Reading Failure and the Learning-Dyslabeled Child
Melvin D. Levine M.D.1
1 Division of Ambulatory Pediatrics, Children's Hospital Medical Center, Boston, MA 02115
It is easier to be an adult than a child. In middle life, there are multiple options for the consummation of strengths; vocational and avocational niches offer refuge to the most divergent of functional profiles. During childhood, academic and social demands are rigid, allowing for little or no eccentricity, and sometimes alienating those youth who are destined to become better adults than children. A child may be made to feel guilty if he or she does not demonstrate high levels of attainment or working capacity in language arts, quantitative thinking, motor activities, and social adaptability. There is the expectation that a young brain can be a "perfect machine."
