In a recent LinkedIn post by Dr. Martin Bloomfield I asked what % of the population can be considered neurodivergent.
He gave a detailed reply as follows:
Such a good question, and impossible (at the moment, although I'm working on something...) to answer with any degree of certainty.
So, you have several intersections making the precise answer impossible: you have intersections of (or shared neurotypes/ phenotypes of) ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, autism, etc. You have intersections of neurodivergence and gender. You have intersections of neurodivergence and wealth/ poverty. You then have different cultural intersections. And you have different definitions of each of the neurotypes, different ways of measuring them, different "official" (hah!) measurements... (see www.DyslexiaCompass.eu, something I'm proud to have led on). You also have the problem of no databases (quite right too) with any reliable figures. Essentially, all the figures right now are guesswork.
Best guess? I'd say between 15-20%. But it's still an estimate.
As Dr. Martin said, and I agree, most figures are guesswork.
The term Neurodivergent was coined in the late 80s to describe Autistic kids. When did it encompass kids who can’t read due to instructional casualties?
A “neurodivergent” person refers to a person on the autism spectrum or, more generally, to someone whose brain processes information in a way that is not typical of most individuals.
The Dyslexia advocates will quote as high a figure as they can. In 2004 when I first started researching why kids could not read, the dyslexic % was 10%. Then for some mysterious reason, it went up to 15%. After some time, it was quoted as 1 in 4. They probably could not figure out how to say it in %.
I wrote
emails to Durham University and Professor Julian Elliott in 2010 disagreeing
with dyslexia including all kids who cannot read. He replied that he will read my blog.
Coincidentally, this morning, I read a Facebook post by my Facebook friend, Katherine Gleeson.
Here are extracts from the article:
"Dyslexia can be a helpful term to describe severe and persistent difficulty with reading, but that's it," (Prof. Elliot).
In a statement issued ahead of a speech at the BDA's annual conference, Prof Elliot said it was impossible to separate children who found reading difficult because of dyslexia and those who were poor readers for other reasons.
"There is no form of intervention that is specific for those diagnosed as dyslexic, as opposed to other struggling readers," he added.
Prof Elliott, who is an educational psychologist, said "the most effective and early forms of intervention" did not require a diagnosis.
He added the diagnosis process itself could exclude struggling readers from support and that dyslexia should be seen as an "educational difficulty, not a diagnosable 'medical' condition". LINK
Yes, many children are instructional casualties and wrongly classified as dyslexic by dyslexia proponents.
Researchers suppress findings that would reduce illiteracy if not eradicate it.
The big boys are not interested in reducing illiteracy as dyslexia is big business.
Here is a question on Twitter in 2020 that was not replied to.
Alanna Maurin Dec 28, 2020 Replying to @PamelaSnow2@DTWillingham and @EdinspireGeoff
My son had a year of structured synthetic phonics via a scripted program and he struggles to blend. He said puh instead of p, buh instead of b tuh instead of t. A week of correcting this and he is beginning to read fluently. Are there any studies on this?
Our friends, Dr. Sam Bommarito and Timothy Shanahan were also in that Twitter thread. Where are their answers to this direct question? LINK
Pamela Snow2’s response was to block me on Twitter.
Here is a quote from Nancy Hennessy, the president of the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) from 2003-2005.
“……even if we settle on a middle number, let us say 10%; that still leaves a lot of children who are not dyslexic, whose brains are not wired any different way, who have reading difficulty.
We are not supporting the learning of our teachers for them to do what we are talking about
We still don’t have the capacity nor the will to change what it is that we are doing with reading early on and so consequently unless we make those significant changes we are not only going to lose the dyslexics but I am also concerned about these other children; these other struggling readers.” LINK
Pamela Snow2 is only one of many arrogant teachers from Australia. Many Australians are as arrogant as she is. LINK
Dr.G.Reid Lyon in ‘Children of the code’ said the following:
“Ninety-five percent of those kids are instructional casualties. About five to six percent of those kids have what we call dyslexia or learning disabilities in reading. Ninety-five percent of the kids hitting the wall in learning to read are what we call NBT: Never Been Taught. They’ve probably been with teachers where the heart was in the right place, they’ve been with teachers who wanted the best for the kids, but they have been with teachers who cannot answer the questions: 1) What goes into reading, what does it take? 2) Why do some kids have difficulty? 3) How can we identify kids early and prevent it? 4) How can we remediate it?”
I wrote to Dr. Reid Lyon in 2015. His wife said that they were travelling and could not respond to my emails. They are probably sailing around the world in a sailboat.
Why isn’t anyone doing what is necessary to reduce illiteracy? This is because of the big boys who have a vested interest.
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