Dyslexia or written acquisition process?

Abstract

In the present study we examined the uncertainty that accompanies the definition of dyslexia associated with a notion of learning disability or difficulties in acquiring written language. We discuss the lack of evidence on the causes of this so-called disorder as well as the descriptive inconsistency of the “dyslexic symptoms”. Understanding language as a dialogic activity, as a historical and social constitutive task in contraposition to reducing it to a pathology, we have shown that such “symptoms” reveal the strategies used by the leaner for using and constructing a written text. We noted that when the focus is directed towards the graphical aspects of the written text and its content is ignored, the evaluative strategies involved in diagnosis are not meeting their objective to evaluate writing. We have analyzed, using the indices paradigm two cases of children who have been identified as having difficulties in learning to write. Our analysis is based on the comprehension of the singularity of the subjects’ adopted process for acquiring language, and observed that despite the label that they were given, they are able to produce texts that have a referential progression and story development. We can hypothesize that the different graphical and conventional aspects of the text are signs of the construction of this object of knowledge.