K9APE’S BOOKSHELF

By Shel Epstein

OVERCOMING DYSLEXIA

By Dr. Sally Shaywitz, M.D.

The 25 JUL 2003 issue of TIME magazine featured an article entitled ‘The New Science of Dyslexia’ that caught my attention on a subject that has been of interest and concern to me. The article cited Dr. Sally Shaywitz’s new book entitled OVERCOMING DYSLEXIA (ISBN 0-375-40012-5), which I then read and found worthy of recommending to those with young children and grandchildren. Dr. Shaywitz’s book also alerted me to a fact about dyslexia that impacts Amateur Radio – especially those trying to pass their FCC license examinations.

Dyslexia is a chronic neurological malfunction that exhibits a marked impairment of an ability to recognize and comprehend written words. As explained by Dr. Shaywitz, brains of dyslexic individuals produce neurological responses that can be clinically distinguished from those of normal readers through functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scans. Details of its physiology, while interesting, depart from the focus of this review and can be found in Chapter 6 of her book.

Dyslexic readers are slow to learn to read and have difficulty in spelling and rhyming words. They mispronounce words, struggle with foreign languages and have poor handwriting (see Chapter 10 for other characteristics). Their problem seems to be their inability to associate letters or syllables with sounds. They often compensate by developing their curiosity, puzzle-solving ability and aural comprehension. They are known to excel in highly expert areas where there are specialized vocabularies – such as medicine, law, public policy, finance, architecture and basic science. But because dyslexics perform poorly on written tests, they are often misclassified by teachers, employers, parents and others as lazy, of low intelligence or unfocused – when exactly the opposite is true.

While dyslexia cannot be cured, it can be treated. Dr. Shaywitz provides names and INTERNET links to training programs that are ‘evidence-based’ or proven to improve a dyslexic reader’s reading skills and comprehension. She also provides a list of schools that use these programs. One of them is The Cove School in Northbrook, IL (www.coveschool.com).

Dr. Shaywitz describes methodologies that will accommodate needs of dyslexic readers. One of these, which surprised me, is the use of a computer for note taking and writing. That made me wonder whether dyslexia would affect (positive or negative) a person’s ability to send and receive Morse code. Dr. Shaywitz did not discuss this point.

And now I want to focus more closely on the subject of the dyslexic and Amateur Radio. I have been a Volunteer Examiner (VE) for many years and have sometimes been surprised by who flunked FCC license examinations that I have proctored. Now, I am not describing those who missed by a few points; but, those who I believed were very bright and who flunked by 20 points! OVERCOMING DYSLEXIA provides an answer that goes to the very heart of our license examinations.

Dr. Shaywitz has found that dyslexic readers do poorly on multiple-choice examinations because of sparse content and time constraints. While Amateur Radio examinations are not time-limited, they do consist of multiple-choice questions with sparse content. Thus, a dyslexic reader coming across a word that (s)he does not know by sight or cannot convert to sound(s) will not have sufficient ancillary text to ‘decode’ the meaning of the unfamiliar word. Thus, the dyslexic can only guess at an answer.

Because our own examination process may be rejecting dyslexic applicants who would be qualified Amateur Radio operators, I am sending a copy of this review to the American Radio Relay League and to our Education Director, Rich Davidson, K9RD, for their consideration. Meanwhile, I recommend that those of us who are VEs should offer dyslexic applicants testing accommodations such as a VE reader (as we would do for a blind applicant) or a quiet room with ear plugs. Since dyslexic readers may not know they have a disability or may be fearful of admitting it, I recommend that we should be watchful for applicants who flunk by a large number of points and who appear to be knowledgeable. These applicants should be retested without charge and with accommodations.

I found the book not well edited and containing redundant material, which I believe will make it hard to read by a dyslexic parent of a dyslexic child (as often occurs). For that reason, I suggest that the author consider a revised or companion edition. Nevertheless, I recommend OVERCOMING DYSLEXIA as a valuable source of information that deserves your serious consideration and study.

The following is a list of words that I have compiled that you may consider for testing whether a person may have dyslexia. Please note that I do not have training in the subject or any scientific basis for including these words or excluding other words. Therefore, I do not represent that this list is effective in discriminating individuals.

For each of the following words, please provide four words that rhyme with them:

Wheel - ____________ ____________ __________ _____________

Size - ____________ ____________ __________ _____________

Money - ____________ ____________ __________ _____________

marker - ____________ ____________ __________ _____________

projector - ____________ ____________ __________ _____________

Flag - ____________ ____________ __________ _____________

Road - ____________ ____________ __________ _____________

scope - ____________ ____________ __________ _____________

Track - ____________ ____________ __________ _____________

queer - ____________ ____________ __________ _____________

winner - ____________ ____________ __________ _____________

louse - ____________ ____________ __________ _____________