Introduction
"If we can give dyslexia a much higher profile, if judges and lawyers, prison officials and teachers can acquire a better understanding of it, if people would realize that dyslexia is not an excuse but a reason, we would quickly see a significant reduction in offending."
Dyslexia is an unnecessary tragedy for our society - and is treated as little more than a bad joke. The short synopsis of information on this page did not take long to gather, it comes from reputable and acknowledged sources, it demonstrates that many ills of our society could be ameliorated by tackling the problem of dyslexia.
Understanding of the problem, good teaching and proper support makes visual dyslexia a totally treatable condition. Screening for visual dyslexia can now be carried out quickly and effectively using the Optim-Eyes lamp.
Visual problems can be reduced by using coloured overlays, tinted spectacles and colour controllable lighting.
Visual and visuo-perceptual difficulties contribute to reading disorders:
Information on the way in which visual and visuo-perceptual difficulties contribute to reading disorders and are affected by colour has be gathered by many workers. Early work was carried out at The Visual Perception Unit in the Psychology Department at the University of Essex. The performance of the modern colour generating system, Read-Eye, is now far better than that used in original work, allowing better diagnosis and prescribing.
Dyslexia and the Law - Duty of Care for Teachers 27th July 2000
LEA's Must make adequate education arrangements for those with learning
disabilities.
PHELPS (A.P.) (APPELLANT) v. MAYOR ETC. OF THE LONDON BOROUGH OF HILLINGDON
Education authorities have been told that they can be sued for damages over the failure of teachers to provide proper schooling for those with learning difficulties. The ruling follows a test case brought by a north Wales schoolgirl against a former county council - one of four similar appeals from around the UK. The rulings means a right to seek compensation The case brought into question the legal status of dyslexia in the eyes of the law and whether failure by schools to recognise the condition and provide appropriate teaching, can give rise to grounds for a personal injury claim against the authorities involved.
Rhiannon Anderton - a pupil at the Bryn Coch Primary School from September 1983 to July 1990 - claimed her head teacher failed to recognise that she suffered from dyslexia. But the Appeal Court ruled in November 1998 that circumstances such as this could not give grounds for a claim for damages for personal injury. On Thursday, however, in a unanimous decision the Law Lords held that, if the system fundamentally failed a child in his or her education, then the victim had the same right to seek compensation as in the case of any other professional such as a lawyer, doctor or financial adviser. One of the four cases involved Pamela Phelps, whose £45,650 High Court damages award over the London Borough of Hillingdon's failure to diagnose her dyslexia was taken away after a Court of Appeal ruling in 1998. This latest judgement by the House of Lords restores Ms Phelps's damages award and opens the way for the other claimants to proceed with their actions.
Lord Justice Evans said:
"In my judgment, for the reasons given at the outset, the failure to treat or the delayed treatment of dyslexia does arguably give rise to a form of injury which can support a claim for damages for negligence in tort. It follows from this that the school teacher's duty to exercise reasonable skill and care to safeguard the pupil from injury includes a duty to be aware of the symptoms which a reasonably careful parent or a reasonably skilled and careful teacher would regard as symptoms either of dyslexia or, more generally, of a need for specialist advice"
In Phelps, Garland, J. said:
"I respectfully adopt the proposition set out by Lord Bingham. If it is necessary to do so, I am prepared to regard 'injury' as including a failure to mitigate the adverse consequences of a congenital defect".
A teacher must exercise due skill and care to respond appropriately to the manifest problems of such a child, including informing the head-teacher or others about the child's problems and carrying out any instructions he is given. If he does not do so, he will be in breach of the duty he owes the child, as well as being in breach of the duties he owes his employer, and his employer will be vicariously liable accordingly.
The Cost of Dyslexia
The following quotation comes from "Going to war with the 3 Rs. The experiences of a dyslexic university student in a predominantly word based education system."
"With a lot of hard work I have succeeded academically. However, I consider myself to be one of the very lucky ones as recent statistics that suggest between 40 –50% of the male prison population are dyslexic. The frustration and alienation many dyslexics experience within a word based education are great, as society continues to disenfranchise and ultimately discriminate against them from an early age." Mike Juggins, "Going to war with the 3 Rs".
Check out the Adult Dyslexia Organisation web site
TES Scotland 21 July 2000 Undiagnosed dyslexics more likely to go to prison
A survey of young prisoners has found that one in two is dyslexic. Future inspections of Scottish prisons will report on efforts to screen inmates and offer help, pledged Clive Fairweather HM Chief Inspector of Prisons. An estimated 4-10 per cent of Scots are dyslexic, but a study at Edinburgh University by Jane Kirk, a dyslexia adviser, and Gavin Reid, a senior lecturer, found that in a random sample of 50 young offenders at Polmont Institute, half were affected.
Their report warns that undiagnosed dyslexics "might very well feel devalued at school and turn to deviant behaviour as a way of responding to a sense of low esteem – and as a way of achieving recognition from peers. A pattern of maladjusted behaviour at school might well lead to more serious forms of deviant behaviour and then to imprisonment."
Mr Fairweather pledged to "mention" how the issue of dyslexia was handled in prison inspection reports in a bid to put the problem more firmly on the agenda. Faced with challenges from suicides and drugs, education was far down the prisons needs list. Mr Fairweather said, "and dyslexia is even further down."
But Mrs Kirk responded "Of all the problems and disadvantages facing offenders, dyslexia is one of the easiest to deal with."
TESS 22 June 2001Scottish Dyslexia Forum urges help for jail dyslexics
The Scottish Dyslexia Forum is to ask the Parliament's justice committee to put pressure on the prison service to improve educational opportunities for dyslexic inmates. The forum feels that there are successful projects to help dyslexics in prisons in England but none in Scotland. Dyslexia is estimated to affect up to one in ten of the general population. But a study carried out in Polmont Institution by Edinburgh University revealed that, within a random sample of 50 young offenders, half were dyslexic. The researchers are now conducting a screening exercise in Sauton Prison Edinburgh.
Freedom to Learn is the report of the working group looking into the basic skills needs of adults with learning difficulties and disabilities. The Report - Section 2 Access to Basic Skills for People with Dyslexia states:
"52. Dyslexia affects 10% of the general adult population, and 4% severely. This figure is far higher amongst those lacking in basic skills, including prison offenders."
DYSLEXIA LINK WITH YOUNG OFFENDERS
A survey at one of Britain's Young Offenders Institutions in West London has thrown up a link between dyslexia and crime, suggesting that offenders were more likely to be dyslexic than the rest of the population.
TESS 22 June 2001Cutting waste by tackling dyslexia
Dyspel was created in 1995 in an effort to reduce crime in the capital by helping the large number of repeat offenders who are dyslexic to become aware of, and overcome, their difficulties. So far, indications are that the approach is working. In a report published in June 200, Dyspel said that 371 offenders have been helped by the project since June 1997. Of these only 42% re-offended, as opposed to 52% not on the scheme. Given that the Government target is to reduce re-offending by 5%, this can be seen as significant progress. Research done in the US has shown that re-offending can be reduced by up to 25% by tackling dyslexia and its associated personal and social problems.
A comprehensive study of the Dyspel project is now under way and should give a fuller picture of is effectiveness. Christina Prestney-Archer, senior tutor at Dyspel, is aware that it is offering a social cure rather than prevention. "What we do is remedial; it's very useful and it's very important, but we are helping after the fact," she said. Problems for dyslexics, she believes, almost inevitably start in school; therefore successful prevention must also start there.
Lack of success in recognizing that there is a problem can lead to: frustration, which could lead to behavioral problems; lack of self-confidence; low self-esteem; fear of isolation, of being different; bullying by peers; inappropriate demands by parents and school personnel resulting in ridicule of the student engaging in inappropriate or harmful activities to compensate for lack of success in school, at home and eventually in life.
"For 12 years, Andrew, a heroin-user now in his thirties, was in and out of prison for drug-related offences. Desperate to break the cycle, he tried to enroll for a literacy course. He was lucky - a perceptive tutor suspected he was dyslexic. Four years later, having received specialist tuition, Andrew is now a drugs counselor and a part-time college student.
Recent research in the US found that 52 % of a sample of prisoners were dyslexic, findings that have been mirrored in other countries.
Wally Morgan, a probation officer and one of the originators of the Dyspel Project, a pilot scheme to identify and assist dyslexic offenders, tells that the most moving moment is when an offender discovers the reason for his learning difficulties. "I've seen tough, macho men in their forties, armed robbers, drug users, shoplifters, burst into tears of relief. 'All my life I've been told I'm thick, lazy, ignorant, and I've known I'm not,' is a typical response. This is the first step in recovery from this kind of life."
Morgan has also screened residents at a drugs and alcohol rehabilitation center where he found an astonishing 91% to be dyslexic. The resulting feeling of inadequacy and rejection is, he feels, the underlying cause of their addictions. "If we can give dyslexia a much higher profile, if judges and lawyers, prison officials and teachers can acquire a better understanding of it, if people would realize that dyslexia in not an excuse but a reason, we would quickly see a significant reduction in offending."
Think of the savings if we could cut the prison population in half. Think of the additional savings if we could help prevent drug addiction and alcoholism. And think how these savings would not only be financial. See Students who learn.
Important links
Supplier of the world leading colour prescribing system and the unique VDex lenses
BDA work to raise awareness and understanding of dyslexia, and to effect change.
Article on dyslexia and the Optim-Eyes lamp published in QA Education Magazine Spring 2002
Diverse involvement with dyslexia
Diverse is a company in the vanguard of modern technological developments, specialising in optics, optical design and optical instrumentation. Diverse company policy is to apply these technologies to the development of instrumentation to improve quality of life.
Diverse involvement in dyslexia is also motivated by the experience of one its directors who researched the subject in depth to help his son. Some years ago the MRC Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge stated, "Until recently there was little convincing evidence that colour could help with reading, but such evidence is emerging and slowly acquiring the scientific respectability it has hitherto lacked. Reading can be helped with coloured overlays and with coloured lenses." Diverse explored the link established between visual dyslexia and colour with Ian Jordan, optician and internationally recognised expert in this field, the result was the Optim-Eyes lamp.
The Read-Eye diagnostic instrumentation for opticians has won backing from the UK Government and is the winner of several industrial prizes. The rights to both Read-Eye and Optimeyes have been acquired by Orthoscopics, who supply these products and others to leading opticians.
Diverse is interested in any ideas of how to apply modern technology to create products useful to those suffering from the problems of dyslexia. As a successful product development company we are happy to work with others, providing the experience and support to help achieve the required results.
If you have a web site or research/information that could help in developing awareness of dyslexia we would be pleased to hear from you.