to read like they would have in the public school.

All I can say is that the article totally fit the pattern that my family experienced. I know that it was teaching reading by sight that caused my niece in public school no end of struggle and tears for many years. The public school system still believes that sight word reading is a valuable tool and it refuses to look at the evidence that shows the dangers of it. I won't say that sight reading is bad for all students, it is used to teach the deaf, but we are talking about a handful of students who need to learn to read this way. If the schools would quit pushing students to learn to read before they are even ready, and use phonics to teach reading in the mean time, they would have a much better success rate at making children literate.

Tia Linschied
Senior Editor of HSB

-Home Where They Belong

Posted in homewheretheybelong, 2 comments, Link
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Comments
Artificially induced dyslexia

6:45 PM, Nov. 19, 2009, posted by KMiller

What an interesting article, thank you for sharing it.
I have suffered with dyslexia since I was a child. I was brought up in the public school system and my dyslexia was discovered in the 2nd grade(1970's). I wish I could remember what they used to help me re-focus/re-teach my brain to process the words correctly( I am sure it was phonics based though). I know that even unto this day I have to remember to slow down, or the dyslexia rears it's ugly head. :) Interesting-very interesting.

Induced dyslexia

12:25 AM, Nov. 22, 2009, posted by Anonymous

While dyslexics have poor reading skills having poor reading skills doesn't make you dyslexic. As you suggested, poor reading instruction can lead to poor reading ability. Before someone is considered dyslexic they need to show reading difficulties even with proper instruction.

Inner-city schools often have half of the student population reading below grade level. That doesn't mean that half of the student population are dyslexic. It is sad but true that inner-city schools have problems attracting the best teachers but there are other contributing factors for their poor performance.

Social-economic factors can foster less than optimum learning environments that put students at a disadvantage as can having parents and family that have little regard for education. It is also easy to understand how having parents that have English as a second language may lead to a smaller vocabulary learned at home making reading more difficult.

Dyslexia is a condition that is internal to a person that makes reading difficult rather than external factors such as poor reading instruction. Poor reading skills caused by poor instruction are just poor reading skills caused by poor instruction not dyslexia.

There is a strong genetic component in dyslexia. There is not a strong genetic component in whether or not you've received poor reading instruction. You can induce poor reading skills by lack of proper reading instruction but you can not induce dyslexia.

My niche is visual dyslexia which affects about 10% of dyslexics. Visual dyslexics have difficulty developing reading skills even with proper instruction because they have difficulty seeing text. The most common visual dyslexia problems are vibrating text and missing visual information that makes identifying letters and words difficult. For many visual dyslexics, reading is similar to playing a game of Wheel of Fortune causing reading errors, slow reading and fluency problems which together lead to comprehension problems.

I developed and sell See Right Dyslexia Glasses that remove the problems of visual dyslexia. I also collect and post links to free dyslexia products services and programs that are useful to all dyslexics at www.dyslexiaglasses.com/links .

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