From Jon Finney
I have an IQ of 131. I have just submitted my PhD. I am in the top 2 per cent for linguistic ability in my age group in the country. However, I spell like an average 12-year-old, read at the speed of an 11-year-old and construct words phonetically like an average 7-year-old. In a word I am dyslexic. Now, it appears, I drive like a drunk, or least like someone who is over the limit (5 February, p 12).
Fortunately, your story included information on the very small group that the results were derived from. Only 6 dyslexics were compared with 11 non-dyslexics. Imagine if such a limited test had been carried out on say 6 women and 11 men or 6 black drivers and 11 white drivers and any such claim for difference had been made. The uproar would have been, quite rightly, deafening.
What surprises me is that data from such a small (dare one say minuscule) group has ever seen the light of day. Before publishing anything of this nature, much more research should be undertaken. Like many dyslexics I have suffered over the years from constant discrimination, as I cannot spell and find reading difficult at times. This new “revelation” will not help this situation.
All I can say is thank you for a reasonably well balanced report and for including the numbers of volunteers used, as this will allow anyone with an ounce of sense to see the ludicrous nature of the conclusions that have been drawn.
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From John Clark
Surely, if this was true, then Jackie Stewart, who is dyslexic, would never have been Formula One world racing car champion.
Leeds, UK
From Susan Parkinson, Arts Dyslexia Trust
This question highlights the important difference between audio-sequential and visual-spatial thinkers. The first, who are happy relating things according to their position in time, may sometimes react more quickly to road signs. But the second group, to which most dyslexics belong, are more acutely aware of how things relate in space. Safe driving would seem to demand not only quick reactions but good spatial judgement and an awareness of what is happening on the road ahead.
In fact, the people who lack visual-spatial awareness are likely to be a very much greater danger on the roads than any poor time-keeper, whether dyslexic or not.
Ashford, Kent, UK
Ely, Cambridgeshire, UK
