Originally Posted by Missileer

In the South, especially before the late 60s, people were very defensive and secretive of any abnormality in their children. Especially the richer, influential people. There were sanitariums that got kids who were stricken with polio, MS, ADD, and mild retardation. So anything that would cast any doubts about the sound mind and body of the family was shifted aside or hidden. Back then, Dyslexia was equated with stupidity, so it was denied. I actually heard a farmer in East Texas brag about having "ten kids and not an idiot in the bunch." I remember my older Brother being whipped in school because he was slower than the rest of his class. Our parents finally took him out of school about the sixth grade. So it's not uncommon for the truth about a human frailty to be denied under such circumstances. I did learn a valuable lesson, never tease or belittle someone who had a mental or physical problem. Polio was not uncommon when I was a kid and left a lot of kids with deformities.

Simular as when I went to school, had and still have dyslexia. Was pure hell! My parents didn't know untill around two years ago when I talked about it for the first time. I've only told three people directly, I can do it writing but it just brings up to much crappy memories to talk about it person to person. My teachers never told my parents or anyone else, it was to be cept inside the school, still not sure why. My school did however do something good, even if I hated it and it was emotionly pure hell I got special tutoring for 9 years, and can now act "normal" I still read alot slower then "normal", I can't spell worth crap either (Swedish is worse then English actually) I also still twist words in a order they ware never ment to be spoken or written. But it's atleast a hell of a lot better then when I started school. What's worst today (now theres computers to correct my spelling) is my hadwriting, its practicly unreadable, its however something I will always live with but the fact that I have it easyer with other languages then other swedes help alot, makes me seem bright in other cases!

Bit off topic heh

Originally Posted by AlexKall

Bit off topic heh

No, since Bulldogg started this thread to show how people went undiagnosed with learning problems because of the stigma attached by society, it's on topic.

Kudos to you Alex. With some of the Chinese kids I have come across I have seen similar cases to what you describe, some of these kids dyslexia is more or less pronounced in different languages. They do fine in Chinese but like one kid, in English it is really bad or vice versa.

When it comes to learning disabilities this is one place, China, that is still in the stone age. ADD kids are told, "You need to concentrate more!" and dyslexic kids are openly berated by parents, teachers and fellow students as "Stupid!" It breaks my heart and has led to more than one confrontation with people over their backwardness. Too many painful memories myself come up here watching these kids... its like Alexander City, Alabama in 1980 all over again... except now I am bigger than the bloody teachers.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/...0969_db056.htm

"SUBTLE DISORDER." To some learning-disability experts, the signs are clear: Bush might want to pay them a visit. These experts haven't tested the President, so they caution that they can't be certain of the diagnosis. Yet, ample signs indicate that something unusual is going on in the left side of his brain, where language and hearing are processed.

The possibility is high that there's some dysfunction in the way he hears words, the way he processes what he hears, or the way he retrieves words when he tries to speak. When someone uses the wrong word or malapropisms and has difficulty with grammatical sentences, experts on learning disabilities "typically suspect at least a subtle language disorder," says William Stixrud, a clinical neuropsychologist in Silver Spring, Md.

Some voters infer from Bush's syntax and behavior that he isn't the sharpest saw in the tool box. Yet, learning and processing disorders aren't indicators of native intelligence. If anything, a learning disability would better explain how Bush has accomplished so much, with his critics underestimating him every step of the way.

ALL IN THE FAMILY? … Such disorders often are genetic, and the Bush family has a history of them -- Bush's brother, Neil, has been diagnosed with dyslexia. Bush's other brother, Marvin, has a son in a Washington school for children with learning disabilities. Perhaps as a result, the President's mother and First Lady Laura Bush have both been big advocates of improving reading skills.

Journalists have tried in the past to explain Bush's peculiar speech and processing patterns. In May, 2000, Dana Milbank of the Washington Post suggested that Bush's speech patterns reflect the patois in Midland, Tex., which Eastern elites disdain. Maybe it was something he learned or inherited from his dad, for whom uttering a complete, syntactically correct sentence often was a challenge.

Another possibility Milbank cited, which was suggested by a Bush aide: The President's agile brain works faster than his mouth. Milbank also quoted an expert who opined that the symptoms resemble apraxia, an inability to position the lips, jaw, and tongue properly when speaking. In a Bush profile in the October, 2000, Vanity Fair, Gail Sheehy postulated that Bush, like his brother, has dyslexia, which is commonly seen as a reading disability.

DIGGING DEEPER. Weisberg says in the introduction to his first volume of Bushisms that he doesn't buy these theories. He notes, as Milbank did, that apraxia usually produces shortened words, while Bush sometimes elongates them, as when he says "analyzation" instead of analysis. And if Bush had dyslexia, he wouldn't be able to read a TelePrompTer so well, Weisberg postulates. But with sufficient practice, someone with the disorder could read a speech adequately, says Kathy Hosty, a Washington, D.C., speech-language pathologist.

Bush has denied in the past that he has dyslexia. Asked for this column if the President has a language disorder, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan dismissed the idea, without flatly denying it. She told Business Week Online Bush's medical records have been scrutinized for 15 years. "The American people know more about the President's health than just about anyone's," she added.

I started to look for a more satisfactory explanation for Bush's demeanor for several reasons. Frankly, I've long been mystified by the way Bush expresses himself off-the-cuff. Secondly, the President's way of expressing himself clearly throws foreigners, especially diplomats, for a loop. They're appalled, since they view his mastery of language as critical to persuading others of the correctness of America's course in world affairs. A third reason is that a friend of mine has a son who doctors suspect has something called central auditory processing disorder (CAPD). My friend says whenever she sees the President, she sees her son's traits.

"OTHER KINDS OF INTELLIGENCE." That led me to do some Web research and talk to some experts on the subject to see what they think. I'm no doctor. I'm a journalist. But it turns out there's an intriguing consensus afoot, and I'm here to report it.

According to an article on the Internet by Judith W. Paton, a San Mateo (Calif.) audiologist, CAPD is a physical hearing impairment that doesn't show up as hearing loss but rather affects hearing beyond the ear. In effect, the auditory nerves don't handle the raw data from the ear properly. It's usually found with a cluster of other symptoms. Among the tell-tale signs she cites: Confusion of similar sounding words, terse communications, better hearing when watching the speaker, and trouble hearing when it's noisy.

This syndrome, like dyslexia, probably wouldn't have been diagnosed when Bush was growing up. It could explain why, undiagnosed, he was a lackluster student, Paton said in an interview. "A lot of his IQ points were in political intelligence and other kinds of intelligence," she notes.

… CAPD isn't recognized as a formal diagnosis yet, partly because not enough research has been done on it. "It's a pattern of deficits that has been described by a large body of clinicians, but it hasn't undergone the rigors of scientific verification," says Fresno (Calif.) neuropsychologist Howard Glidden. Some experts also consider it a vague, umbrella term for a lot of traits.

What all the experts seem to agree on is that Bush exhibits "phonological" problems, that is, he has trouble breaking apart and putting together the discrete sounds that make up words. That could explain why the President tortures the language so often. And his clowning around could have been a way to compensate.

Such a syndrome also could explain other characteristics. The nicknames -- he dubbed ex-Treasury Secretary O'Neill "Pablo", for example -- could be a device to help with name retrieval. The infrequency of news conferences could reflect the difficulty someone with CAPD would have in a press-conference setting. While it would be possible to bone up for a quieter one-on-one grilling by Tim Russert, the noise and distractions of a news conference would make the kind of focus Bush may need very difficult. "A news conference would be his worst nightmare," says Hosty. "You can't control the barrage of different communications styles."

bd
Why can't you entertain the possibility that GW does NOT have dyslexia. He continues to deny he suffers from this affliction ... and ... there are no quotable quotes from ANY piece of medical record that would support the charge of dyslexia. So far all you have done is to post anecdotal information ... NOT one bit of 'FACTUAL' information has been uncovered to prove your theory.

There ARE individuals that have made a personal choice that they will NOT attempt to improve their education ... GW is one of those ... he proudly boasts to one and all, that he WILL NOT even read a book, read a newspaper or watch television about any issue he is dealing with. That tells me that he chooses to be 'iggorant' ... it is NOT a proof of dyslexia.

Originally Posted by bulldogg

Kudos to you Alex. With some of the Chinese kids I have come across I have seen similar cases to what you describe, some of these kids dyslexia is more or less pronounced in different languages. They do fine in Chinese but like one kid, in English it is really bad or vice versa.

When it comes to learning disabilities this is one place, China, that is still in the stone age. ADD kids are told, "You need to concentrate more!" and dyslexic kids are openly berated by parents, teachers and fellow students as "Stupid!" It breaks my heart and has led to more than one confrontation with people over their backwardness. Too many painful memories myself come up here watching these kids... its like Alexander City, Alabama in 1980 all over again... except now I am bigger than the bloody teachers.

That will defenetly not help those that has problems of the sort, which is a shame!

As far as I know dyslexia doesn't have any influence on your IQ. The facts that Bush can speak in complete sentences doesn't omit the fact that he reads them as bent as a circle.
It is hard to detect because dyslectics are handy in finding a survival strategy and it it of recent days that it is seen as a handicap that can be fixed. So there might be hope for Bush yet.

No it doesn't influense IQ, I scored good on my military "IQ" test

Originally Posted by AlexKall

No it doesn't influense IQ, I scored good on my military "IQ" test

Hahahaha isn't this called a "contradiction in terms"? Sorry Alex, I just had to take a cheap shot at this.......

heh well it doesnt influense badly on IQ