Q: Would you classify "Dyslexia" as learning difficulty?

[Jim]

I think I pretty much know the answer to this and I think I can pretty much confidently predict the result of the poll.

I ask not because I'm concerned about my own Dyslexia, nor assessment or help as I was diagnosed well over 25 years ago with all the associated reverb that went with it.

I start this conversation because I work at a mental health hospital where we often have students doing placements as part of their training to become mental health nurses. Well we currently have one who comes from a learning difficulty background and is qualified as a nurse in that field but who is now training for mental health.

So by way of making conversation with her, I asked her about her background and experience of learning difficulties. This was an opportunity to probe the "professional nursing" perception of what learning difficulty is. And I have to say... I'm not impressed.

Instead of receiving a well thought out consideration of what it is to have a learning difficulty I was treated to a waffling list of care plans and procedures that offered zero insight at all into what it is to have a learning difficulty.

Probing further I asked "outside of your clients do you work with anyone else of learning diff?"
<no>
"are you so sure?
<yes>
"do any of your colleagues have a learning difficulty?
<I don't.. No/know>
"how do you know, how can you tell, what are the tell tale signs?"
<silence>
"looking at me, would you say that I have learning difficultly?
<no>
"So you'd be surprised to learn that I'm Dyspraxic and dyslexic?"
<but lots of people have dyslexia, it's not a learning difficulty>

I was stunned. After a history of special needs as a child.. And having struggled throughout my life with both dyspraxia and dyslexia here was a supposed professional telling me that dyslexia isn't a learning difficulty.

And if that wasn't enough to already damage my confidence of them.. The next bombshell came:
<what's dyspraxia, is it dyslexia with numbers?>
-A pause long enough to raise my eyebrows-
"No dear... "Dyslexia with numbers" is Dyscalculia"

So yeah.. Being significantly more knowledgable and insightful than a qualified nurse who specialises in learning difficulty? Doesn't do much to inspire confidence does it?

[Shadwell]

I would a fair bit, as far as I am aware, it is partially a disability, as in the sense of not being able to read/write adequtely. now if the poll was about the Dyspraxia side of things, then the poll would probably come back a more than likely yes.

I don't know much about Dyslexia, apart from it being about reading and writing, and that it is part of the Autisic spectrum, so don't quote me on it!!

so it is quite a hard one to answer, I think at the end of the day it would depend more on how survere it is, and probably the same with dyspraxia, as there are all shades of red, and gray areas, and groups. so saying a straight out yes, would more than likely have everyone rushing down the job centre or something to claim more money!!

so my answer would be sitting on the fence at this moment in time, or at least until I know more about Dyslexia.

[LuluBoo]

blimey if she's a qualified nurse i don't hold out much hope for her patients
I am borderline dyslexic as well as dyspraxia I also have a mild form of ADD I'm considering being tested for aspergers syndrome because I'm showing some of the signs apparently

[Jim]

If one thing this perfectly illustrates it's that society's perception of learning difficulty is dominated by the severe end of the scale. People like things to be visible.

Imagine if you will a "learning difficulty identity parade" at one end you could have someone with any manner of diagnoses from something like aspergers, dyspraxia or dyslexia. This person could cope relatively well and from the outside appear "normal"

In the middle there might be someone in the more severe scale of autism, their attention span and perception of reality might result in visible abnormalities (from the society norm) in their behaviour.

At the far end the line you might have some poor soul with Down's syndrome complete with the visible physical differences these people tend to have.

Now ask just about anybody to identify who in the parade has a "learning difficulty" then a lot of people are going to inevitably come up with something along the lines of "well that chap on the end with the funny face looks like he has downs syndrome and that guy jumping up and down in the middle like an idiot must have some kind of problem but that lady overthere looks normal so there can't be anything wrong with her".

So working along these lines it becomes easier to see how the nurse I talked with, (someone who is only likely to have dealt with people on the more severe side of the learning difficulty spectrum, because let's face it, if you cope relatively well and live an independent life then you aren't going to be in one these institutions this nurse works at) wouldn't see dyslexia as a "real learning difficulty" because it doesn't automatically stop them from fitting into society.

Looking at it from that perspective, you can understand how it happens. It doesn't make it correct but it makes sense. And it exposes how little awareness of learning difficulty there is in society and the unhelpful attitude that often comes with that lack of awareness.

[JVJ24601]

Wow, I can understand a member of the general public not understanding this, but a qualified mental health nurse specialising in learning difficulties? What the hell is she doing in her job?

From what I understand though, there is a difference between a learning difficulty and a learning disability. The latter implies an intellectual impairment, whereas the former does not and implies that a different approach is needed for the sufferer to learn or complete a task than would be the case for a neurotypical person.

[Jim]

Indeed...

Yet you can be a person with no perceived difficulty nor disability and still be "thick as two short planks".

Whilst a person who actually has a difficulty or disability can still be pretty dammed smart.