So now we are going to talk about the psychological consequences of dyslexia for the individual but also for the family. The consequences of dyslexia at the psychological level are often disastrous. Just imagine what it is to sit in a classroom surrounded by classmates who seem to learn to read and write effortlessly and with pleasure, whereas these activities are dreadfully difficult for you. And this happens day after day, years after years. Not only do you need to do much more efforts than the others to succeed, but on top of that these efforts are not rewarded by good marks. This is often really a traumatic experience, and many adults with dyslexia still have tears in their eyes when they are evoking their years of schooling. Also think about how academic success is polarizing the society. Think about those family dinners for example when there's a uncle or a grandparent who doesn't know much about dyslexia or reading difficulties or learning difficulties, and who's asking, 'so how was is it going at school'? And then the silence. According to the famous French psychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik, no less than 40% of the learners aged between 10 and 24 think about death at school because they feel anxious and depressed. Statistics show that they really need a strong relationship between reading abilities and feeling of well-being. The Fondation Dyslexie, Belgium calculated that compared to successful readers, dyslexics were three times more at risk to commit suicide and six times more at risk to drop out (of) school. We also know that school drop-out goes hand in hand with anti-social behavior, marginalization and delinquency. This fact is very well illustrated by the fact that the proportion of dyslexics is higher in the prison population than in the society in general. I now invite you to watch a presentation by professor Linda Siegel of the University of British Columbia, in Canada, on the relationship between illiteracy and incarceration, and the need to identify, and intervene early with dyslexic learners. >> Dyslexia and other learning disabilities represent a very important problem for our society. I will discuss how dyslexia and other learning disabilities have a significant impact on our justice system. Identification and intervention for learning disabilities is very important. On the basis of research we know that many of the young people who live on the streets of large cities and perhaps even smaller towns have learning disabilities that have not been properly detected and remediated. We know that many adolescent suicides are a result of learning disabilities that have not been properly identified and remediated. Based on studies in many countries, in many different parts of the world, we know that the majority of the people in prison have learning disabilities that have not been detected and identified. Undiagnosed and untreated learning disabilities cause emotional and social problems such as depression and anxiety. Based on studies in many different parts of the world, we know that individuals who are involved with the justice system have significantly higher illiteracy rates than the populations as a whole. Dyslexia and other learning disabilities are very costly to the justice system. There is the cost of police investigation. There is the cost of trials. There is cost of actual incarceration of somebody in prison. For example, in Canada that costs $20,000 Canadian dollars per year per person who is incarcerated. And also, there is the cost of the loss of productive members of society. We know that low literacy skills and delinquency are correlated. Incarcerated youth have lower rates of literacy than non-incarcerated youths. We know that individuals with low levels of literacy are much more likely to repeat their crimes. We know that once a young person is in jail, they are very unlikely to return to school. Identifying and treating dyslexia and other learning disabilities will not solve all the problems of the world, but it will be a giant step forward.
