Having had a generation’s start on Professor Elliott and having spent half a century working daily with so-called dyslexic children, I suggest the term specific learning disabilities should be encouraged. This will allow the most common problems to be examined in a scientific way.
I have yet to see an explanation for the high incidence of the regular pattern of spelling problems - omissions, deletions and reversals accompanied by delayed reading - on the part of first-born boys. “Dyslexia” will not go away until education researchers and neurological scientists investigate the condition jointly, something I have asked for previously but failed to achieve.
I thank Professor Elliott for raising the subject once more.
Norman Freeman (retired Senco) 3 The Greenlands, Wombourne South Staffordshire
