Chronic ear infections and lisps certainly don’t help to develop reading skills in any child suffering from these ailments. However, as Shaywitz had noted in her book, Overcoming Dyslexia. Ear infections were once thought as the main factor interfering with language and reading development for dyslexic students. However, the science research is showing that this is not the case.

Over at Barton Reading - “If a child has 3 or more of the following warning signs, encourage that child’s parents and teachers to learn more about dyslexia”
.http://www.bartonreading.com/pdf/Dys warning signs.pdf

To be sure, ear infections is one of the early warning signs for educators to test for dyslexia.  Just having ear infections is not enough for dyslexia, since the main difficulty is an unexpected difficulty in learning to read. However, chronic ear infections will predict future language and learning difficulties. The three types of dyslexia - http://www.dyslexiaprinceton.org/whatis.php

A 1995 article on ear glue - https://dts.lectica.org/PDF/MBE-Fast_ForWord_New York Times.pdf

The vast majority of educators have no knowledge on the dyslexia signs. Nor do they have the knowledge based on the research and science what are the difficulties to know in language and reading development of children.

Over at Reading Horizons - “How grateful parents and children would be if colleges and universities better prepared our teachers to understand and administer to the diverse learning styles of those with dyslexia and other learning disabilities.”
http://www.readinghorizons.com/blog/post/2011/04/29/myths-about-dyslexia.aspx

Again here reinforcing the teachers are not trained, let alone keeping up with the science of dyslexia and reading. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG3bY6-aq-Y

Or would any Canadian educators know the latest in the dyslexia science? http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2014/10/dyslexia-white-matter/

Doubtful, in the traditional public schools that still has not caught up to the science truth that a speech delay leads to difficulties in the 3 Rs. Let alone the other science bytes, such as teaching children to memorized words is a recipe for under achievement.  http://www.santabarbaraview.com/readdread542525245/

As for ear infections or lisps, they too move to the back of the inclusive classroom along with the dyslexics. Excluded from the world of language and literacy, because the educators are not trained in the science of learning and reading.

Pray tell, how can deafness and/or a lisp cause a neurological disorder like dyslexia?

Dr. Shaywitz, btw, didn’t answer the question posed to her…

Bev, I am not an expert (far from it), but my understanding is that deafness or even periods of deafness interfere with the brain’s developing ability to hear the sounds in words (which is what reading is all about). I wouldn’t exactly call it a neurological disorder, but rather a failure to develop adequate brain circuits. The older kids get without compensatory teaching, the harder it is for them to develop the necessary brain circuits.

As for lisping, that is not a cause but rather a symptom that suggests that the child is not hearing the sounds in words adequately. Lisping should be seen as a strong indication of an at-risk reader.

Children with LD may have chronic ear infections and may mispronounce words say things like pischetti (spaghetti), cah instead of car, badding suit instead of bathing suit.  WHen young it is almost seen as cute rather than a problem…......and they can have chronic ear infections because they can have lots of mild allergies, that will lead to colds and associated infections. 

Not all kids with LD will have ear infections or miss pronounce words. 

LD or Dyslexia is a language processing problem, so these learners (children and adults) have difficulty getting to the sounds of words, and therefor may have problems with slight pronunciation. 

My severely Dyslexic child had no problems at all with pronouncing words that she heard.  My sightly Dyslexic child had a cute little accent…we had to get help from a speech pathologist eventually.  He spelled exactly how he pronounced his words. 

Both my children had lots of ear infections, because they have lots of mild allergies. 

I have never heard the Deafness theory for dyslexics, and I have read a lot about it…....while having ear infections, I suppose that it is difficult to hear?????

Although Dyslexia is a language processing problem, there is rarely anything physically wrong with a dyslexic brain.  It is a functional problem - merely a lack of skills.  And because a brain is ‘plastic’ it can be rewired with proper training.

There is a growing body of research which argues that both the symptoms and the abnormal neurological signature of Dyslexia go away with proper training.  Here’s an example, the title tells it all:  “Dyslexia-specific brain activation profile becomes normal following successful remedial training.”  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11971088

That was also our experience at the SQE-sponsored Community Reading Project.  Even severely dyslexic students quickly throw away their ‘disability’ if they are correctly taught to read.  /index.php/blog/read/ask-yourself-this-question-why-arent-public-schools-doing-this-themselves

IRONY of Ironies

Interesting that we’re talking about ear infections and possible connection to poor reading acquisition due to hearing gaps in hearing sounds . . .

Wikipedia says that the whole language approach (sight-words) was invented by Rev Gallaudet, noted for his work with the deaf.  A word and its picture were to help the deaf recognize lists of words by sight, not sound. 

I remember being given a Dolch sheet and My!, how we did struggle with our dyslexic grandson!

Will common sense and research-based evidence ever win out?  Will phonics ever have a respected place in teaching of reading?

Australia just might lead the way — that is if all the powerful, negative, vindictive forces are held back from their resistance, taunts, bullying and downright education malpractice!  To deny a successful method in the repertoire of successful approaches is downright mean and should be a cause for court action, IMO!

In Australia, after a 6 month review of the Curriculum a Report has just been issued.  Here are some highlights: 
https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/review_of_the_national_curriculum_final_report.pdf

* Needs to be more parent friendly
* Curriculum overcrowded particularly in primary years
* More flexibility needed
* More accessibility for special needs children
* Grammar and punctuation training for teachers
* Greater focus on literacy and numeracy in primary school
* Back to basics in literacy — phonics
* Music and visual arts should be mandatory.

Please people, keep your eyes on the ball — Australia is far away, but close to us in the way of common struggles.  It will be interesting to discover any anti-phonics efforts and hopefully they will be called on this.

I’ve always had a feeling that a lot of these so-called ld kids are just fine.  What they need is proper instruction. 

Parents, if you have a child who’s been ‘diagnosed’ with an ld problem, please realize that direct instruction and sound curricula will solve your child’s so-called ‘dyslexia’ and/or ‘learning disability’. 

This stuff is junk science at its best giving educrats licence to cause a great deal harm to our children and heartache for parents and students. 

My husband who’s a scientist can’t stand all of the junk science he sees nowadays, and blames the educational system as many do because very little science is taught.  Heavens, they can’t even teach kids to read nor do the simplest math…

I know I’m venting, but parents, don’t buy into the garbage the educrats are spewing:  they’re not qualified to label a child.

Bev - Dyslexia is real, and yes you are correct if teaching styles were different it would reach many of the children that are mildly Dyslexic. 

You don’t get diagnosed by the Education System.  It is medical professionals that Diagnose Dyslexia. 

No matter how you taught my youngest….she would still be Dyslexic.  I don’t mind saying that either, because it makes it easier for me to talk to her teachers, and understand her learning style, and help bring her to her potential.  It is a learning style not a label.  In the process, I have discovered that I am most likely Dyslexic myself.  My Daughter is on the hounour role and she doesn’t read very well, but her teachers give her accommodations, so that she can get the information she needs in other ways. 

I don’t think she has an LD problem.  Successful people understand their limitations and their strengths….that’s what its about for my as a parent with Dyslexic Children…..

Cathy:  There is no evidence that ‘Dyslexia is real’. 

More precisely, there is no method of telling a ‘true dyslexic’ from a garden-variety poor reader, except by providing an intervention and seeing if the student responds.

But there are many reasons that a student might not respond to intervention - self-defeating behavior, sensory deficits, poor training methods, poor instruction delivery, and even the teacher’s opinion of the student’s ability.

The best estimate of ‘true dyslexia’ I have found is 1% of the population (Torgesen et al., 2001), but there are reasons to suspect it is lower than that. 

There are 1-2 kids in every middle-school classroom that can’t read a grade-2 chapter book.  Many of them have been diagnosed with severe reading disability, usually dyslexia, and almost all of them are merely garden-variety poor readers needing proper reading instruction.

You are clearly a strong reader and writer, I’m not sure why you self-identify as dyslexic.

Tom, here are some headlines from the UK. “Dyslexia is meaningless. But don’t worry – so is ADHD”
http://www.spectator.co.uk/columnists/rod-liddle/9157681/dyslexia-isnt-real-but-dont-worry-neither-is-adhd/

“Dyslexia ‘is just a middle-class way to hide stupidity’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-458160/Dyslexia-just-middle-class-way-hide-stupidity.html

Could continue, but there is UK sceptics that simply do not believe dyslexia, ADHD and Autism exists.  The other type that simply believes that it is a reading disorder cause by poor reading instruction and can be corrected. The third type uses the reasons from both camps, to politicized dyslexia for various reasons,including profit.

Dyslexia is a language disorder, and not simply a reading disorder. From the Google Scholar page, a list of the research - http://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=The+scientific+evidence+for+dyslexia&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart&sa=X&ei=QhxaVK-dL4OYyQT_8IF4&ved=0CBoQgQMwAA

On the Yale website - http://dyslexia.yale.edu/CLI_ScientificDiscoveries.html

The statistics are drawn from the medical and psychology clinics where approximately 10 % of dyslexics have been clinically identified. As far back as 1998, it was believed that 1 out of every 7 are dyslexic. The numbers are now, 1 out of every 5, to account for the identified and non-identified in non-clinics such as the K to 12 education system who have not been clinically diagnosed.

Some dyslexics are strong readers and writers because they received good quality instruction. Nevertheless, the dyslexia is not cured. Their brain scan will still present as a dyslexic. In another area of research is the study of stealth dyslexia. http://www.2enewsletter.com/article_eides_stealth_dyslexia.html

Again, dyslexia is a language disorder, and not simply a reading disorder.

Good Morning, Cathy!  Thanks for clarifying for other readers that teachers don’t diagnose any sort of learning disability (neither dyslexia nor others).  My last sentence did imply that.

What I have seen are teachers making recommendations that a child be ‘tested’. 

One instant that pops out in my mind is a teacher who was complained about for not marking her students’ math work; instead she was having the kids pass their work to one another for marking.  (This surprised me because one would think that the teacher would want to know how her students were doing, but I guess not!)

The parent refused to have her child tested and furthermore, decided not to allow her child to go on any more field trips, but to stay in school and practise her math.  One time the principal had to tutor her while her classmates and teacher ran off on another useless field trip (I’ve seen kids, during school hours, running through malls!)

The happy ending is that the student went on to do advanced math in high school, and today has an excellent well-paying job.

If this student had been tested, he may have been categorized as ld.  SQE, in the past, has pointed out that, in some cases, when students are tested that the lowest test score determines what the child is ‘learning disabled’ in—never mind poor teaching methods and very bad curricula.  What a racket!

I told the parent that, in my opinion, when she stood by her child, she gave her the message that she could do anything.  So even though the school was suggesting to the child that there was something very wrong with her, both her parents let her know that she was just fine, and therefore she could do anything (hence, now she has a great education and a successful career).

Parents, beware!!  Don’t let your kids be destroyed by the labelling this system is so eager and ready to do, and if you have the $$ get your children out of these public schools!

An afterthought:  I’d love to understand how dyslexics are diagnosed—especially when the experts making the diagnoses (according to you, Tom) get it wrong so often!

Nancy:  did you look at the papers in “Scientific Evidence for Dyslexia”?  Here’s the first two:

“Evidence that dyslexia may represent the lower tail of a normal distribution of reading ability” -  in other words, dyslexics are simply the worst readers and nothing else wrong with them.  (‘Normal’ refers to a statistical distribution, and not that dyslexia is normal.  But if dyslexia was an abnormal function or condition then we would see a bump in the distribution curve.)

“Neural deficits in children with dyslexia ameliorated by behavioral remediation: evidence from functional MRI” - or teach the child to read and dyslexia goes away.  Brain scans that before training showed a clear signature of dyslexia afterwards only show normal brain patterns.  The article title says ‘behavioral remediation’ but the training was actually FastForword’s auditory processing exercises.

Those two papers sum up the argument that dyslexia is only an educational failure:  Nothing functionally wrong with dyslexics, and dyslexia goes away with training.  The UK skeptics have a solid argument.

The Yale site you pointed to the home of Dr Shaywitz’s research.  She is the one in the video, and also the author of the first paper above (‘Normal distribution’).

Nancy, if these dyslexic people are strong readers and writers, then this type of learning disability obviously doesn’t impede a person (who is given proper instruction and good curricula) from becoming accomplished. 

For me this begs the question:  what exactly is dyslexia?

If you are going to diagnose nonsense in such quantity then you need to have a flexible methodology.  The place to start is with symptoms, and here’s an awesome list of 37 of them: http://www.dyslexia.com/library/symptoms.htm  These can be stretched to cover almost ANY student who is performing poorly at school.

So worried Mom recognizes a few of these and shows up with a troubled child.  The professional is not going to say “Nothing wrong, go away.”  But what is the diagnosis?  It’s a lottery.  If you went to a doctor, it will be ADHD.  An educational psychologist will give you dyslexia.  An audiologist will give you CAPD.  Speech-language pathologists will diagnose a developmental language disorder.  Psychologists will call out behavior issues.

And once you have the diagnosis, then off to the school to get accommodations.  Maybe some Ritalin.

Of course most professionals are neither stupid nor cynical. But they are only being paid to provide a diagnostic label for the child’s symptoms, not to do the hard work of helping the child get back on track. 

We took the worst readers we could find, with pretty well all of these diagnoses, and helped them learn how to read.  No magic.  But it took hundreds of hours just to do the emergency intervention.
/index.php/blog/read/ask-yourself-this-question-why-arent-public-schools-doing-this-themselves

In my lengthy blog begining ‘Good Morning’, I accidentally omitted a paragraph…

Here is what I skipped:  the parent who complained about the teacher not marking her students’ work was later told by the teacher and principal that her daughter needed to be ‘tested’. 

It appears that the principal and teacher were only trying to get rid of the parent and her complaints, so that the teacher could continue on with her lazy habits…

This is why, in the above blog, I was warning parents to be very wary of our state-run public educational system!

I also oftentimes use the male pronouns:  he him his because they refer to both sexes, rather than the plural ‘they and their’ and I started using ‘he’ and then ended up switching to ‘her’.  Sorry

Also, thank you again, Nancy for all of the sites you post. 

Tom, thanks for talking again about dyslexia.  I’ve always strongly suspected that it was nothing but a grandiose hoax!  I’m still not 100% sure, but I’m now leaning more towards the ‘hoax’ idea.

Bev, dyslexia isn’t a ‘hoax’.  It is an extremely serious and destructive cognitive deficit.  Poor readers underperform at school and at work, their heath suffers, their marriages suffer.  That’s why my friends and I invest 100+ hours of our time to help perfect strangers.

But dyslexia likely isn’t a neurobiological deficit, except for a small number of cases in the tail of the bell curve.  It is almost always an educational deficit.  And it is almost always fixed with training.

I weep when I read about moms looking for accommodations instead of remedial tutoring.

Tom, the first study published in 1992 and the second study published in 2003. Since then, the advances made in LD and dyslexia research have proven without a doubt that dyslexia is a language disorder, that can be corrected up to the point where it is no longer interfering in learning. Sadly, in 2014 the K to 12 establishment refuses to provide the good effective instruction in the 3 Rs and good curriculum that would effectively limited the number of severe dyslexics and moved them to the mild category.

At the Yale Center - The first study - “Within the last two decades, evidence from many laboratories has converged to indicate the cognitive basis for dyslexia: Dyslexia is a disorder within the language system and, more specifically, within a particular subcomponent of that system, phonological processing.”  http://dyslexia.yale.edu/CLI_ScientificDiscoveries.html

From the vague term of language disorder to a specific definition in the phonological processing. The latest research is of white matter. is behaving differently in dyslexics. http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2014/10/dyslexia-white-matter/

Much of the scientific research is tedious in the fields of dyslexia and LD that leads to more questions than definite answers. In 2014, led by a collective group of naysayers, diverse in their makeup will insist in many words or not many words that dyslexia does not exist. However, it does exist and dyslexia cannot be cured but it can be corrected. Why?  The brains of dyslexic people are much different from the brains of non-dyslexic people. Likewise, the adult dyslexics if given a reading assessment such as the Woodcock version, word decoding or low phonemic awareness will show up but also the strong levels of vocabulary in dyslexics that have received remediation in the 3 Rs in the past. It is a bit more complex than what I have stated, but Tom is correct to state that dyslexia is only an educational failure but only in one context. The context of the K to 12 failure to provide effective instruction, curriculum and education services for remediation of dyslexia.

A video – Meet the coal laborer who made history for a defining moment in the Adult dyslexia world. Headstrong Nation: Inside the Hidden World of Dyslexia & ADHD - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15nOajd_7mo#t=113

Nancy:  Don’t assume that the science is settled.  Several studies have found a correlation between white matter density and dyslexia, but….

1) They are not statistically valid samples.  Either they were too small or they were comparisons between ‘normal’ and ‘impaired’ readers.  Neither allows a statistical model to be used.  (This also tends to make the results more ‘certain’ than they are.)

2) The subjects were not sorted into true dyslexia and garden-variety poor readers and spellers.  So the correlation is only between reading and white matter - which could easily run the other way. 

3) They are just correlation studies.  It is just as valid to suggest that 100s of hours of reading ‘causes’ white-matter microstructures.  Remember that you cannot establish cause and effect with a correlation study.

4) There are no experiments where the poor reader with the white matter anomalies are remediated and then retested.  Maybe the white matter structure differences GO AWAY after a student has been ‘cured’ and has been reading for a year or two.  That would indicate that reading is the cause of white matter.

5) The various studies operationalized both dyslexia and white matter measurements differently.  So they are difficult to compare.

6) Studies that don’t find positive results tend to be abandoned.  No one publishes them.  So there is a bias towards these ‘positive’ studies.

I can go on.  The point is that science is hard.  And even harder for dyslexics - so diagnose them early and remediate them intensively, because we need more scientists and we can’t afford to waste any of these kids because of educational failure.

Dyslexia even after remediation is real….remediation and proper teaching techniques will benefit the mildly dyslexic person…..but not in severe case.  I have one child like that.  I have spent thousands on remediation.  She now has lots of accommodations, is very bright, and there’s no sense looking back.  If she could have got diagnosed at 5 and learned in kindergarten in a more visual manner ......maybe she would be a better reader…....but I don’t think so.  There are severely Dyslexic thinkers….that’s a fact it might only be 1 to 2 percent of the population but they do exist.  I know a few of them!!  Steven Speilberg has a video where he talks about his dyslexia, Charles Schwab, Wayne Gretzsky….......

Statistically speaking, the research has advanced to the point that dyslexia is a neurobiological deficit, that runs on the spectrum of mild to severe. Dyslexics have different wired brains than non-dyslexics. Even after corrective remediation the brains of dyslexics are remarkably different from the non-dyslexic brains. However, after effective remediation the dyslexic brain has been rewired to circumvent the short circuity of the problem areas in phonological processing.  Remediation is the solution, but the remediation itself must be effective for the rewiring to occur.  Whole language instruction does not cut it. Accommodations is the other solution that works hand in hand with effective remediation. No amount of accommodation will help the dyslexic child or even the struggling reader and writing, if the child does not received effect direct explicit instruction in reading and writing. The child must be taught.  As for parents looking for accommodations instead of remedial reading, in 2014 the typical K to 12 school offer only accommodations and the reading remediation remains behind the locked access doors of special education.  For the latter, only a few but everyone will get accommodations whether they need them or not or are effective.

“There are three types of mathematicians, those who can count and those who can’t.”  A bad pun, but in reality there is mathematicians that can’t count columns of numbers very well, but can whip out the equation for a black hole in no time. Quite the paradox eh, when most think that dyslexics are not worth the time and effort to remediate. In the August edition of Scientific American - The Advantages of Dyslexia: With reading difficulties can come other cognitive strengths http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-advantages-of-dyslexia/

In the data streams of outcomes, the vast majority of LD and Dyslexic students are at the bottom of the achievement chart. The same can be said about the other sub-groups of students who struggled in the 3 Rs but are not dyslexic. The article is what the K to 12 establishment and other naysayers who think dyslexia is a hoax for a number of reasons, this is what society and the economy is missing out on.  The article concludes, “Neurological differences similarly drive the engine of society…. Impairments in one area can lead to advantages in others, and it is these differences that drive progress in many fields, including science and math. “

Another Real Dyslexia Story

My grandson, 13, phenomenal hockey player, in highest league, enrolled in one-on-one tutoring for dyslexics.  Half his team also enrolled with same tutoring outfit. 

It’s neither disorder, deficit, faulty brain circuits nor hoax; it’s different wiring for a purpose — for Nature’s Diversity Plan. 

In this day they need to be able to read to survive, thrive and be as self-sufficient as possible.  They can learn to read but need different specialized approaches. 

I would think it was an honor to help Gretzky read.  It should not be treated as a “negative”.

Thank you Tunya and Nancy!

My Daughter is 13 too and plays AAA hockey on the lower mainland.  She has played with boys, even on rep teams, so maybe she has played with your Grandson Tunya!

I with some other parents of Dysleixics have formed a non-profit called Decoding Dyslexia BC.  We have a FB page so far and plan on developing a website very soon!

We have been holding information nights for parents of Dysleixics.  We have so far shown the movie called The Big Picture - Rethinking Dyslexia - by James Redford (Robert Redfords son).  Richard Branson, CHarles Schwab, Dylan Redford are all in the documentary talking about their own Dyslexia.  We (along with the movie) are heading to the island in the new year to show it at a PD day conference. 

Next week 3 of our board of directors (including me) are off the International Dyslexia associations conference in San Diego…..Should be great!

Cathy, perhaps you can start a conversation at the conference in San Diego, on Ontario’s not so new label called Communication Exceptionality. http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/adaptivetech/Special_Ed/Communication_Exceptionality/index.html

As far as I have search, Ontario is the only ones officially using this new label. In my eyes the new label only succeeds to make the situation worse in the classroom. From the ONBIDA - http://www.idaontario.com/About-Us/What-is-Dyslexia.html

If anything the educators really do need to attend information sessions on dyslexia across Canada. Yes, even if it is parents giving out the information.

Thanks for sharing Nancy. I’ll see what I can do. Communication Exceptionality. Yuck!  I’ll see what I can stir up!  Autism and LD shouldn’t be lumped in together!  Why is that information coming from UOf T rather than the Ministry?

That is the interesting part. The OISE was the lead,  for the Ministry of Education and other special interest groups such as the K to 12 Inclusive collective all aiming to adopt the new definition. The MOE employees and education faculties went to work applying Vgotsky and other pedagogy theorists to SE and cherry picked the science to make it fit the education theories and pedagogy. Were parents consulted in Ontario? I see no evidence of it in my searches.

Under the Special Education heading, under Identification During School Years - ” This group includes those students who have with mild or moderate intellectual delays, are learning disabled (often inaccurately termed dyslexic),”
http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/adaptivetech/Special_Ed/index.html

Lumping one and all under learning disabled. Is it any wonder why the dyslexic students across Canadian schools are seen as non-academic?  Why dyslexia is a four-letter dirty work among the K to 12 establishment across Canada? 

It should be refreshing to see a few of the leading American dyslexic researchers to zoom onto the Canadian provincial education system, asking inconvenient questions.  As well as other researchers in other fields such as Autism.

Another aspect for topic of conversation among parents at the Dyslexia conference, is the info on rights of SE students. One example is from an Ontario family centre, where there is no mentioned of the chartered rights under the Constitution. Just the Human Rights Code of Ontario….http://www.newgrowthfamilycentre.com/justice-for-children-and-youth-special-education.html

Under the Hospital For Sick Kids, useful knowledge but is not well known among parents. ” There is no standard definition of a learning disability. In Ontario, for example, the Ministry of Education lists learning disabilities under the general category of “communication exceptionalities.” It goes on to say that school boards can develop their own set of definitions and exceptionalities. http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/en/news/columns/education/pages/understanding-learning-disabilities.aspx