Author:
Gary B
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Date Posted: 16:10:28 12/10/10 Fri
John, when you, and the referenced articles, say Dyslexia is not a visual problem, you are actually saying it is not an optical problem. While this may be splitting hairs (remember that you brought it up), good science dictates a great deal of detailed scrutiny. Dyslexia is not a problem associated with the handling, focusing, detecting of light within the eye. Nor is it a problem with the nerves carrying the signal to the brain. It is once in the brain, (as the articles discuss) the processing and interpreting of these signals that is being done differently. While I agree that for a detailed discussion of this problem, it is necessary to differentiate between optical, sensing, and processing problems. For most general discussions these are components of the "Visual System", and a failure any place within that sequence would be considered a visual problem. (If a bad image comes out of a digital camera, the term "bad" would apply, regardless of whether the lens, CCD, or processor caused the distortion.)
So saying Dyslexia is not a "Visual Problem", is like saying Color Blindness or Prosopagnosia are not visual problems. All three of these have to do with incorrectly processing and interpreting visual information. In the past I worked with color coded items, so I had to take the Color Blindness test a few times. It is not a series of questions, someone just holds up a series of cards with images on them and asks "Wha' do ya see?".
You also make reference to a List of Symptoms. There is a very long discussion concerning many aspects of which symptoms should be on such a list and the exact nature and determination of each symptom. But let's skip that here. There is one point which is important and that is it seems you are trying to say (and maybe I'm misinterpreting) that a blind person would never have some combination of these symptoms. The bottom line on these symptoms, is that they are some of the possible results of this condition, and do exist, individually and in combination, in people without Dyslexia.
More specifically, Dyslexia is a problem where specific shapes are being mishandled and misinterpreted. As one of studies your referenced mentioned, an individual may have problems with the Roman Alphabet but not with the symbolic characters of Kanji. While for an asian, that specific condition would not be a serious problem, but the opposite situation would be.
So I am fairly certain that identifying a set of particular shapes which get "seen" differently by Dyslexics is necessary to quantify and qualify this condition, and to properly develop coping skills.
(P.S. For full disclosure, John are you employed by one of the organizations which sell treatment for Dyslexia?)
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