‘Blindness’ To Words

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31380, 27 May 1967, Page 2

‘Blindness’ To Words

fN.Z.P.A.-R«ut«rJ MELBOURNE. It is called word blindness —and children thought by their parents and teachers to be naughty, lazy or just plain stupid could be suffering from it, says a leading British neurologist visiting Australia. Dr. MacDonald Chritchley, president of the World Federation of Neurology, says people concerned with educating children should keep a careful watch for youngsters having special difficulty in their reading lessons. “We neurologists call it specific development dyslexia,” he says. “It’s like being bom colour blind, or lacking a musical ear. It’s an inborn constitutional immaturity.” He says that although neurologists have long known about the condition, teachers —and even doctors and psychologists—have given surprisingly little attention to it “Recently, in Britain and American, we have given a great deal of study to word blindness. “It’s most important, because many children who were really intelligent have been written off as dull and lazy. “Quick diagnosis can save this wastage of brain.” Dyslexis is common in children who are not wholly left or right-handed. A boy, for instance, might show a preference tor his left hand but is rightteyed and rightfooted.

But they can be helped by “individual, intensive and sympathetic tuition in reading and spelling.”