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Old March 7th, 2005 #25
Alex Linder
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Dyslexia: Caused by GOVERNMENT Schools Teaching Reading by a Method Known NOT to Work (look say or whole word, vs the traditional and effective phonics)

http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletim...4303287050.xml

In which school system aren't the teachers trained? "All of them," comes the immediate chorus of about 20 parents and grandparents. "The United States," says Fredrick.

Frustrated parents say school officials fight providing their children with extra help because of the potential expense of treating a puzzling disability that may affect as many as one out of every 10 children. Cheryl Jones, a professional parent advocate, explained schools' position as she sees it: "If we assess it, then we have to address it. And sometimes we are not sure what to do with it, because there are several forms of dyslexia."

State officials say federal law does not list dyslexia as a special education category. Otherwise, public schools would be required to offer special services, as they do for autism and other recognized disabilities.

"Teachers are kind of in a bind," Dr. Denise Gibbs tells the support group gathered at Asbury United Methodist Church in Madison. As director of the Scottish Rite Foundation of Alabama Learning Centers, Gibbs travels the state training teachers and diagnosing dyslexic students.

Gibbs says schools have to wait until a child's achievement trails the child's IQ to provide extra help through special education. That means waiting for dyslexia to disrupt reading and drop grades while the child falls behind his classmates.

"Immeasurably and irretrievably behind," Gibbs tells the parents.

Teachers, who aren't qualified to diagnose students, often don't notice the problem until the third grade, she says. However, children should be identified in first grade to receive intense language lessons before the grades plummet.

But if a parent doesn't seek a diagnosis from Gibbs or someone else outside the school system, dyslexia almost always goes unidentified in Alabama schools.

No cure

Gibbs, who has a doctorate in special education, defines dyslexia this way: "It's a learning disability that occurs in students who are not retarded but have trouble reading because they have trouble with the sounds that make up words."