The gift of dislexia/autism

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I happened across this book the other day " The gift of dislexia by Ronald D. Davis ". On the surface it seems like just some kind of teaching manual for people dealing with dislexia. But very quickly i found that the subject of the book was perhaps not actually dislexia but really the autistic spectrum (and why it for instance perhaps crosses over into things like ADHD, dislexia and the like).

The guy who wrote it (Ronald D. Davis) was diagnosed as a Kanner's baby and was non comunicable until later life. After working as an engineer for many years he decided to fund his own research into autism (and dislexia) so that (as he's stated) "he could benefit from the results".

What they found from this research is that perhaps autism is not an illness at all (surprise surprise) but a cognitive difference that creates a type of disorientation in the brain. Something which actually could be considered a gift (as it leads to the ability to use your imagination in ways others could only dream of and also re-interpret stimuli to a desired effect). They also believe that it could be something that develops in early childhood and that the only real issue with it is how to teach kids with autism to re-orient themselves to there environment in order to kind of come to an agreement between how there brains are and how the rest of the world expects them to be.

I've read a lot of strange conjecture and theories about what autism is in the past and to be honest as of yet this is the only one i've come across that's made me sit up and think " yeah ok actually that could make a lot of sense, and it explains so quickly why x, y and z is happening".

I wonder if anyone else has come across this or anything like it?

Frankly i'm also just tired of seeing all the research resources and money going towards the non existant "cure" for autism and treating it as an illness that i was also just amazed to see what the results are when someone who actually has autism funds there own research (and how different the findings become).

Thanks for sharing this, Piisami

Dyslexia &/or high-functioning autism can be approached in two ways. (1) Either as a 'problem' to be fixed or instead (2) to acknowledge those differences and go with it. Fighting innate abilities, which can in fact be our strengths, is a futile battle that effectively rips an individual's self worth and ultimately their very being.

Now, I am not asserting that AS is 'easy'. Rather, that we cannot develop unless and until we hone those unique traits so they can be appropriately applied. Like you, I am sickened by all the funds and resources squandered into 'fixing' AS, which is akin to pounding a square peg into a round hole. At some level, this approach is cruel. Instead, turn the approach around.

We must choose to believe our AS does advantageously matter as the premise, then proceed. I'm checking our Ronald D. Davis now.

What both of you said makes sense to me. I think I will do a little reading up on this gentleman as well.

Yeah, I came across him awhile back.

I think his theory explains my (paternal) uncle's dyslexia. My uncle was really good at mechanical stuff - anything spatial, really. And while some dyslexic kids have subtle spoken language difficulties contributing to their dyslexia, he spoke just fine.

My Dad and brother are both visual thinkers, but never had any issues with reading. I'm kind of intermediate - most of my thoughts are narrated videos, with the video and the narration being of roughly equal importance.

i'm almost wondering why he's not better know. I mean i literally, kinda stumbled across it and in all my reading on the subject prior have never seen anything like it mentioned.........

@LabPet, the more i've read into it the more i could be concerned as to the motivation for why most of the money goes towards finding a "cure". It seems there could be a couple of reasons that stand out.

1: profit: It is highly profitable to pharmaceuticals if autism is a curable illness because they can then manufacture the cure and already make a fair chunk of money out of things like medication for ADHD. So it's not surprising that they perhaps put a fair chunk of money towards funding this research (and not any of the alternatives).

2:cost: even though there are perhaps some theories that say it could actually cost the public less in the long run to tackle autism as a difference there are those who believe the short term cost is cheaper to medicate the "problem" away. also it may require more of people to understand autism as a difference than it perhaps does just to label it an illness and move on to the next.

3:Personal experience: It's been said before but an alarming number of people involved in research into autism perhaps have very little if any experience with the autistic spectrum itself. But often feel overly qualified to make assessments based often on potentially medieval and/or outdated research carried out by other people who also drew there own conclusions without much personal experience being involved (also why i find the Davis research so interesting).

4:denial of the bigger issue. If you take into account all these "cross-spectrum" conditions together it is hard to ignore the likelihood that the number of people being born into this is exponentially growing (even if you account for the theory that diagnosis has become relaxed there is still a fair amount of evidence that this could only account for something like a 3/rd of the growth). And this also feed into Ronald Davis's theory that it is perhaps more likely to be a part of evolution than a defect.

There's also a lot of evidence within the research into autism as an illness that seems to get written off or ignored. For instance how some people on the highest ends of the spectrum can become comunicable in later life. Not enough research is done for instance into why that is possible as is possibly done into why it couldn't be.

piisami,
one of the main reasons autism is treated as something to remove from society is because many parents of young kids with autism and much of the general public see 'autism' as being represented by profoundly autistic stereotypes.
these well meaning but ignorant folks think those of us on the LFA spectrum will live miserable lives,cannot learn,will be burdens on everyone and wont ever contribute to society in any manner.
if only people stopped using their own lives and opinions as a yard stick to judge autistics lives we might get a better understanding from society.

of course those of us with LFA will never have functioning ability to half our physical age and of course HFAs will never be naturaly good socializers but the question is,why does this matter? why does it matter if a HFA doesnt like having close friends? why does it matter that we [LFA] will always live in care homes?
who gives anyone else the right to make a mental blue print for what a life shoud be like to qualify as a life?

people including past support staff are shocked when have told them that do not personaly want to be cured and that feel at peace with self and autism,as the stereotype of LFA has always been one of tragedy,of burden,of low quality of life and pointless living.
some people including WP members have said am not LFA if do not want curing.
its all about having the right environment, understanding, support, specialists,medical intervention, equipment and encouragement in place, to thrive as LFA.

the only real reason people want us all on the spectrum cured is so they can feel smug about themselves for having cured a bunch of people that they believe are suffering.

I always enjoy reading your posts, KingdomOfRats----the profundity is striking.

You're right about the folks "in charge" using their own lives as a yardstick to judge ours.

It's a "rule" all through society that the ones who make "the rules", don't know anything about for what they're making the rules.

I have little interest in philosophical discussions about the 'gift' of autism - I just wish I could be like everybody else...

I support the development of these types of programs to help children learn, but I am wary of something that markets and sells scientifically unstudied/unproven methods for decades, plenty of time for the creator to provide evidence that the programs work. The kind of program that I favor is one that doesn't charge money for development phase when children who participate are bascially human test subjects, and doesn't heavily market or make big claims that may or may not stand up in scientific studies of efficacy by itself or in comparison to other programs.

@KingdomOfRats: well put

@btbnnyr: yeah i was wondering about that myself. I can't really find much about the research itself which is frustrating (only what Donald has written about it himself). It could be nice to have some of it clarified in detail. Also agree that making it into some kind of paid course is suspicious (altho i read the book from the library for free and did find it very interesting/useful regardless). And i can't help but wonder if it's a tricky one because of what i said before, it seems like as far as i can tell this kind of research (that isn't just into autism as an illness) seems to barley exist at all in the mainstream and perhaps that's why there is nothing so accountable within it. (Donald claims that he funded his own scientific research outside of the mainstream).

I mean irrespective i think the book could be worth a gander. Even if you treat it with a pinch of salt, just as an idea or direction that research could at least seek to delve into properly it makes some interesting cases. Basically i could be hesitant to write the whole thing off on that basis alone. But definitely agree it could be nice to see some of these ideas quantified (or alternatively disqualified should that be the case) publicly.

also for more information on Ron Davis (bit of a cheesy video, but interesting non the less).
Youtube link here

I tried to find information on the research and methods also, but I couldn't find studies that the creator has published about the efficacy of his dylexia program, and now he has an autism program too.