No; forgive me, but according to Blumenfeld, (I have his lectures on tape discussing this in depth) “Dyslexia” is actually caused by teaching the Whole Language scheme; there are NO records anywhere that Dyslexia was even in existance before this scheme was introduced on a mass scale in America, in the mid ‘30’s..
Look at the history of education in this country..in the early days of this nation, children could not even begin to attend school until they learned to read. Small children were universally home schooled. Most learned to read before age 5. There was no such thing as “Public Education” before the mid 19th Century..
Here are a number of lectures in mp3 format, that Sam Blumenfeld has given on the origins of The Whole Language system, also on The History of Education in America..you will be amazed at all the research he has done. These lectures are in two zipped files..
The first zipped file is here = http://www.mediafire.com/?dwchzznzmkc
The second zipped file is here = http://www.mediafire.com/?0amh40yjxkj
If anyone is at all interested in learning how the Socialists have taken over the Educational establishment in America, and what their goals are.. these lectures are a must listen.
Sam Blumenfeld is a friend to Conservatives, he has done massive, scholarly work in revealing exactly what is the problem with Education in this country.. he was also one of the first advocates of Home Schooling in the early ‘70s..
Blumenfeld has pointed out that people who have been “diagnosed” with so called “Dyslexia” can recover by learning true Phonics. (NOT with a combination of Whole Language and phonics, as this has been often tried, and fails every time.) Sam Blumenfeld has done the research; he has proven time and time again, that by teaching phonics to people of any age, with so called “Dylexia”, that this “Illness” can be reversed in fairly short order, by teaching phonics by the tried and true method.
True Phonics works well, Whole Language is a proven disaster !
Blumenfeld doesn’t know what he is talking about. I know because I have one child with severe dyslexia and dyscalculia and one with minor dyslexia and dysgraphia and my husband has both dysgraphia and minor dyslexia.
The child psychologists who tested my son in pre-school were able to predict that he would have these problems due to the fact that he was left handed and right footed, indicating that both sides of his brain were equal, rather than having one side stronger than the other. It actually made him ambi-dextrous. He writes equally poorly with both hands. It’s great for sports though, batting either side, etc. It’s not great for golf, though.
Anyway when he was in kindergarten, he once wrote a whole sentence in mirror writing like Michael Angelo in the Davinci Code. Dyslexia is a very real disability that kids are born with. It is not just one thing, it involves the way the brain sees letters and interprets them. My son often cannot tell the difference between a two and a five if he is working too quickly. It’s the same for letters. Phonics just didn’t work at all. I tried it with him when he was about 4 or 5 and he just looked at it like I was nuts, but picked up the sight reading very readily.