Illiteracy affects 42 million American adults, leaving them unable to fill out a simple job application or enjoy a book
Pat Bingham has lived her whole life with dyslexia, but she recently chose to seek help. Many people who suffer from the disorder use memorization, sentence context and first-letter recognition to work out words that don't register correctly.
On a recent sunlit Tuesday morning, 74-year-old Pat Bingham met up with her teacher and tutor, Judy Haley Giesen, of Dubuque, just as she has two times per week for the past year and a half.
In a brightly lit room on the second floor of the Northeast Iowa Community College Town Clock Center, 700 Main St. in Dubuque, students of all ages meet one-on-one with tutors to work through problems with literacy in general and dyslexia in particular. Giesen has been specially trained to help students with dyslexia.
Sitting side-by-side at a table, the two painstakingly work through the spelling and sounding out of words. Alphabet letters and letter combinations are printed on color-coded magnetized squares and arranged on what at first appears to be a Scrabble board.
Elegant in a blue outfit with turquoise accessories, Bingham vividly recalls her difficulties with reading as a child.
"In first grade, the nuns made me write my full name every day -- Patricia Ann Spitzenberger -- and it was really hard for me," Bingham said. "And it didn't seem fair. The other kids had names like Tom Smith.
"I was tested
dyslexia, a definition Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. In other words, something in the brain is causing the difficulty. It's a language-processing disorder that is likely an inherited trait. Dyslexia is characterized by "difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition, and by poor spelling and decoding abilities." Decoding is the ability to recognize written or printed representations of words.warning signs of dyslexia in adults * Poor speller * Avoids writing, often quick to hand off writing to others * Often very competent in oral language * May have excellent "people" skills * Has some difficulty with right versus left * Sometimes gets lost, even in a familiar place * Has an excellent memory * Reads with difficulty, slowly * May confuse b and d.
The National Literacy Foundation reports that approximately 14 percent of American adults, or 42 million, are completely unable to read and that an additional 50 million adults are unable to read beyond the expected level of a fourth-grader. Assuming Dubuque follows the national trend, almost 8,000 adults locally cannot read well enough to fill out a simple job application form.
Getting around the problem
A misconception about dyslexia is that dyslexics cannot read. Reportedly, all dyslexics read, but only up to a point. Early on, they begin using strategies to get around their difficulties, often by picking up context clues and guessing at a word by looking at the first letters. Having a good memory also is helpful, but teachers indicate that by third or fourth grade, memory simply isn't enough.
"My teachers kept on telling me that I just wasn't applying myself, that I just wasn't trying. And it wasn't just my teachers. I'd get that at home as well. My own father would say, 'What the hell's wrong with you, Pat?' It's bad when your own father calls you stupid. So teachers would tell me to keep trying. I'd look at the words on paper, and keep looking at the words, and then look again, and it meant nothing to me."
Effect on children
For younger people, the inability to make out words correctly often pales in comparison to the teasing and bullying they might experience due to their learning disability. Others look at them as being "dumb" or "stupid."
"Spelling bees in school were very shaming for me," Bingham said, looking pained at the memories more than half a century later. "When it came to my turn, I'd simply say 'I don't know' and then sit down."
By high school, things were a little better. Having an outgoing and energetic personality helped Bingham tremendously. "My personality got me through. I could speak very well, I related very well to people and I had a really good memory," Bingham said.
Then she and some of her friends went to a play by Dostoevsky called "The Idiot," and she asked her friends something that would follow her like a soiled bridal train until the day she left school. She asked, "What's an i-dot?"
Illiteracy in prison
In the prison and jail population, the percentages of adult illiteracy skyrocket. The National Institute for Literacy reports that fully 70 percent of prisoners in state and federal systems can be classified as illiterate, and that 85 percent of all juvenile offenders can be termed functionally or marginally illiterate. Very few counties in Iowa address the issue of literacy among inmates. Dubuque County does not. The sheriff in Scott County, Iowa, has put a program in place to help inmates who have difficulty reading and writing.
"As part of our booking process, we ask every inmate a simple question, 'Can you read and write?' and if they say 'no' we follow up with an offer of help," said Scott County Jail Director of Programs Bill Boyd. "Not everyone says yes to the offer of help, but when they do we have volunteer tutors who come and work with them."
Inmates in Scott County are also encouraged to work on a high school diploma and are tutored in anticipation of taking the General Educational Development (GED) test.
"The inability to read is a major factor in the lives of our inmates and almost certainly contributed to why they are with us," Boyd said.
A federal study shows that rates of re-arrest, reconviction and re-incarceration were much higher for the members of the prison population who had not participated in correctional education programs, about a 10 percent difference in all three categories.
Causes of illiteracy
There are many causes for illiteracy in the United States, and poverty tops the list, followed by learning disabilities. In the United States, at least half of all those who are illiterate grew up in homes where the income is below the national poverty standards.
The second-most-common cause of illiteracy is learning disabilities, and far and away the most common learning disability is dyslexia. It is estimated that 70 to 80 percent of learning-disabled people with poor or nonexistent reading skills are dyslexic.
The symptoms of dyslexia were first noticed by a German named Oswald Berkhan in 1881 in a sanctuary/institution he ran for disabled and ill people. He noted that a couple of bright people in his care were having reading difficulties, but it would be a full century before the disability was understood to any great extent.
Children as young as age 5 can be accurately tested for dyslexia, though it rarely happens. With limited resources, schools do what they can. The National Institutes of Health report that of every 100 dyslexics, only five are diagnosed and given help. The other 95 struggle, going through life as best they can with little or no assistance from others.
A continuing battle
As the years roll by it doesn't get any easier. One might assume that once a dyslexic person reaches a comfortable place in life and seems to be managing quite well despite the learning disability, that life would be easier. Unfortunately, the untreated issue continues to rear its ugly head.
"It's tough," Bingham said. "You write letters to a Marine son and you worry about looking like an idiot. Or you read stories to a grandchild and when they get to be 5 or 6 they turn to you while you're reading and say, 'Grandma, that's not what it says.'
"When I'm done with this course my goal is to help others who have had the same difficulties," Bingham continued. "I try not to ever accept something without giving something back, and this is no different. I hope to help others. No one should have to go through what I went through."
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