THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 26, 1997 TAG: 9701240069
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E11 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: The Imperfect Navigator
SOURCE: BY ALEXANDRIA BERGER
LENGTH: 68 lines
ENNIS COSBY was dyslexic. Bill Cosby's slain son overcame a learning disability that affects 20 percent of schoolchildren.
But if you watched television's coverage of his tragic death, you would have thought Ennis Cosby had a disease one point below a malignant tumor.
CNN News: ``Ennis Cosby was dyslexic.'' ABC News: ``Ennis Cosby fought and overcame, dyslexia.''
Simply put, dyslexia relates to the brain's perception of language. Children - and adults - with dyslexia can visualize and verbally describe Spot running, they just can't put the sounds to the written words ``See Spot run.''
Speaking is automatic. It occurs unconsciously with the help of a part of the brain that can decipher and decode speech. Reading must be learned. A reader must mechanically and consciously learn letters representing sounds. In dyslexia, this level of cognition is at a disadvantage.
For example, dyslexics misname objects. That's because the brain confuses the sounds. A picture of a ``volcano'' may be verbalized as a ``tornado.'' Word meaning, grammar and the ability to speak are in tact, but their complete use is blocked by the brain's more simple process of decoding sounds (phonemes).
To verify the public's perception of dyslexia, I hit the mall the other day and asked 100 people if they knew what dyslexia was. More than half said dyslexia has something to do with mental retardation. Absolutely wrong. Dyslexics usually are very intelligent, motivated, posses excellent reasoning skills, can comprehend and conceptualize.
Ten percent said dyslexia was when kids write backward. Wrong. Dyslexic children have problems in naming letters but not in copying letters. Backward writing and reversals of letters are common in the early stages of writing development for both dyslexics and nondyslexic kids.
With the exception of three people surveyed, the rest of the folks thought Ennis had cancer, a muscle disorder, was born deaf - or they really hadn't a clue. Other myths: Dyslexia can be outgrown. Wrong. Intelligence is in no way related to how we process the sounds words make, or phonological (think of phonograph - sound) skills. Even though, as in Ennis' case, dyslexics learn to read accurately, they continue to read slowly and not automatically.
After two decades of research, we now know eye training is not a treatment for dyslexia, clearly a linguistic deficit. There are accurate tests to determine whether your child is dyslexic.
One, the Auditory Analysis Test, asks a child to segment words into their underlying phonological units, and then delete specific sounds (delete the `t' in town). Sally E. Shaywitz says in an article in the November 1996 Scientific American that this test relates to a child's ability to decode single words. It proves dyslexia is independent of intelligence.
So . . . if you're dyslexic, you're in some pretty impressive company. Albert Einstein, the author John Irving, poet William Butler Yeats, Gen. George Patton and power broker Charles Schwab all fought and compensated brilliantly for this brain disorder. So did Ennis Cosby, who with the help of aware parents almost made it to the top.
For me, Ennis' death was especially tragic. Some years ago, when I lived on New York's East Side, Bill Cosby used to jog each morning in the neighborhood when he was in town. Along with the rest of us in the neighborhood, he was just folks.
One Thanksgiving, my son, home for college break, came running in to our apartment yelling: ``Mom, I just met Bill Cosby on the street. He was talking to everyone, just like he was one of us. He was so cool. Right out there. He didn't mince words.''
Bill Cosby also made it possible for his son to read them. MEMO: Write to Alexandria Berger, c/o Virginian-Pilot, 150 W. Brambleton
Ave., Norfolk, Va. 23510.