Marianne Bernadotte at the CF Hill art auction on May 6 to raise funds for dyslexia charity

The Swedish Royal family member Marianne Bernadotte is still the vivid force of Style and Fashion in Sweden. Her dedication and strength as a philanthropist in among other fields dyslexia is amazing alongside her strength as a woman of timeless elegance.

Prince Carl Philip, Duke of Värmland and his spouse Princess Sofia, Duchess of Värmland accompanied with always elegant Marianne Bernadotte at the Bank Hotel in Stockholm with her Bolinder Dinner Ivory alongside her lovely Cartier jewelry set and her stylish Balmain Dress.

Adhering to the concept of Noblesse oblige, since the 1960s Bernadotte has been deeply involved with concerns in the areas of physical handicaps, health, research, and the arts. Her longtime charity work during 40 years for the issue of dyslexia is well known in Sweden. She is an Honorary Chairman of The Swedish Dyslexia Foundation and Swedish Dyslexia Association and Honorary President of The International Rodin Remediation Academy.

The art auction evening on May 6 was in the name of CFHILL and the "Marianne Bernadotte Centrum" at the Karolinska Institute.

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The Swedish Dyslexia Association

Read the story of Princess Marianne Bernadotte

 

A short summary of the history of Dyslexia

About 130 years ago the term ‘dyslexia’ was coined by a German professor in Stuggart. His name was Rudolf Berlin. He was an ophthalmologist and professor from Stuttgart and observed the difficulties some of his adult patients had in reading the printed words. He could find no problem with their vision, minds or intellect. He assumed that their difficulties in reading must be caused by some physical change or illness in the brain even if the nature of this eluded him. He coined the term dyslexia but never became famous for discovering why and how this disability came about or was cured. Berlin coined ‘dyslexia’ in line with the contemporary international medical literature as described the similar conditions of alexia and paralexia to bring the diagnosis from his viewpoint.) 

It was another German, Adolph Kussmaul, a Professor of Medicine at Strassburg who first identified the kind of difficulties Berlin had described. Kussmaul named it Wortblindheit (Eng: word-blindness) in 1877. 

Many years passed with the struggle to get dyslexia recognition as a disease and not a sign of stupidity or low intelligence. The years following the opening of the Word Blind Centre in 1962 are key to dyslexia’s later history.  This work would ultimately result in recognition by governments in the United States and around the World. In 2010 this was established in the 2010 Equality Act, with protection for people with dyslexia under the legislation. The myths surrounded around dyslexia as parents explanation to excuse their children’s poor performance in reading in school is still around but has over the time been reduced thanks to research and science. Prejudice is a hard nut to crack. 

Among the many people contributing to this work in separating intelligence and IQ from dyslexia shall be mentioned Pringle Morgan and James Hinshelwood accounts of their ‘otherwise bright and intelligent’ child subjects. Despite a child’s struggle in one academic area, their general intelligence was unaffected in other areas. Albert Einstein is the most obvious example of this. Like many people with dyslexia, Albert Einstein was a late talker. He reportedly didn't start speaking comfortably until he was nearly 6 years old. In fact, that period of his early life is so well known for historians that delayed speech in kids is sometimes called the Einstein Syndrome. 

Much work is still in need to be done both on prejudice and on finding a cure for dyslexia. The dyslexia debate continues, principally in educational psychology. The most notable recent criticism of the term is the 2014 book The Dyslexia Debate. It has caused a vivid debate. One thing is sure. The support for dyslexia issue in the philanthropy work from Marianne Bernadotte and The Swedish Dyslexia Association is well deserved high respect and support.

 

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