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Having a dyslexic child is confusing.
You know that they are bright but they don’t seem to be coping at school
and the teachers are losing patience. But when people look at
the child’s practical achievements they are fascinated. And although
they might not be very good at writing a story or be able to spell (even
though you’d gone through correct spellings in a spelling list 100 times
the evening before a school test) they excel at doing jigsaw puzzles
or drawing – or anything really that doesn’t involve reading or spelling.
But no matter what you do or where you look you can’t really get the
advice or the help that you need – it’s like banging your head against
a brick wall.
So being the parent of a dyslexic is a
frustrating business. After working with dyslexics for a number
of years I have discovered that as young children a dyslexic will be
in danger of having their confidence undermined and developing an inferiority
complex – and there is a definite danger that this will stay with them
for the rest of their life. As older children or adults they try
and hide their difficulties and, offered a choice, they never want to
read aloud. And they get very good at hiding their problems so
that most people don’t notice them. But dyslexics are not
stupid. There is a tendency for other people to make judgements
about a person’s intelligence, based on their reading ability.
If the same technique is applied to a
dyslexic then the observer will usually conclude that they are not very
bright but the reality is that dyslexics are always much more
intelligent than can be judged by their reading ability and they usually
have particular talents in another area.
Professor John Stein at Oxford University
is a renowned researcher in the field of dyslexia and he says “dyslexics
have a number of different talents; they just don’t happen to include
reading and writing”. David Harris (The Harris Foundation) says
“This is a superb statement, dyslexics are NOT to be underrated.
Just because a dyslexic doesn’t read very well it doesn’t mean that
they are not intelligent. There have been many famous dyslexics
(including Albert Einstein and Richard Branson). You don’t hear
people complaining about their intelligence do you?”
But things have not been static in the
quest to provide help for dyslexics. The first time that dyslexia
was identified as a discrete condition that we would recognise today
was in 1896 when Morgan made the first report of the condition described
as “congenital word blindness” in The British Medical Journal.
In this case report Morgan described the difficulties of an intelligent
14-year-old boy with normal optometric function who, despite individual
tuition in addition to classroom teaching, was unable to read anything
but the simplest of words and was equally disabled in writing and spelling.
So the identification of reading difficulty (sometimes called reading
disability) had been made and more cases followed.
Although the concept of dyslexia as an
impairment that is not related to intelligence had been established,
from the 1920’s controversy was created by opposing views from educationalists
who believed that reading difficulty was caused by inadequate teaching.
There have been many controversies over the years but much more is known
now about the condition, its effects and the consequences for the sufferer
and their family.
There has been much attention over time
to the visual element of dyslexia (probably because seeing the text
is the first thing that people need to do when reading) and efforts
have been to improve things for dyslexics. Some of the first modern
attempts used coloured paper as a background to the text, then followed
overlays that are coloured sheets of plastic that were laid over a page
of text in an attempt to improve the reading ability for a dyslexic.
Although not formulated especially for dyslexics, coloured light, lenses
and prisms were used by Henning in the 1920’s in a technique he called
“Chrome orthoptics”. But it wasn’t until the 1980’s that the use
of coloured spectacle lenses by dyslexics was described. Olive
Meares published a paper in 1980 in which she described many of the
symptoms in the condition now correctly known as Meares-Irlen syndrome
and the application of differently coloured lenses.
Helen Irlen, a psychologist in the United
States went on to commercialise the product, coining the phrase “scotopic
sensitivity syndrome” (later, “Irlen syndrome”). She raised the
profile of her technique in using coloured spectacles and carried out
much of the early work. Her methods are marketed through the Irlen
Institutes and are available in a number of countries.
In the 1990’s, work by David Harris originating
from helping the colour blind with coloured lenses (known as ChromaGen)
led to their application with dyslexics and this proved to be of real
benefit to the wearers. What was different with these lenses to
previous techniques was the use of different coloured lenses for each
eye (haploscopic prescribing). Contact or spectacle lenses could
have been used.
David Harris’s original work with ChromaGen
led to his later developments, refining visual filters so that although
increased in number from the lenses used in the ChromaGen system, the
effects have proved to be a real enhancement for dyslexics. The
spectral effects of the visual filters chopping the spectrum is a coloured
reflection that makes the lenses appear coloured. David Harris
is at pains to remind people that the lenses do not work because
of colour but rather that it is a side-effect of the properties of the
filters. In 2003 David Harris invented neutrally coloured lenses
that when fitted to spectacle frames have the appearance of sunglasses.
These still employ the properties of the coloured lenses but the wearer
has the choice of spectacles with coloured lenses or simply spectacles
with neutral, sunglass type lens. The
only thing that David Harris claims for the filters (although clinically
proven in rigorous clinical trials) is that they can improve the
ease of reading, which is an important element for a dyslexic.
Recently there has been other work looking
at dietary additives to stabilise the dietary intake of dyslexics and
many are enthusiastic about the results for users. Although the
effect of the visual filters in the modifications by Harris as ‘Harris
Lenses’ – in coloured or neutral form – has been shown to be clinically
significant they are presented by The Harris Foundation as an
aid to reading, not a “cure”. David Harris does not believe
in cures for dyslexia, partly because dyslexia is not an illness and
partly because reversing dyslexia may very well reverse the positive
effects of the condition.
So dyslexia remains a condition that can
severely affect the sufferer both emotionally and educationally.
There are some advantages to the way that dyslexics can take tackle
problems with their ‘global’ perspectives but the best way that a dyslexic
can tackle their difficulties is by having the help and support of the
people/teachers/employers that are close to them. There is not
a single solution to all of the condition.
For free advice
and support, The Harris Foundation helpline is: 0845 230 1771
Web:
www.harrisdyslexia.com The web site shows photographs
e-mail:
info@harrisdyslexia.com
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