There is nothing wrong with my vission!

Well that isn’t entirely true. I am near sighted, and I’ve caught my eyes on fire twice now. But besides things being blurry when they are far away, I see exactly the same as you. I don’t see things upside down, or backwards, or anything crazy like that. As far as I know, no dyslexics see things upside down or backwards.

I’m not sure who started this nasty – dyslexics see things backwards rumer, but it has blown way out of perportion. I remember in the early 90’s there were people trying to get dyslexics to wear multi-colored glasses in order to fix their non-existant vission problem. Who came up with this crap? And why did people waist their money on it?

Most of the official research on dyslexia in the last decade or two has been grounded on actual facts and not a made up vission problem, but this seeing things backwards rumer doesn’t want to die. Why are people so willing to believe this myths?

The most logical reason for this misconseption is that sometimes dyslexics mess up their letters and accedentally write one backwards. In case you haven’t noticed this, almost all preschool and kindergarten children make the exact same mistakes. Writing letters backwards isn’t the result of a vission problem, it is the result of being an early reader that doesn’t fully know the alphabet yet. Dyslexics are just more apt to stay at this level for years as oposed to weeks.

The thing that I find the saddest about this massive misconseption is that it is leading to misdiacnosis. Recently I was talking to a friend and it came up that I am dyslexic. She then went on to say that she thought she was probably dyslexic too. As she elaborated on her achedemic problems and her continued inability to read above a third grade reading level (even though she is now in her late 30’s) it became overwellmingly clear to me that this woman had dyslexia. Then she went on to say, “But I don’t see things backwards or anything, so maybe I’m not dyslexic, I’m just slow.”

Granted this woman was in school at the peak of the seeing things backwards hox, but I sertainly hope that modern children aren’t falling into this same trap. If your kid has normal eyes, but is unable to comprehend the symbolic representation of sound, guess what – they are dyslexic. If they do see things backwards, they have some freeky vision problem and should probably see an optomotrist.

So in conclution, let me say one final time. Dyslexics do not see things backwards. Dyslexia is not a vission problem, it is a comprehension of the symbolic representation of sound problem. Not the same thing.

Joke of the Day

A dyslexic walked into a bra.