5 ms·

Since dyslexia exists on a spectrum, it's not surprising that no single dyslexia font shows consistent benefits in controlled studies. Fonts may still affect co

by Emen15 10mo ago

Since dyslexia exists on a spectrum, it's not surprising that no single dyslexia font shows consistent benefits in controlled studies. Fonts may still affect comfort or personal preference for some individuals, which isn't the same as consistent gains.

thaumasiotes 10mo ago
> Since dyslexia exists on a spectrum, it's not surprising that no single dyslexia font shows consistent benefits in controlled studies. This makes no sense. A spectrum would involve everyone having the same problem to different degrees; anything that addressed that problem would consistently show an effect.
- randall 10mo ago
  2d spectrums exist. autism being one example where it’s both sensory under / overstimulation and repetitive activity preference / avoidance.
  - nephihaha 10mo ago
    I suspect that autism is more a cluster of conditions than a single line. I may be wrong. There is a fashion for calling everything a spectrum. Maybe "range" would be a better term for a linear progression.
    - airstrike 10mo ago
      In my experience, so is dyslexia
      - randall 10mo ago
        yeah this was more my point. even eyesight deficiencies are 2d.
      - nephihaha 10mo ago
        FWIW some face blindness is common in autism, and I suspect this is somehow related to dyslexia.
        airstrike 10mo ago
        That's interesting. I know someone who's dyslexic, highly educated (grad school), not autistic, and has some level of face blindness.
    - randall 10mo ago
      yeah. autism is a bunch of 3d clustering things for sure. any single dimension of autism can be sliced 2d imo.
- Spooky23 10mo ago
  It’s a neurological problem where people essentially have difficulty mapping written material to sounds. That’s difficult to measure objectively. Many schools lack the specialists who can spot this, and when they do, Teachers try different adaptations that help kids, so you’re going to have varying results based on the adaptations the person understands. I have something called APD (auditory processing disorder) which essentially means that the areas of my brain that listen to speech, especially higher pitched female speech aren’t fully developed — I had chronic ear infections and my heading was negatively impacted. I adapted well, although with undiagnosed ADHD. Others do not for a variety of reasons.
- RobotToaster 10mo ago
  Spectrum is probably the wrong term. IMO it's probably a bunch of different underlying issues that sometimes occur together. So something may help type 1 dyslexia, but not help type 2 or type 3 etc.
  - thaumasiotes 10mo ago
    That would also show consistent benefits in controlled studies.
    - fastasucan 10mo ago
      No, not in practise. Its hard to controll for something that isn't understood enough. You would have to have a good ekough sampling across the groups, and esch group would have to be big enough.
  - Ekaros 10mo ago
    I would also say that dyslexia isn't a single general condition. But in general group of issues that affect textual communication. Person could for example have certain repeating type of issues while writing, but still be able to read well and without issues. This is also a type of dyslexia.
  - IAmBroom 10mo ago
    So, spectral (as in fuzzy bands of clumped outputs that may overlap, but may have gaps, and may in some cases be less fuzzy), but not a spectrum (a continuous, fairly smoothly distributed shape over a wide range).
  - wafflemaker 10mo ago
    You might enjoy the fact that some experts call it the "fruit salad of autism/ADHD". The say that spectrum is inaccurate and the fruit salad is a better name) analogy/description. Like with fruit salad, you can serve it to a table of people and everyone will have fruit salad on their plate, but it will be randomly varied for all. Some will have a lot of one fruit and a few others. Some will have all but one and so on.
- soneca 10mo ago
  > "A spectrum would involve everyone having the same problem to different degrees;" I learned the opposite, that the term spectrum is used when it is not same problem to different degrees. That's how the autism spectrum was explained to me, because the problem differs over the spectrum. In opposition to "level" or "gradient", which is intended to be something more linear over the same dimension. I believe this redefinition of the term comes from how a "rainbow spectrum" is perceived, as different colors (and not as it is defined, as a linear degree of wavelength)
  - thaumasiotes 10mo ago
    > I learned the opposite, that the term spectrum is used when it is not same problem to different degrees. That's how the autism spectrum was explained to me, because the problem differs over the spectrum. The autism spectrum, in specific, was unified from what had been listed as separate disorders. That was done because the view was reached that these disorders reflected different degrees of the same underlying problem.
    - dns_snek 10mo ago
      > That was done because the view was reached that these disorders reflected different degrees of the same underlying problem. No, precisely the opposite. They weren't different degrees of the same underlying problem, they were a few different combinations of symptoms from a few different symptom categories: social, communication, and repetitive behaviors. Something being a spectrum is not just a matter of intensity on a single axis ("more or less autistic"). Imagine a graph of the visible light spectrum, wavelengths map to symptoms and their intensities map to symptom severities. ASD is a spectrum because different individuals have different levels of impairment in each area. Consider this: Why is ASD a spectrum disorder and social anxiety isn't? Surely you don't believe that anxiety only comes in a single level of severity.

by Emen15 10mo ago

thaumasiotes 10mo ago

> Since dyslexia exists on a spectrum, it's not surprising that no single dyslexia font shows consistent benefits in controlled studies. This makes no sense. A spectrum would involve everyone having the same problem to different degrees; anything that addressed that problem would consistently show an effect.

randall 10mo ago
2d spectrums exist. autism being one example where it’s both sensory under / overstimulation and repetitive activity preference / avoidance.
- nephihaha 10mo ago
  I suspect that autism is more a cluster of conditions than a single line. I may be wrong. There is a fashion for calling everything a spectrum. Maybe "range" would be a better term for a linear progression.
  - airstrike 10mo ago
    In my experience, so is dyslexia
    - randall 10mo ago
      yeah this was more my point. even eyesight deficiencies are 2d.
    - nephihaha 10mo ago
      FWIW some face blindness is common in autism, and I suspect this is somehow related to dyslexia.
      - airstrike 10mo ago
        That's interesting. I know someone who's dyslexic, highly educated (grad school), not autistic, and has some level of face blindness.
  - randall 10mo ago
    yeah. autism is a bunch of 3d clustering things for sure. any single dimension of autism can be sliced 2d imo.
Spooky23 10mo ago
It’s a neurological problem where people essentially have difficulty mapping written material to sounds. That’s difficult to measure objectively. Many schools lack the specialists who can spot this, and when they do, Teachers try different adaptations that help kids, so you’re going to have varying results based on the adaptations the person understands. I have something called APD (auditory processing disorder) which essentially means that the areas of my brain that listen to speech, especially higher pitched female speech aren’t fully developed — I had chronic ear infections and my heading was negatively impacted. I adapted well, although with undiagnosed ADHD. Others do not for a variety of reasons.
RobotToaster 10mo ago
Spectrum is probably the wrong term. IMO it's probably a bunch of different underlying issues that sometimes occur together. So something may help type 1 dyslexia, but not help type 2 or type 3 etc.
- thaumasiotes 10mo ago
  That would also show consistent benefits in controlled studies.
  - fastasucan 10mo ago
    No, not in practise. Its hard to controll for something that isn't understood enough. You would have to have a good ekough sampling across the groups, and esch group would have to be big enough.
- Ekaros 10mo ago
  I would also say that dyslexia isn't a single general condition. But in general group of issues that affect textual communication. Person could for example have certain repeating type of issues while writing, but still be able to read well and without issues. This is also a type of dyslexia.
- IAmBroom 10mo ago
  So, spectral (as in fuzzy bands of clumped outputs that may overlap, but may have gaps, and may in some cases be less fuzzy), but not a spectrum (a continuous, fairly smoothly distributed shape over a wide range).
- wafflemaker 10mo ago
  You might enjoy the fact that some experts call it the "fruit salad of autism/ADHD". The say that spectrum is inaccurate and the fruit salad is a better name) analogy/description. Like with fruit salad, you can serve it to a table of people and everyone will have fruit salad on their plate, but it will be randomly varied for all. Some will have a lot of one fruit and a few others. Some will have all but one and so on.
soneca 10mo ago
> "A spectrum would involve everyone having the same problem to different degrees;" I learned the opposite, that the term spectrum is used when it is not same problem to different degrees. That's how the autism spectrum was explained to me, because the problem differs over the spectrum. In opposition to "level" or "gradient", which is intended to be something more linear over the same dimension. I believe this redefinition of the term comes from how a "rainbow spectrum" is perceived, as different colors (and not as it is defined, as a linear degree of wavelength)
- thaumasiotes 10mo ago
  > I learned the opposite, that the term spectrum is used when it is not same problem to different degrees. That's how the autism spectrum was explained to me, because the problem differs over the spectrum. The autism spectrum, in specific, was unified from what had been listed as separate disorders. That was done because the view was reached that these disorders reflected different degrees of the same underlying problem.
  - dns_snek 10mo ago
    > That was done because the view was reached that these disorders reflected different degrees of the same underlying problem. No, precisely the opposite. They weren't different degrees of the same underlying problem, they were a few different combinations of symptoms from a few different symptom categories: social, communication, and repetitive behaviors. Something being a spectrum is not just a matter of intensity on a single axis ("more or less autistic"). Imagine a graph of the visible light spectrum, wavelengths map to symptoms and their intensities map to symptom severities. ASD is a spectrum because different individuals have different levels of impairment in each area. Consider this: Why is ASD a spectrum disorder and social anxiety isn't? Surely you don't believe that anxiety only comes in a single level of severity.