British government official claims dyslexia doesn't exist

From The Guardian in the UK:

A Labour MP who claimed dyslexia was "cruel fiction" a to cover up bad teaching of reading and writing was fiercely criticised today by charities for the condition.

Graham Stringer, Labour MP for Manchester Blackley, (pictured) claimed it was "no more real than the 19th-century scientific construction of 'the aether' to explain how light travels through a vacuum".

"The sooner it is consigned to the same dustbin of history, the better," he said.

The MP claimed illiteracy led to crime, as prisons were full of people unable to read and write, and suggested it was time the "dyslexia industry was killed off" by teaching children to read and write by using a phonetic system of sounding out letters and words.

Shirley Cramer, chief executive officer of the educational charity Dyslexia Action, said: "It is frustrating that the focus should be on whether dyslexia exists or not, when there is so much evidence that it does. It is true that there is a strong link between literacy and unemployment. And we know from our own research that there is a higher percentage of offenders among the prison and probation populations who are dyslexic or have literacy difficulties.

"However, these individuals are no more likely to commit a crime and the associated links are the result of reduced opportunity due to poor educational attainment."

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families, said: "As a department, we recognise that dyslexia is a condition that affects many children, and we provide support for them and for schools. With the correct support, there's no reason why dyslexia should hold any child back."

Kate Griggs, founder of the dyslexia charity Xtraordinary People, said: "His position is just so wrong from all the scientific evidence, and it's just terribly unhelpful for parents who often struggle to get their children support. To have a comment like this from an MP is very, very unhelpful because it's just craziness.

"Scientists around the world have proven that dyslexia exists with MRI brain scans, and they have found the gene responsible. To say it doesn't exist is outdated but sensationalising it causes so many problems. We've been inundated with calls from anxious parents.

"Synthetic phonics is a very effective way of teaching children how to read and write, particularly those who struggle, but that's just one aspect of dyslexia, which affects working memory, concentration and maths. Phonics is not the only solution."

In a column for the entertainment website Manchester Confidential, Stringer said he had visited Strangeways prison in his constituency and roughly 80% of inmates all over the country were functionally illiterate as well as drug abusers. "I don't believe in panaceas, but I am confident that if the rate of literacy were improved, there would be an inevitable decline in crime.

"Children who cannot read or write find secondary school a humiliating and frustrating experience.

"Their rational response, with dire consequences, is to play truant. Drugs, burglaries, robberies and worse then often follow."

Stringer claimed the education establishment was failing to teach children to read and write properly because but would not admit it and had "invented a brain disorder called dyslexia" instead.

"To label children as dyslexic because they're confused by poor teaching methods is wicked," he said.

"If dyslexia really existed, then countries as diverse as Nicaragua and South Korea would not have been able to achieve literacy rates of nearly 100%."

There are thought to around six million people with dyslexia in the UK. At present ,35,500 students receive disability allowances for dyslexia, costing the taxpayer £78.4m.

Stringer added: "Certified dyslexics get longer in exams. There has been created a situation where there are financial and educational incentives to being bad at spelling and reading. This reached a pinnacle of absurdity, with Naomi Gadien, a second-year medical student initiating a legal case against the General Medical Council because she believes she's being discriminated against by having to do written exams."