George Bush's LD?

I don’t know for sure but from listening to him talk he clearly has some kind of a language-based LD. He misuses words and stumbles over them as well. He makes grammatical errors in his speech that are not indicative of his background.

My best guess is that he talked late, was never a great reader, and has a language based LD.

Lets not forget that He does have a speach writer and does not always speak his own words, it may be the speach writer that is using words improperly, but someone should double check the speaches first before he reads them publicly

Lets not forget that He does have a speach writer and does not always speak his own words, it may be the speach writer that is using words improperly, but someone should double check the speaches first before he reads them publicly. It would however be very interesting to know what his LD is and try to get him involved in finding funding for our childrens needs according to their LD.

LOL!

Does everyone who gets tongue tied when speaking before a large audience automatically have an LD? Too funny!

Many of the published lists of prominent people with LD’s are put together not by credible sources, but by net pranksters who like to have a bit of sport with celebrities.

Not that being President (or the only two-term governor in TX history) is impossible for someone with an LD. I just don’t think W. has one.

I’ve heard a rumour that he was dyslexic. Although it’s an unconfirmed rumour, it does tie in to the fact that he pushed phonics in Texas and has been heard mentioning phonics when he was campaigning nationally for President.

He makes his mistakes when he speaks impromptu - not in his speeches.

For example, he said “An act of war has been declared upon us.”

That makes no sense . He meant to say either

An act of war has been perpetuated upon us

Or

War has been declared.

You cannot “declare” an act of war. You can declare war but you can’t declare something that’s already happened. It’s more than a grammatical error - it’s a misuse of language. It’s a stumbling for words that characterizes a person with language based LD.

There’s nothing wrong with having learning differences - even if you’re a President.

… and likely informed him on the phonics vs. whole language vs. teaching kids to read debate.

I always thought he was ADHD…..case in point, he is a very active man, does most of his thinking while moving.
Also, I think he is an auditory processor, since he prefers to listen rather than read.
I think whatever might be his special challenges, he has risen beyond expectations in this country’s crisis.
It doesn’t always take brilliance to make a stand, and to be compassionate, or to make wise choices. Besides, anyone who can graduate from an Ivy League school can’t be too messed up!

Thanks to all who have responded to this post - I never thought it would generate such discussion!

Wow, I’d like to have a hidden mike in the golfcart when George Bush gets together with our Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, who also has the characteristics that Sara has just described. Whether in English or French no one can quite match Jean’s fractured syntax (and this has nothing to do with his partial facial paralysis, which is an altogether separate issue). They say that after a scrum on Parliament Hill in Ottawa the journalists from the various outlets sometimes have to get together to try to figure out the intent of what the P.M. has had to say!

At any rate, the young adolescents I work with quite realize the seriousness of the current world situation, and know what a key role your president has to play. I do think that some find genuine inspiration in him.

Whether or not GW has a learning disability, the Bush family has gone out of its way to try to try help children learn to read, so they can read to learn. Check out the Barbara Bush Foundation website at

www.barbarabushfoundation.com

Our current First Lady, Laura Bush, is a teacher. She worked to promote literacy in Texas, and you can bet family literacy will continue to be a big issue for her. JJ

It’s a shame they weren’t in TX when my son was in kgarten and first grade.(Ann Richards then) Maybe he wouldn’t have taken so long to recuperate from the ‘write to read” program, the 30 different words he was supposed to learn while not knowing the sound symbol relationship of most of the alphabet (10 phonics, 10 reading, 10 spelling) or all those F’s he got that he thought were the first letter in his last name. My son finally learned to read a little bit in VA during 2nd grade.He’s been catching up ever since.

How can learn to read when you do not know phonic sounds. In my experience, children can’t read if they do not know the sounds of vowels and consonants.

My question indeed. I am still not sure he gets all of it, blends and such. I don’t even remember him getting worksheets or cards, anything in all his 7+ years of school that teach (or reinforce the teaching) all that. He has a hard time still identifying long or complex words. I heard him just the other day misreading a word on my email. At the same time, last year he had B’s in English, C’s in reading and an A at least once in social studies, C’s in math and science.Go figure. This yr in 7th there is no reading class. Supposedly there will be a lot of writing. He gets assistance from a sp.ed. teacher part time and has accommodations which help in class. However, his scores on the Terra Nova test were horrible on the reading/lang. part, he was average to high average on the parts that were read to him. So, I am still unconvinced that he is actually doing well, even with the class grades. He has admitted to me that on other tests, he has made patterns with the ovals. He writes on the test booklet these days.

He didn’t start seeing a reading specialist until the 2nd grade and our 3rd school district(state to state moves, TX,FL, then VA) That is when he finally showed some improvement and got a teacher that really made an effort for him.
3rd grade was hell(screaming teacher, we couldn’t get him out, 3rd in line), however 4th he got another good teacher and finally someone proved I wasn’t crazy for thinking something was wrong.It’s been bumpy roads since.

I figure that his difficulty lies with expressive language at the very least. I LIKE it that he’s got such problems and think that he can be a great role model if he’s daring enough to admit it.

Frankly I get incensed when people criticize him for his fractured language. They speak disdainly of him and insinuate that his intelligence is lacking because his speech isn’t perfect. To my eyes and ears, it tells more about their own ignorance and arrogance when it comes to LD’s. And reminds me of the work we all have to do to get this sort of bias overcome.