DYSLEXIA, ADD AND ADHD,… PANACEA TO SUCCESS?

Dyslexia, ADD and ADHD,… Panacea to Success?

Quotes and comments are from an Article published at:
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/webwatch/2008/08/fish_out_of_water.html

Title: From A.D.H.D. to 8 Gold Medals

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Deborah Phelps, middle school principal and mother of Michael Phelps, the most medaled Olympian in history, remembers how her son’s elementary school teacher once told her, “Your son will never be able to focus on anything.”… When Michael was in 5th grade, his mother and family doctor discussed whether Michael might have A.D.H.D.…Deborah Phelps watched her son, who couldn’t sit still at school, wait patiently for hours at a meet to swim a five-minute race. At 11, Michael was off Ritalin by his own choice and his coach, Bob Bowman, was already predicting greatness….Today, the Phelps name is an adjective, as in “phelpsian,” meaning “dominating in competition.” A gift, most would agree, that requires laser-like focus.

My Comment: As a  Seminar Instructor and teaching Mental Photography, I see many people that have ADD, ADHD, and Dyslexia. I think very highly when a person like Michael Phelps can learn to overcome this so-called deficit, and turn it into an incredible attribute.

A couple re-occurring themes that do seem to accompany ADD, ADHD, and Dyslexia is the ability for that person to have incredible ‘focus‘ on an objective, and they also tend to find school very boring. Many considerations to qualitatively monitor the environment where these individuals co-exist with everyone else should be a factor in any diagnosis.

Further Discussion: 1 out 4 people have dyslexia. There are 7 different types of dyslexia. A dyslexic person can experience more than one type of dyslexia. This in turn complicates the diagnosis.

Since more than 50% of school students can be taught to read, the education system calls this a victory.

What if in that same school system, you score 50% on a test. That would most likely be graded as a failure. Why the change of heart? That approach sounds a bit hypocritical.

ADD and ADHD usually start from an observation, described as unruliness, disruptive behavior, disobedient, lack of concentration and initiative (initiative is sometimes the ideal of the teacher, or what the teacher would like to see.), and so on. The point being that many of these conditions are a qualitative observation, and not necessarily based on a set of parameters that can be gauged.

Environment plays a big part in what we react to and how we react. Environment also plays a

considerable, mostly unconsidered, part of the diagnosis. How can a Doctor that is going to prescribe
drugs for a specific condition, such as ADD, do such an act without so much as to have visited the school or conducted an on site study, relying on input from persons that may, without intention, be biased read more...

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