James Hinshelwood
The discovery of Dyslexia is attributed to nineteenth century Ophthalmologist James Hinshelwood. Over many years Hinshelwood was sent children whose failure to read was attributed to poor eyesight, however in many cases tests did not confirm this. In-fact their eyesight seemed perfectly fine. This led Hinshelwood to coin the term word blindness to describe those people who could not see words properly in spite of their otherwise perfect vision. We now recognise the symptoms detailed by James Hinshelwood as Dyslexia.
Why Dyslexia?
In 1887 a German Ophthalmologist named Dr. Rudolf Berlin coined the term Dyslexia having noticed Hinshelwood's word blindness in his own patients. Berlin's choice of the term Dyslexia most likely derived from two Greek words:
- Dys-meaning faulty or broken
- Lexis-meaning language or speech
Dyslexia is now recognised as the most common of all learning disabilities, taking many forms and displaying a range of symptoms.
