I am highly skeptical of these terms.  To the extent that these phenomena are real, the children diagnosed with them occupy points on continua (continuums/”spectrums”).  Some parents are wrestling with serious problems.  Others get hoodwinked while their precious children are warehoused or otherwise neglected.  The terms ADHD, Dyslexia, and Autism often become excuses for failings that have little to do with the children so labeled.  Bristol Standard’s reading guarantees apply to all three groups, and that is not likely to change.  Please see the following resources.

• How To Spell Dyslexia (articles for teachers).
• An Autistic Control (next article).
• ADHD: Is it real? Does it matter?  (articles for teachers).
• Restlessness & Distractibility.
• Distractibility. (Articles for districts)

An Autistic Control

I’ve been teaching since about 2009.  Every once in a while, you see a child that is quite different.  People try to put them into categories, and I gather this can be helpful.  When Bristol Standard was conducting its first controlled trial, the students in the trial were divided into two groups of 24 children each.  I was teaching just down the hall from a kindergarten child who was reportedly autistic.  He seemed to have emotional outbursts now and then, so the teacher kept his wooden desk/chair next to her desk to enhance her influence when the child became disruptive.

I knew that many autistic children tend to be less distractible.  They tend to focus on details and learn a great deal about whatever interests them.  They tend to be analytical.  Consequently, I suspected this child could be taught to read.  Unfortunately for that child, he was in the study’s control group.  Since control groups are used for comparison with other groups (to see if something really works), I couldn’t work with him without throwing off the study results.

One day, all of the students that worked with me were unavailable for some reason, so I offered to work with the autistic child. I think I ultimately worked with him twice.  Anyway, it was clear to me that he had a high reading aptitude and would have learned quickly if he had been in the group of children the study protocol allowed me to work with.  On separate occasions, I explained to both the teacher and the assistant teacher that the autistic child had a high reading aptitude and could learn to read easily.  I explained how to do it.  I offered to provide the teaching materials, knowing that it would hurt my study results.  They nodded and pretended to be interested, but they weren’t.  They did nothing to help that child.  He had his label and the teachers had their excuse.  Nothing was done.  This phenomenon is called warehousing:  Difficult children are simply ignored until they fall far enough behind that the school can “justify” tutoring and other interventions.