I wish I was special, so fucking special* – learning disability profit-mongering
Posted by gimpy on October 3, 2007
Special. Gifted. Talented. No, not the words of a mother to her beloved but dim child, but the emotive terms with which various charities and profit making organisations use when talking about specific learning disabilities.
I have one of these. It’s a bastard. It makes spelling difficult and writing harder as well as exceptionally painful. I have seen almost a dozen educational psychologists, suffered the indignity of extra time in exams, as well as having some stupid bint assessing my claim for disability support stating that I “don’t look disabled” (which I suppose is a compliment). But what really riles me is being told that I’m special, gifted or talented because I am several standard deviations from the norm, in the wrong direction, when it comes to certain traits. Well fuck you, you patronising cunts. I’m not interested in your pity or petty reassurances. I just want to deal with things in a way that don’t adversely affect me or others. If I were the Pope I’d beatify the inventor of the keyboard and the spelling and grammar checker. Those inventions have made life much easier for me.
But a simple technological fix isn’t enough for some people, they have programmes and methods and courses that can cure my problems. Here’s a list:
http://www.dyslexiatreatment.com/ – for only ~£1300 they will help individuals with dyslexia, ADHD or dyspraxia using neuro-linguisic programming, nutrition and other bullshit.
http://www.dore.co.uk/ – £1700 according to Ben Goldacre, torn apart by Dorothy Bishop, and blogged by leftbrainrightbrain.
http://www.thelearningpeople.co.uk – unknown costs. Use the ‘Davis Method‘, which is regarded as little more than pseudo-science by the International Dyslexia Association.
There are many more dodgy organisations that claim to cure incurable disabilities for the right sum of money. It’s surprising how often a cure for these kind of things isn’t available on the NHS but is if you have enough money. They should have a word with NICE. Have courage in their convictions.
For the record my school, my university and most of my psychologists have been more than helpful, not given to patronising and deserve praise for their quiet yet effective support for myself and others in a similar situation.
*apologies to Radiohead
Unlucky Gimpy at Badchemist’s Blog said
[...] hours of reading Gimpy’s post on dyslexia treatments and the massive quantity of bullshit they are what do I find but an article in the express singing [...]
The Learning People think dyslexia is a gift, I think they are idiots. « gimpy’s blog said
[...] I wish I was special, so fucking special* – learning disability profit-mongering [...]
nicholasmarsh said
Gimpy, a while back the BBC did a survey of offensive words for disabled people. ‘Special’ was the fourth most offesive to the disabled, but wasn’t in the top ten for the non-disabled. I suspect that there are many that share your opinion. See here
gimpy said
The other thing is that although I tick the disabled box in some forms (only when I consider it relevant) I don’t consider myself ‘disabled’. Like I said above, give me a computer and I can pretty much do anything, give me a pencil and I can’t even fill out a passport application. There has only been a brief period in human history of perhaps 200 years or so when not being able to write/spell has been a problem Before that I would probably have been illiterate, these days we have computers that mean my problem isn’t a problem. Of course there are other aspects of my particular ‘gift’ that can be annoying but they are certainly not incapacitating. Certainly I’d rather be in my situation than have a physical disability or a more severe neurological one such as autism.
HJ said
Spelling’s over-rated – it looks like grammar is a bigger challenge.
jonhw said
There are many more dodgy organisations that claim to cure incurable disabilities for the right sum of money. It’s surprising how often a cure for these kind of things isn’t available on the NHS but is if you have enough money. They should have a word with NICE. Have courage in their convictions.
shush, you’ll give them ideas. No approach to NICE as far as I know, but there has been talk about introducing this type of treatment into schools, at the public expense – look what happened with brain gym… Back in 2003, the Guardian was gushing “An experiment using exercise in Warwickshire has yielded staggering results. What does it take to impress ministers?” Isn’t journalism great
gimpy said
I suspect for these things to get into schools they will have to get the educational psychologists on side. Thankfully those guys are pretty resistant to novelty techniques and, while I have misgivings about some of their tests, are part of a well structured and effective system. This is probably why the likes of Dore and the Davis Dyslexia Association bypass the educational system and go straight for the wallets of the parents. I’m keeping an eye on The Learning People and their ilk though even if it means I will have to read the likes of the Express and the Mail more often.
Dore, Dyslexia and ADHD: ‘unlikely miracle cure’ stories are viewed as newsworthy; ‘negative’ stories aren’t « Holford Watch: Patrick Holford, nutritionism and bad science said
[...] Dorothy Bishop recently published a paper showing that the evidence for Dore as a treatment for dyslexia and ADHD is woefully inadequate (it’s also suggested as a treatment for ASDs). Lots of [...]
hotpants said
Dear Gimpy,
stranger still about the learning people …… you may like to ask these learning people why it cost more to get the same course from them rather than through the other non-learning-people who use the same techniques. I enquired and got a price far higher via the learning people than i did privately through the exact same person. Two prices, double standards. Can you hear the money jangling?
Jeff Dyslexia Treatment said
Hi, you sound like a very angry person. Our dyslexia treatment centre located in Glasgow does not charge £1300 as stated above for helping people. The fact is you can buy the dyslexia book for only £19.95. Or if you wish, you can get our programme for only £950 not £1300 as you stated.
I hope this clears up the matter of costs with your readers.
Best of luck, I wonder if you have ever tried any of these so called “learning disability profit-mongering” like ours if you know all about us?
gimpy said
Jeff, my moods vary. Today I am calm. The price of £1300 was correct when I wrote this post in 2007. I see you have responded to the global economic crisis by lowering your prices by one third. Have you got an evidence base for your treatment yet? I would still regard it as immoral to charge such large sums of money for treatment without credible supporting evidence.
I have had no need to try any alternative dyslexia treatments. I have followed evidence based recommendations set by various Educational Psychologists, access centres and the British Dyslexia Association. These have proved sufficient. They also cost me very little.
ishtari cat said
Hey there,
Is having extra time in exams an indignity? I only ask ‘cos I do assessments to see if pupils qualify and reports and all that stuff and I’d never thought about it in those terms.
We always try to put the students needs first and invlove them in decisions about what would be appropriate. Not that we always get it right.
Anyway, I would be interested to hear more…
Cheers
N
gimpy said
Ishtari Cat,
If I may ask, why are you doing assessments? Are you an educational psychologist or similar?
Targets: Aids, Cancer, Autism and Dyslexia « jdc325’s Weblog said
[...] HolfordWatch to do that. Dore – the miracle cure that wasn’t. Gimpy has an earlier post about specific learning disabilities that includes a dishonourable mention for Dore, Duck wrote a post titled “why are Dore so bad [...]