PEGGY BUCHANAN.

Press, 28 November 1980, Page 12

PEGGY BUCHANAN.

President, SPEED (Canterbury Branch). P.O. Box 13-391. November 26, 1980. Sir,. I think V. H. Anderson is being somewhat dyslectic over the - word "dyslexia” (November 25). It has a deeper meannig than “cannot read” and is often a created psychological condition and, as such, is frequently found in lefthanded people who have been prevented from using their left side. I cannot see how anyone can arrive at a school certificate standard without being able to read (providing sight is normal). Being unable to read will surely create an ’ inability to write. This would be a good

reason for not accrediting school certificate. Most of the male youth of Burma attend their local monastery for at least a year, among other things, to learn the three Rs and, by the time they leave, can read, write and deal with simple money matters. I am sure they’ are taught by a "structured” method, but it is only the inner respect to and from their teachers that produces the final result. — Yours, etc.. G. P. L. BRETHERTON. November 25, 1980. Sir, — The point of reading is that we can gain information, not “meaning.” We expect to know the meaning. Instead of listening to a speaker in the village, we have in reading, a simple ■remote means of finding out what is going on, what others think and what new stories have been imagined. You do not pick up a fiction book and say, “I must discover the meaning of these sentences.” No. You think, “I must find out what happens.” The , information is what you want. The key to that information is in the alphabet. If primer pupils were taught letters before whole words there would be few dyslexics. Good mothers teach their babies to talk naturally. Babies pick up vowel sounds first, then consonants and intonations, then real words and later, sentences. Reading is a different semi-natural skill but it should be begun from the natural skill of drawing, i.e. printing. — Yours, etc., (Mrs) J. RIDDLE. November 26, 1980. Sir, — Although my sympathy is very much with people who are unable to read, I cannot see how anyone who has to handle chemicals or machinery could work safely without understanding printed instructions or warnings. There would hot always be a willing reader handy. It was heartening to see V. H. Anderson’s comment (November 25) that dyslexia is not a disease. The current process of learning to read as demonstrated in the radio series “On the way to reading,” in which the child was expected to guess and remember a story he was familiar with, made me realise how dyslectic I would have been as a child today. I have no aptitude for gambling; nor for memorising thousands of word shapes as though English were like Chinese, —Yours, etc., A. G. MENZIES. November 26, 1980.