Do You Read Me?

A fascinating and compelling exploration of the learning process for parents, teachers, and anyone with an interest in education. Reading and writing are fundamentally about the communication of meaning. Yet, when a child has difficulty in learning to read and write, the one area that is never seen as having any relevance is the child's life experiences. The author's contention is that the concept of dyslexia is something that has been invented, rather than discovered, in order to evade the question of meaning and the understanding of the individual. Based on the author's thirty years' experience of both educational psychology and analytical therapy, the book sets out a radical approach to learning difficulties in which the primary assumption is that there will usually be underlying emotional conflicts, tensions, and anxieties. Any learning disability is thus more likely to be the symptom of less-evident, personal difficulties, rather than a problem in itself. The book examines, with examples, typical patterns of personal and emotional difficulty that give rise to learning problems.

JF Miller

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR INTRODUCTION PART I: READING DISABILITY CHAPTER ONE The dyslexia muddle CHAPTER TWO Acronyms, non-science, and nonsense CHAPTER THREE "Those who can't...": the emperor's new clothes CHAPTER FOUR First base CHAPTER FIVE Feeding, reading, and mental anorexia CHAPTER SIX Emotional health and fitness CHAPTER SEVEN Family matters: the inner story CHAPTER EIGHT Family matters: the external situation CHAPTER NINE Secrets, lies, and hidden agenda CHAPTER TEN Autodidacts and the Garden of Eden CHAPTER ELEVEN Go for it! The function of aggression CHAPTER TWELVE Writing: exposure or self-affirmation? CHAPTER THIRTEEN Boring! Attention and interest CHAPTER FOURTEEN What is your story? CHAPTER FIFTEEN Un-ready adults CHAPTER SIXTEEN Dysnumeracy: the "third r" CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Hyperlexia, dysbiblia, and the problem of giftedness PART III: THE EDUCATION ISSUE CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Schooling and education: liberation or persecution? PART IV: DIAGNOSIS FOR REAL UNDERSTANDING CHAPTER NINETEEN Useless intelligence: sensible and nonsensical uses of standardised tests CHAPTER TWENTY How to do assessment and diagnosis: capturing individuality POSTSCRIPT Education in crisis REFERENCES INDEX