[stylist] Quote to ponder - taken to another level -spelling is first, recognition of a pattern

[Robert Leslie Newman]

Hi you all, good discussion going here:

My take on spelling, or in the larger sense the ability to "read" itself is
not a question of vision, or touch or hearing --- but is a question that
begins with the human ability to recognize and decipher patterns.  And I'm
starting at this super basic point, and from that we can plug in our
questions of "is spelling and/or reading a visual or tactile  or auditory
reliant skill?" Or, "can someone who has been blind all their life
'visualize,' in order to do things?" 

Well, I think we know that  " people do learn to read and spell using vision
(interpreting visual markings which consist of a known alphabet). And we
know that people also learn to read and spell via touch, by the use of
Braille (another system of set patterns consisting of raised dots that
represent the same stuff the visual world is working with). Also, we all
know that most anyone who can hear, is able to read via recordings. 

Finally, we all know that some of us have a preferred mode of learning, that
tends to favor our dominant sensory modality like -- A person might say, "I
am a visual learner." Or, "I learn best if it is hands-on?" Or, "Reading it
in Braille is what makes it stick for me." Or, etc. 

And so what is my point? Well --- that we humans are intelligent and
adaptive. That we all have more than one sensory modality that we can use to
read and know if a word is spelled correctly. Also that we all tend to favor
one sensory modality over the others. And yes, some of us are "visual"
learners, where some are hands-on, and some are auditory. Additionally, our
proficiency with any of these sensory modalities, our ability to read and
spell is greatly impacted by how we have worked with and trained to use our
chosen mode of operating with that favored sense. Bottom-line, any and all
of these sensory pathways will work; hopefully as we go through life, we
have the opportunity to make use of our favorite sensory modality for all
the tasks we find necessary to perform. And if we have to give up our
favorite, either in part or in its entirety, then that we have the
opportunity to learn how to make use of the next best pathway to reading
and/or being able to continue on with our lives. (What is being said between
the line is - one group does not have it over the others! Second, there is
much ignorance and with the consequence, there is too much discrimination
that happens with all this going on.) 

 (This past Saturday, I attended a meeting of the Nebraska Commission Board,
and there was a testimony by a first year college student who started out
reading braille in elementary school; in later elementary classes, got a new
"Vision Teacher" and was switched to magnifying glasses that allowed her to
read 20 words per minute [with much eye strain and headaches]; in high
school she got a different "Vision Teacher" and was switched back to braille
and now she reads at 485 words per minute.) And yea,  then was  , using