Dyslexia 'a made-up malady' to cover for bad teaching, says MP

Published on Wednesday 14 January 2009 21:58

DYSLEXIA experts and charities have refuted controversial claims that the condition is a "fictional malady" created by the education profession to cover up bad teaching of reading and writing.

Graham Stringer, the MP for Manchester Blackley, said the dyslexia "industry" should be killed off through the "magic bullet" of teaching children to read and write using a phonetic system.

"The sooner (dyslexia] is consigned to the same dustbin of history the better," wrote the Labour back-bencher in his online column for the Manchester Confidential website.

He also suggested there was a link between illiteracy and crime, claiming that Strangeways Prison in his constituency was 80 per cent full of people unable to read and write.

However, Dr Robin Pauc, who runs the Tilsley House clinic for children with learning problems in Hampshire, said: "I think he is barking up the wrong tree. There is no doubt that dyslexia exists. You can't blame educationists. Dyslexia is global."

Dr Pauc also rejected Mr Stringer's claims that if dyslexia really existed, countries as diverse as Nicaragua and South Korea would not have been able to achieve literacy rates of nearly 100 per cent. He said: "My first book was reprinted in South Korea, so why would they want a translation of a book on it if the condition does not exist there?"

Dyslexia is a combination of abilities and difficulties that affect the learning processes in reading, spelling, writing, mathematics, memory or organisation. One in ten people in Scotland is thought to be dyslexic, with up to one in four suffering from a severe form.

Critics of Mr Stringer's comments feared they could mark a resurgence of dyslexia sufferers being branded as stupid or lazy.

Shirley Cramer, the chief executive of the charity Dyslexia Action, said yesterday: "It is frustrating that the focus should be on whether dyslexia exists or not, when there is so much evidence to support that it does."

Margaret Mitchell, the Conservative MSP who convenes the Scottish Parliament's cross-party group on dyslexia, attacked the MP's "confused thinking". She said: "I invite him to listen to our group, so he can get some understanding of the experiences of people who have not been diagnosed early enough and had horrific problems to face, such as low self-esteem."

Labour last night sought to distance itself from the remarks of the former minister. Peter Peacock, MSP, deputy convener of the Holyrood group on dyslexia, said: "I regret that he is seriously mistaken in his belief. Synthetic phonetics is a good way of teaching, but will not overcome dyslexia by itself.

"Lots of children with dyslexia do learn to read, but only with specialist support. It is the failure to diagnose dyslexia early that leads to problems."

AT A GLANCE

DYSLEXIA is not the only disability or condition where sufferers have been mistakenly perceived as stupid or lazy.

&#149 Dyspraxia is where people have difficulty performing deliberate actions.

&#149 ME was derided as "yuppie flu" but became gradually accepted as an illness. A Glasgow University team discovered a malfunction in sufferers' genes which prompts the immune system to "work overtime", making patients extremely tired.

&#149 Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) used to be blamed on poor parenting or bad behaviour, but from 2006 to 2007, a total of 59,431 prescriptions for ADHD, such as Ritalin, were handed out in Scotland.