I have worked on Dyslexia for over 30 years and I work with Dyslexics and lecture for Plymouth University on it. Originally it was called a Specific Learning Difficulty and encompassed all aspects of difficulties with processing information. Over the years the term Dyslexia has become a hot potato. I still feel that being Dyslexic is rather like saying you are ill, you could have a minor sniffle or terminally ill, with all stops in between. I work in short intense courses of about 6 weeks giving small group help, but within each group, every child has a different learning style and need, so, in effect I am delivering as many different lessons as there are children in the group. I have used coloured overlays and tinted lenses, prescribed in conjunction with an optometrist, for at least 18 years. That is the indication that the problem may have a neurological base as opposed to an educational one. This is born out by the fact that there is an ongoing dispute between health and education as to who should pay for the glasses and at the moment the parents have to pick up the bill, which I find appalling. Paired reading and individual help in a one to one situation will help every child, regardless of academic ability or learning ability, so that's nothing new. I will continue to provide overlays for my students. If they are telling me that letters on the page move about or form themselves into one solid block, and that by using coloured paper or overlays this stops, it is clear and they can see it, well, if it gives them a second chance at learning all well and good. If it acts as a placebo, I'm not arguing either, but I am not going to tell my students that the movement they see is not really there and it doesn't exist. For them it does and I don't care what you call it. I am sure there are Catters out there who have children for whom using coloured glasses has been a real help. By half past nine this morning I had had 3 phone calls from anxious parents who saw the programme and were concerned that I was going to take away their children's extra help or overlays or that teachers in this College would stop their children using tinted glasses. And, this morning, I have given out three sets of overlays....
Perhaps we should go back to calling it a Specific Learning Difficulty?