Thursday, December 4, 2008

Fighting for Oxygen - Fighting for Life through Definitions.

In politics and life - definitions define the debate - so the importance of being clear about the language we use in talking about dyslexia can not be over estimated. Recently a nice little professional website http://www.dyslexiaresources.com/ visited my little blog and out of politeness I visited there site. I was disturbed to notice that they used words like symptom and treatment when discussing dyslexia.

A disease has symptoms so that you can recognize when you have it. You can get better when you receive treatment and you can get cured. There is no cure to dyslexia - it is the the way you're built. Dyslexic people can not be cured or improved they are made perfect - the way God made them. The problem is not them the problem is everyone else who has decided that literacy written and read is a sign of intelligence. Dyslexic people are in the same category with people who are born blind or deaf.

If I asked you - How do you know some one is Deaf or Blind. what are the symptoms of there blindness what is the treatment? You would laugh at me. So Dyslexic individuals are in the same boat. Now having said that I do believe that their are things you can do to help the dyslexic in your life have better brain functioning - but those steps would work for everybody. You just see better results in a dyslexic.

A dyslexic who is exposed to the idea that dyslexia is a disease will have a false expectation that they are broken and will someday be cured. Dyslexia is who we are - it is our gift, it is our life and it is a reflection of God's manifestation of love on this planet.

We are born in a time when the role of science and belief that progresses is tied or bound to improvements in technology and engineering. Dyslexia is God's way of throwing a wrench in this plan - for we are all those kids who love art, who love the art of science and engineering - who don't test well - who do test well but can't write. We in short are the exceptions to the rule - well any rule. But in particular we are the exception to the rule that says that human behavior can be controlled, bought or sold.

2 comments:

v/vmary said...

you said: Dyslexic people are in the same category with people who are born blind or deaf.


but there are different degrees of dyslexia and some dyslexics can learn to read. you can't help someone to see through practice. an operation maybe. so i disagree with you. if you are talking about profound profound dyslexia, i can agree with you. but there is a continuum.

Brother Wolf said...

Blind and deaf are both great examples of what you are talking about because just like dyslexia these disabilities come in many diffirint ways. Some people are partially blind - others are deaf in one year. Some people don't see color - others don't hear high notes - while others see ultraviolet.

Just like blindness being deaf - dyslexia is defined by law. You can take a test and know the degree of dyslexia your child has. As for disagreement - you can't disagree with the speed limit - you can ignore it - there are certain facts you can't ignore - such is being dyslexic - there are test your child can take that clearly indicate the degree of LDS and if they get a certain score - clearly demonstrate then they are dyslexic - if not then they are not.

Opinion does not enter into the discussion.