ACTION ALERT: APA considers removing dyslexia from DSM-5

On the IDA website, and in an email message from Susan Barton, there are urgent calls to action.

The American Psychiatric Association is considering eliminating the code for Dyslexia as a diagnosis from the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). This could have very serious implications for those trying to get access to special education. The APA is accepting public comments until June 15th. Please send a letter or email message to the APA asking that the DSM-5 include a separate diagnostic code for dyslexia. My email message is below.

Please CLICK HERE for further information from the IDA, more ideas for your own message, and the email address. (Direct link address is also here: http://www.interdys.org/DSM5Revisions.htm#.T70X7EVfF5c .)

Sent to APA on Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Subject: Dyslexia: Three Susans Ask You to Reconsider

Dear Members of the American Psychiatric Association,

I am writing to request that the diagnosis of Dyslexia be included in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).

Do you know how many more children will be unable to receive help in school if the diagnosis of dyslexia is no longer recommended by the DSM? This is moving backwards.

Dyslexia has been a researched, scientifically-proven condition for a very long time. There are interventions and accommodations that can help, but without receiving a diagnosis accepted by all, it may be very difficult to get access to that help.

There are already difficulties is obtaining an education for a child with dyslexia. For example, if one lives in a state like Minnesota, having dyslexia alone will not qualify a child for an IEP; the child must have another diagnosis, such as ADHD, in order to get help. (Clearly, a child with dyslexia needs interventions, whether or not a comorbid condition exists.) By leaving dyslexia as a diagnosis out of the DSM, it will be even more difficult for children to receive that "fair and appropriate education" to which all children are supposedly entitled.  

Here are the words of Susan Barton, who has taught many about the prevalence of dyslexia. I echo her statements and her request to restore the DSM-5 to the fall version in which Dyslexia had a diagnostic code.

"Please restore 315.00 Dyslexia. . . . 

10 states have dyslexia laws (and 5 others are working on it), many governors have declared October to be Dyslexia Awareness Month, and state departments of education are (finally) creating Dyslexia Handbooks for their schools. 

The U.S. Congress now has a Dyslexia Caucus. . . .

Other countries have diagnostic codes for dyslexia.

In DSM-5, dyslexia needs a diagnostic code of its own." 

(This material is quoted from an email message sent to APA by Susan Barton, Founder of Bright Solutions for Dyslexia. She forwarded the content of her message to others involved with dyslexia.)

Susan Lowell, Vice President of the International Dyslexia Association, writes, "Two other considerations support the position that dyslexia belongs in DSM-5," including "to align with the work of the international scientific and clinical community" as seen in the ICD-10, and "to have the DSM-5 align with federal special education law" where dyslexia has been included as a Specific Learning Disability since 1975. She writes, "DSM-5 must align with both national and international work." (Susan C. Lowell, M.A., B.C.E.T., quoted from IDA website, http://www.interdys.org/DSM5Revisions.htm#.T70X7EVfF5c  .)

I am the "third Susan" of the three mentioned in the subject line of this message. (I do not know those two experts I quoted--we just all happen to be named Susan.) As a parent of a child with dyslexia, and as a teacher, I am asking you to please, please reconsider. Please include a diagnostic code of its own for Dyslexia.

Sincerely,

Susan Snyder Austin, M.A.