June 15, 2012
The Learning Disabilities Association of Michigan is
an all volunteer 501(c)3 non- profit organization representing families and
educators of persons with learning disabilities. Our offices are located at 200
Museum Drive, Ste. 101, Lansing, Michigan 48933.
Our mission is to enhance the quality of life for all
individuals with learning disabilities and their families through advocacy,
education, training, service and support of research. Our organization supports
initiatives that encompass prevention, early identification, and access to the
necessary supports to allow full participation of our constituents as citizens.
Our stakeholders represent a diversity of perspectives
regarding the particulars for educating students with learning disabilities,
but are unified by the conviction that, despite the range of learning problems
subsumed under this category, these problems share the common trait of
appearing to be breakdowns in the neurological processes of executive
functioning which affect listening, oral expression, reading decoding, reading
comprehension, written expression, mathematical calculation or mathematical
reasoning resulting in evidence of unexpected underachievement in one or more
of these areas.
The Learning Disabilities Association of Michigan
welcomes this opportunity to publicly comment on the proposed revisions related
to Specific Learning Disabilities in the DSM-5.
Although many of our concerns are related to the early identification of
these breakdowns in the context of early childhood academic settings, we also
recognize that these breakdowns extend into adulthood and affect life
activities beyond educational settings.
Therefore, we recognize that a DSM-5 diagnostic code reflects broader
parameters than those observed solely in school settings. Further, we recognize that although these
breakdowns exist, the function of diagnosis is to identify these breakdowns
while offering beneficial insights about the external and environmental
barriers that exacerbate the expression of these neurological breakdowns.
Therefore, if medical diagnosis is to be useful, some attention needs to be
paid to the educational and functional implications of the existence of these
neurological breakdowns. In our society, where a high level of literacy is
considered essential for individual success, it is important that we understand
and help to improve access for those people identified with “dyslexia”. Access
includes early intervention, as well as the provision of alternative forms of
access, especially to text, for those identified with “dyslexia”.
 |
| Picture source: http://www.rainbowreaders.com/ |
In the United States, much of the research on Specific
Learning Disabilities has focused on “dyslexia”, which is a specific learning
disability that encompasses language processing, multiple aspects of the
processes involved in reading, and also may include processes involved in
spelling and written expression. Of the roughly one in seven people identified
with Specific Learning Disabilities, 70 percent are thought to warrant a
diagnosis of “dyslexia” (Lyon, 2001; Lyon, Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2003;
International Dyslexia Association, 2012).
This means that in Michigan, of the over 73 thousand children identified
with Specific Learning Disabilities, one can estimate that more than 51
thousand are dyslexic (Michigan Compliance Information System for 2010-2011). Or, in other words, roughly one out of every
four children with special educational needs (n=217 thousand) in Michigan may
be considered “dyslexic”. In the
education context, accessible text providers prefer a quasi-medical diagnosis
of “dyslexia” as opposed to the more generic term, “specific learning
disability” when authorizing the use of their services. Most notably, Bookshare,
the largest provider of accessible textbooks, recognizes the term “dyslexia” as
a qualifier for its’ services.
A large community of researchers in the neurosciences (c.f.:
Bennett and Sally Shawitz, G. Reid Lyon, Jack Fletcher and others) have focused
their attention on the causes, traits, interventions, and outcomes for persons
with “dyslexia” and attach special meaning to the term as a separate set of
conditions from other forms of reading failure because of its’ prevalence and
intractability (see for example the comments of Michael Ryan, Ph.D. at http://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/,
and the statement of the International Dyslexia Association, http://www.interdys.org/). Internationally, too, the term “developmental
dyslexia”, as found in the ICD-10 (WHO, updated 2011), holds special
significance. In order to compare
incidence of various disorders and diseases internationally, common terminology
with common meaning is required. To
remove the term “dyslexia” from the DSM-5 is to put the U.S. data-reporting out
of step with the rest of the world.
Increasing global interdependence requires that we be able to
communicate using common terminology in order to share scientific findings, and
to work toward overall improvement in the education and lives of all humankind.
In summary, the use of the term “dyslexia” holds
significance as a diagnostic term, in research on its’ causes, characteristics,
interventions and outcomes, and as a shared descriptor in the international
community. Therefore, the Learning
Disabilities Association of Michigan supports the continued use of the term
“dyslexia” in the DSM-5.
Submitted on behalf of the Board of Directors of LDA
of Michigan,
Florence Curtis, Acting Executive Director
Board
of Directors
President—Byron Vorce, Bellevue
President Elect—Regina Carey, Okemos
Secretary—Betsy Schrage, Grosse Pointe
Treasurer—John Carter, Ann Arbor
Past President—Lori Parks, Plymouth
Newsletter Editor—Kathleen Kosobud, Ann
Arbor
Healthy Child Director—Amy Winans,
Lansing
Dawn Bentley, East Lansing
Linda Clark, Novi
Renee Craig, East Lansing
Edna Felmlee, Williamston
Glenda Hammond, Lansing
Delia Laing, Ann Arbor
Judith New, Ann Arbor
Annette Puleo, East Lansing
Rosanne Renauer, Lansing
Mary Rivera, Lansing
Kristen Toadvine, Mulliken
Kendra Tobes, West Bloomfield
Annette Lalley Trautz, Lowell
Vicki
White, Lansing
