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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   2788 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 2, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I've occasionally heard people allude to the idea that "dyslexia" isn't really a discrete medical condition, but rather a sort of cope that parents use to prevent their kid feeling bad about being a bit on the slow side, or lacking in verbal comprehension. For example, Freddie deBoer:

Let’s set aside whether dyslexia is one thing or many things and whether or not it’s simply a term that we came up with to say that some people are poor readers, as a matter of compassion.

Is there anything to this? Is dyslexia a real medical condition, or a contested one? Is it generally sensibly diagnosed by qualified professionals, or is there an epidemic of self-diagnosis muddying the water?

Given that my son has a severe language acquisition problem, I don't doubt that dyslexia is a medical condition. If you think about it, being able to interpret strings of symbols as meaningful words is a completely unnatural skill. If you don't get enough practice at the right stage of your brain development, when you already have well-developed speech but the rest of the brain is still pliable, it's going to be much harder to develop the skill to the level when you don't have to expend any conscious effort to read.

If you're asking if dyslexia is more like flu than like hypertension, then I have no answer. Does it matter, though?

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