Does dyslexia exist?

No, just bad teaching.

Yes, it does. It's not nearly as controversial as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, but I've known enough children and adults with ADHD to believe wholeheartedly in that condition as well.

A learning disability is not a euphemism for being mentally retarded or a slow learner. I have a friend who is both dyslexic and has an IQ in the genius range. Her disability means she does not perform academically as well as she ought to because of a glitch in the way her brain processes words and other visual information. Fill in the bubble tests like the SAT and GRE? Forget it! Award winning performance as the lead in a Shakespeare play? That's a different story.

Dyslexia is a medical condition. Schools don't like to say the word out loud because a) they aren't qualified to diagnose it, and b) it isn't a particularly helpful term for educational purposes. You may have a doctor's diagnosis, but you would still need to do further assessments to find out the educational needs of the child and how best to meet them.

For example, there is no category called "dyslexia" that qualifies a student for Special Education in the US. You may have dyslexia, but the school would need to show that your academic performance is affected and that you need specially designed instruction before they could qualify you for Special Education. It's the impact on the academic performance that qualifies you, not the cause.

I have another good friend who would write his name and the mirror image of his name when he was a small child, and he could not tell which was correct. I asked him once if he ever received special services for his disability. He said, "Oh, we didn't have any of this identifying nonsense when I was a kid. The teacher yelled at you, and eventually you got it right!" He's fluent in English and Chinese and has a master's degree, so I suppose the lack of Special Education didn't hurt him much.

Yes, it does.

The National Institutes of Health (some folks who know) define it thusly: Dyslexia is a brain-based type of learning disability that specifically impairs a person's ability to read. These individuals typically read at levels significantly lower than expected despite having normal intelligence. Although the disorder varies from person to person, common characteristics among people with dyslexia are difficulty with phonological processing (the manipulation of sounds) and/or rapid visual-verbal responding.

Yes, it exists, and in various forms. I lived in France where they separate dyslexia (a reading disorder) from dysgraphia (a writing disorder). Personally, I'm not dyslexic because I can read fine. However, I am dysgraphic. Even though I'm pretty smart (4 Masters degrees, 1480 on old SAT, 1400 on GRE), I make a ton of spelling errors that I simply can't see. I also slaughter homonyms and I can't tell my right from my left.

My wife can even tell if I'm getting confused. If I'm giving her directions on how to get somewhere, she can tell from my facial expression if I'm getting left and right confused.

Yes it does, though it's a word which is sometimes misused as a term for someone who is simply lazy (I'm sorry, that's even ruder but it's unfortunately true).

http://www.dyslexia.com/

Dyslexic people are visual, multi-dimensional thinkers. We are intuitive and highly creative, and excel at hands-on learning. Because we think in pictures, it is sometimes hard for us to understand letters, numbers, symbols, and written words.

Yeah

of course it exists. it also exists in different forms. for instance, my grandpa can read words, but he can't read letters alone. he can say them in Morse-code, but other wise he can't. (at least i think that counts as a form of dyslexia).

yes. it does exist. my aunt had it for 20 years of her life with out knowing it. and when they diagnosed her with it finally she got help for it and she had a wayyy easier time in life.

yep. it def exist. i face them in a boys home, and i also face it in my cousin

dyslexic cant tell dif between some things

yes it exists

Of course it does. Learning disabilities are real.