Dyslexia and prisoners

Dear Editor,

It’s easy to agree with Dyslexia Foundation Chair of Trustees Guy Pope-Mayell (Eduvac, 8th December, 2008) that childhood learning difficulties cause social dysfunction.

The research showing 90 per cent of prison inmates are functionally illiterate would seem to demonstrate this.

Literacy is important to social wellbeing and success in our society. Dyslexics have an added problem when learning to be literate. Many overcome it, and many more would if our spelling did not complicate matters.

Other research – Landerl, Wimmer, Frith (English/German), 1996; Paulesu et al (English/French/Italian) 2001 – shows that in languages with a more logical spelling system, ie, German and Italian, dyslexic people’s success with literacy is much greater than in English, though the neurological basis for the disease is the same.

A more systematic English spelling would give more children a chance to become literate early, and be less inclined to become socially dysfunctional.

We should not ignore this elephant in the room when trying to find ways of improving our literacy levels.

— Allan Campbell, The Spelling Society, Christchurch