Everything Dyslexia: New Information & Updates

This page contains new and updated information that could not be included in the book. The information here is provided as a service to readers by the author.

Goodbye to Amazon (posted 1 July 2011)

Amazon has terminated its associates arrangement with me because they are unwilling to collect and pay state sales tax on order shipped to California addresses which come from this web site. I happen to live in California, which is a lovely state, and I am very happy to pay sales tax for items I purchase. Over at the www.dyslexia.com site, which I manage, we of course collect and pay sales tax when required.

Given Amazon's position, I am removing all links to Amazon from this web site. I well understand that it is a hassle to collect tax and do all that accounting, but I don't see why some retailers should have to pay it while others don't. I often buy items from Amazon to be shipped to my son and grandson who live in the state of Washington — where Amazon is based — and whenever I do, I am charged Washington state sales tax. So Amazon obviously has the ability to collect and account for taxes that are owed.

I'd note that if Amazon collects the tax that California law requires it to collect, the company is not the one paying the tax -- that is something that is added to the cost of sales that customers pay. So it is not as if it would cost Amazon much out of pocket beyond the programming costs required to identify to tag the sales from California affiliates. They have to track those sales anyway, in order to pay the affiliate commissions It is obvious that they already have a system in place to know where their affiliates are located, because they had no problem at all figurin out who and where we were when it came to terminating our affiliate contracts.

In general, I will replace Amazon links with links to bookfinder.com, which doesn't pay out any commissions, but is a useful way to find books. I'll also put up some clearly labeled links to the www.dyslexia.com bookstore. I don't get any commissions that way either; I just think that if I am going to give someone the benefit of free advertisement, I'd prefer it go to an organization that actually helps people.

Things I never said:

A blogger and businessman has posted a statement attributed to me that simply is not something that I said, or would say. Given the way the internet works,I imagine that this misquote will soon be emailed and copied and dugg — so a repudiation and clarification is in order.

The statement by itself is not that offensive; he claims (falsely!) that: "According to research done by Abigail Marshall at Davis Dyslexia Association International, the average IQ of the dyslexic is 117 points."

Here's the problem: I'm an author, and the only "research" I have ever done into dyslexia is reading and writing about the research of others. (There's a difference between original, scientific "research" and the type of "research" that writers do.) I have written two books and certainly did an extensive overview of available literature for both of them, but I don't believe that I have read or found any report, anywhere, of an "average" IQ for dyslexics. I would be very skeptical if any such report was made, because dyslexia in the past was often diagnosed by looking for a significant discrepency between IQ scores and reading ability -- but that method of diagnosis or labeling has pretty much been abandoned. So if someone (not me) ever claimed that the "average" IQ was 117, that could be the result of a flawed data due to flawed and outmoded diagnostic criteria.

In any case, I really don't believe in the whole concept of IQ as some hard measurable number. So while I might quote a range for some purpose or another, I don't think I'd be caught dead making a statement about an "average" as specific as 117 (as if there is some magic difference between someone who scores 116 or 118 on the same test). The truth is that I don't have a clue as to what the "average" IQ might be among dyslexics, and I really don't care: I believe that all people labeled as "dyslexic" have gifts and talents, but not all such talents can be easily measured.

If you would like to share your comments or thoughts about the whole IQ thing, please visit my blog at http://dyslexity.blogspot.com/2009/04/things-i-never-said.html

New Book: When Your Child Has ... Dyslexia: My new book, When Your Child Has ... Dyslexia is now available. This is a revised, abridged and updated version of The Everything book, providing a wealth of information in a pocket book format. This book is a good choice for a parent who is not sure whether their child has dyslexia, or for parents of dyslexic children to share with others in their lives, such as teachers, tutors, and extended family. The book also contains updated information about changes in procedures under the IDEA law since the time of publication of the previous book -- especially useful with school systems using the RTI (Response to Intervention) approach for identifying children with learning disabilities.

UK Publication: Children with Dyslexia: My book has now been republished in the UK with the title The Parent's Guide to Children with Dyslexia [David & Charles, Publishers; November, 2005; ISBN: 0715323342]. The text and contents of the UK book are identical to the US version. Chapters 10 and 11 of my book cover United States laws and procedures related to arranging assessment and getting help for dyslexic children in schools; unfortunately this will not be of much help to British readers. I recommend that parents in the UK use the British Dyslexics web site as a resource to understand their rights under the 1993 Education act and procedures followed by the LEA (Local Eduction Authority) and the SEN (Special Educational Needs) coordinator or tribunal.

IDEA 2004: The Individuals with Disabilities with Education Act was re-enacted in 2004, after the publication date of the book. The 2004 enactment contains significant changes in language and procedure that may affect the rights of students under the law. An excellent web site reference for parents, educators, and advocates that will follow developments of the new law is IDEA Partnership.
BrightStar Program: BrightStar is a new program being advertised heavily in the US and UK. It is a novel approach to dyslexia, not based on any widely-accepted theory. Although it is advertised as "The Solution to Dyslexia", there is as yet little research to support the claims made by the commercial software development company that is marketing the program.