No, there isn’t an equivalence between two ‘sides’. The research behind Dore is either adequate to back up the claims they make, or it isn’t. If Dore want to sell the treatment based on anecdotal success stories, then they should make this limited evidence-base clear in their advertising.

To ask again, do you think that it would make potential customers better-informed if Dore listed the more notable critiques of some of the research into Dore on their Research page.

In the end it is up to the individual what they think about Dore and what they see or hear in the media. The fact Dore can change childrens lives or the fact there is lack of research to prove it.

As an aside, if Dore does has such dramatic effects, there’s also a lack of research to prove safety. How do we know that some children would not develop quicker and better without the use of Dore?

As Ben Goldacre suggests, if Dore is ‘proved’ to work due with positive anecdotes, can it be ‘proved’ to be ineffective or harmful with negative anecdotes?

In the end it is up to the individual what they think about Dore and what they see or hear in the media. The fact Dore can change childrens lives or the fact there is lack of research to prove it. The debate continues!!!. Ellie XXX

“In every country about 2-5% of children have problems learning to read and spell due to general language delays, weak auditory or verbal short-term memory, or other perceptual and cognitive deficits BUT these are language and memory problems, not “reading disorder” problems.”

Ah, but this is exactly what I was saying. Every country has poor readers. You assume that they are not genetically determined, but what if those all those individual “causes” you cite above are part of a pattern of poor development that are induced by a genetic tendency.

Furthermore, I have tested many children who read well and have good phonics skills (because someone taught them well) but who avoid pleasure reading because of persistent visual discomfort. They don’t always know it’s visual, because sometimes they just get headaches, but when you address their vision skills issues, their discomfort disappears.

Had these children gone through a poor US public school they undoubtedly would have stood out as dyslexics. Had they attended an Italian school as native Italians, they likely never would have shown up on the radar screen as having any reading problems. I maintain that eventually these people, too, will be found to be affected by the same genetic abnormality. When we finally figure out how to do the test and actually “read” the gene, I think we will find that 8 to 12% of the world-wide population has that particular gene activated. I also think that we will find that it is activated in those we consider autistic, affected by Aspergers, are dyslexic, have ADD, are dyspraxic and yes, even the “normal” readers who avoid reading due to headaches, etc. The 8-12% is a pure guess, and is based on it likely not being higher than 15 or 16% and having a 5% floor due to the numbers you willingly cite. The 2% is pure fantasy, but is heavily favored by the “everyone will learn to read using the right phonics program” contingent.

Face it, no one has done the studies required to sort all of this out and a lot of people are speculating, including me. However, I’ve asked nearly every parent of children who come in for vision evaluations because they have reading problems whether there is a history of reading struggles in the family and it is a very rare parent who claims that the child in front of me is the only one in the family affected. A far more common reaction is “That would be my husband…he still doesn’t like to read,” or “I really didn’t like to read at all until just a few years ago,” or “I had special reading help in the lower grades” or “I’ve got two brothers who still hate to read.” Either that, or I’m looking at a parent who has one eye obviously out of alignment. Out of nearly 100 such queries, I could count the negative responses on one hand….seriously.

You see, I really don’t need a research project because of the number of times I’ve asked the question and the consistency of the answers I’ve received. The leaves are going to fall from the trees next September and October. How do I know that? Because I’ve seen it with my own eyes enough times that I’m pretty sure that’s what happens.

Frankly, people who keep calling for research before they’ll even consider that someone just might have a point are usually trying to protect a firmly held point of view that is threatened. In your case, you’ve convinced yourself that a) dyslexia isn’t genetic (when anyone who’s around them regularly can’t help but notice with their own eyes the family patterns) and b) that treatments like vision therapy and Dore’s are not useful because you “know” it’s all about providing proper instruction (when there are hundreds of Dore practitioners and vision therapists who keep doing what they’re doing because they see the difference it makes in kids’ lives.) If you would get out of your self-limiting intellectual box and visit a Dore Center or a vision therapy department in a serious way, you would find sincere people who know they are helping kids and who become mystified by attitudes of people who won’t even ask them what kind of results they’ve obtained. Instead they find a skeptic who’s produced a paper and broadcast it’s existence ad infinitum. That paper will likely be proven wrong, just as those disparaging vision therapy are now being proven wrong.

Take a look at the Convergence Insufficiency Study portion on the sidebar of my website for an example of the latter case.

Incidentally, I am in 100% agreement of the need to use a phonics program from the start with children, and am probably very close to you in terms of what sort of phonics program. But I took the blinders off a few years ago as I realized that many kids who struggle are suffering from more than just poor instruction.

Please don’t misunderstand me here. I’m not a supporter of Dore. However, what he claims to be accomplishing (and what parents claim he actually is accomplishing) is consistent with my observations that something genetic is definitely going on, and that it appears to affect normal child development. Therefore, I will not rule out the possibility that when an apparently intelligent and sincere person tells us that he’s helping these kids, I should at least pay him the respect of listening to what he has to say. And if he decides that the best way to proceed is via a business model because he knows he will have satisfied customers, rather than trying to convince the powers that be to adopt his approach, that’s his business. If it turns out he’s right, I hope he becomes a billionaire. It will be money well spent.