1. Home>
2. Reader Remarks

Reader Remarks on:

Dyslexia: A Disease Without a Country

• Dyslexia
• A response from JW Psychiatry Associate Editor Barbara Geller
• Dyslexia

Dyslexia

JJ Curran, Co.Down, 9 Apr 2010 10:41 AM EST

Competing interests: None declared

How do we know that the dyslexics in all three countries were not a result of poor teaching rather than a specific neurological condition.

back to top

A response from JW Psychiatry Associate Editor Barbara Geller

Barbara Geller, MD, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis, 9 Apr 2010 2:41 PM EST

Competing interests: Summary author

The question of the effect of teaching on dyslexia is important. For this reason, the authors of this study used a comparison group of 76 subjects without dyslexia.

back to top

Dyslexia

JJ Curran, Co. Down, 10 Apr 2010 4:02 PM EST

Competing interests: None declared

Thank you Professor Geller for your response. A friend that I have discussed this subject with feels that it is highly unlikely that poor teaching would have caused the dyslexia among the Italian students because of the limited number of sound to symbol correspondences needed to learn to read in Italian.I tend to agree with her point of view.

This is important, as much controversy has followed this subject. Many leading researchers including Professor Keith Stanovich author of Progress in Understanding Reading, feel that the case for dyslexia as a specific neurological condition has never been adequately proved. It is a viewpoint that I do not concur with.

back to top

Your Remark: