di: Miracle cure for dyslexia?

[monique at onestoplearning.co.uk]

Thank you Kerry

 

My favourite line in Mark Seidenberg’s review follows:

 

“At first I was hesitant to evaluate the study because I am not a vision scientist, but then I realized that hadn’t prevented the authors from publishing it”

 

Says everything I think.

 

Best wishes

Monique

 

From: di-bounces at lists.uoregon.edu [mailto:di-bounces at lists.uoregon.edu] On Behalf Of Kerry Hempenstall
Sent: 27 October 2017 22:55
To: di at lists.uoregon.edu
Subject: di: Miracle cure for dyslexia?

 

A recent paper claims to have found that the true cause of dyslexia is actually visual not deficits in phonology, vocabulary, syntax, and other components of spoken language. Yes, really. I know – we’ve heard this claim in the past. I looked at some of the research on this topic at https://www.nifdi.org/resources/news/hempenstall-blog/414-keeping-an-eye-on-reading-is-difficulty-with-reading-a-visual-problem

This new study (Left–right asymmetry of the Maxwell spot centroids in adults without and with dyslexia) has received a deal of breathless media reporting. However, a scathing review in a post entitled Blue Cell Dyslexia by literacy research expert Mark Seidenberg (see at http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=35144 <http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=35144&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter> &utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter) casts serious doubt about the worth of the study. It documents numerous flaws that he argues should have led to the paper’s exclusion from publication in a serious journal. For example, the confusing of correlation with causation. See the two papers for yourself. The paper in question is: 

Le Floch, A., & Ropars, G. (2017). Left–right asymmetry of the Maxwell spot centroids in adults without and with dyslexia. Proc. R. Soc. B., 284(20171380). 1-10. Retrieved from http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/284/1865/20171380



-- 

Regards,

Kerry


Dr Kerry Hempenstall 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists-prod.uoregon.edu/pipermail/di/attachments/20171030/b28b7b78/attachment.html>