As a special educational needs teacher, my response to
this anecdote is "better late than never" and to
commend it to all educators as an example of how
diagnosis/labelling matched with
intervention/treatment can have a very positive
outcome for those with learning
difficulties/differences whatever their age. The story
also shows how professional attitudes to diversity
have improved over the years, although persistence is
often necessary before proper procedures are put in
place to correct years of neglect. At one time
psychologists routinely categorised those with
learning difficulties as "idiots", "morons" and
"cretins". When I qualified as a teacher in the early
1970s, terms such as "backward" and "educationally
subnormal" were still in vogue. Thank goodness we live
in more enlightened times and we have such role models
as blind deaf-mute Helen Keller, whose potential was
recognised by her gifted teacher Anne Sullivan, to
demonstrate the resilience and indomitability of the
human spirit as well as the untapped capabilities of
the more vulnerable members of society.
When it comes to older people with special educational
needs, let's not forget conditions other than dyslexia
too. There's the other "specific learning difficulty",
dyspraxia, the sensory impairments of sight and
hearing, the communication difficulties exemplified by
autism and speech and language needs. These and other
conditions may have remained un- or underdiagnosed in
older people, who are either experiencing further
deterioration, or more happily, have come up with
compensatory strategies that we could all learn from.
David Wilson
Harton Technology College, South Shields
http://www.specialeducationalneeds.com/
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