Class and classification: the London Word Blind Centre for Dyslexic children, 1962–1972

William Whyte

doi:10.1080/03054985.2020.1751099

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Word Blind Centre for Dyslexic Children opened in London in 1963. It was not only the first clinic established in Britain specifically to cater for children diagnosed with dyslexia. It was also intended to provide compelling evidence that a condition called dyslexia actually existed. The results of this work were published in Sandhaya Naidoo’s path-breaking study, Specific Dyslexia, which did exactly what its promoters had hoped it would, drawing on in-depth studies of 196 children to argue that dyslexia was indeed a distinct ‘constitutional disorder’. Using the archives produced by Naidoo and other sources, my article offers the first-ever account of this pioneering enterprise, exploring the reasons the Centre was set up, the way it worked, and the consequences of its work. In particular, it focuses on the rationale for Naidoo’s report, which only dealt with the experiences of middle-class boys. This choice is highly revealing, illuminating attitudes to reading, to class and gender, and to the competition for authority amongst the professionals who sought to explore all these issues. An intriguing case study in its own right, this also sets the scene for many of the themes that follow in this Special Issue.

Highlights

On 12 April 1962 something like 350 people attended a conference on ‘Word-Blindness, or Specific Developmental Dyslexia’ in London.1 Convened by the Invalid Children’s Aid Association (ICAA) and hosted by the Medical College at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, the sheer scale of the enterprise surprised even its organisers, who had expected less than a third of that number to turn up, and found themselves turning away disappointed prospective participants who ‘almost literally jammed the doors’ in their enthusiasm to join in (McLeod 1966, p. 14)
KEYWORDS Dyslexia; psychology; education; social class; psychiatry neurologists, paediatricians, Medical Officers of Health, psychiatrists, psychologists, Social Workers, various professors concerned with language and education, apart from school teachers and just some plain parents, as the chairman of the ICAA, Dr Alfred White Franklin, observed at the start of the event (White Franklin, 1962, p. 4)
All looked set for a successful conference: one intended ‘to ventilate what is known and thought about the diagnosis and treatment of specific developmental dyslexia’ (White Franklin, 1962: n.p.)

Summary

Introduction

On 12 April 1962 something like 350 people attended a conference on ‘Word-Blindness, or Specific Developmental Dyslexia’ in London.1 Convened by the Invalid Children’s Aid Association (ICAA) and hosted by the Medical College at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, the sheer scale of the enterprise surprised even its organisers, who had expected less than a third of that number to turn up, and found themselves turning away disappointed prospective participants who ‘almost literally jammed the doors’ in their enthusiasm to join in (McLeod 1966, p. 14). 121), the Word Blind Centre acquired its own premises in 1965, moving to ‘a small school building on the point of being demolished in Coram’s Fields’, loaned to it by the Institute of Child Health at Great Ormond Street Hospital

Results

Conclusion