The gift of Dyslexia

December 19th, 2006

The label “dyslexia” or “dyslexic” need not be feared. With the correct help, any child or adult with dyslexia can be turned around and become successful.

In her book, “Dyslexia a Guide for Parents”, Dawn says:

The Internet is full of lists of famous dyslexics. Six past American presidents have been dyslexic and many, many billionaires are dyslexic. Dyslexic kids are good at many things. If you cannot see this in your child now you will notice it as soon as your child is stress free and able to cope at school.

I have worked with dyslexic children for over thirty years and I have found them all to be lovely, bright and adorable. I set up and ran the first certified TAFE course for dyslexics and all the lecturers involved talked about how nice the class of dyslexics was.

Once your dyslexic child is doing well and coping with life you will be amazed at how generous, helpful and excellent he/she is. These kids are definitely worth the time and energy spent on them.”

Success

Dyslexics experience the world differently from others. Although many have trouble spelling, reading and writing, they have other talents that give them the ability to succeed in other areas.

Dyslexics tend to be right brained and, therefore, excel in the areas of design, sport, music, dance, art, writing and other creative pursuits. There are many famous dyslexics. It could be argued that without the help that having dyslexia gave them these people would not have been so successful. Dyslexia is a gift as well as a curse.

Success for the dyslexic is dependent upon the way the gift is nurtured. Unfortunately, in many cases this gift is turned into a disability. Schools tend to concentrate heavily on what a child is failing at. For a dyslexic this may mean doing far more reading and spelling than anything else.

Famous and Millionaires

In a study carried out recently for the BBC2 series ‘Mind of a Millionaire’, which was set up to discover “what made a millionaire”, it was found that at least forty percent of all self-made millionaires knew that they were dyslexic. Psychologists who “analyzed the mental make up of business winners” discovered dyslexic type learning difficulties to be “one of the most important precursors of financial success”. 1

Only about four percent of people in our society become millionaires before they reach retirement, so, a dyslexic is actually far, far more likely to become a millionaire than a non-dyslexic is.

In an age when how much you are worth is considered to be one of the greatest measures of your achievement in life it could be claimed that dyslexics are far more likely to achieve in life than an ordinary person. I cannot help wondering if our school system is really all that good when those who fail in it go on to achieve more than those who succeed.

Despite modern technological progress at school we are all still being taught to be ‘Medieval Clerks’. We are being taught to read and write and do basic and higher maths. We are being taught facts because they exist. This type of education keeps a civilization static, because everyone ends up knowing the same things. Dyslexics hate to remain static. If there are walls and boundaries anywhere the dyslexic likes to knock them down and explore what’s on the other side.

In our heads are voices that are always shouting “but why does it have to be this way? What if …?”. We are taught to do a certain sum because, we are told, “this is how it is done”, but we are not interested in doing it the same way as everyone else. We want to find a better way. If we fail to find a better method then we will accept the established way and always remember it.

You can tell that dyslexics think like this by the sort of questions they ask all the time. The very first question one of my more recent eight-year old pupils asked me was, “Can you tell me why it gets very cold at night in a desert?” Another initial question was: “Why can’t we see air?”
We have the technology now to do the sums and the spelling and even the reading for us so surely what we now need are ‘Renaissance men’.

Famous

The line separating the famous from the forgotten is almost certainly marked by lack of confidence or self belief.

In her books, Dawn explains how you can build your child/student’s self esteem to amazing results. More can be found in Dawns book, “Dyslexia How to Win“.

Famous dyslexics are thought to include:

Dawn has analysed why dyslexics do so well. This is part of what she says in “Dyslexia – How to Win“.

Creative or Global Brain

It has long been known that the right and left brains do not have exactly the same function. The left side is thought to be more analytical while the right side is more creative or global. Since dyslexia is not considered to be brain damage but rather the result of the brain being different, it stands to reason that dyslexics also have gifts. We use our right brain more than ordinary people and our left less. If dyslexics were in the majority we would change educational methods and I can assure you that correct spelling and memorizing times tables would play no part in education at all.

Below is a diagram to show the difference in basic brain use between a dyslexic and a non-dyslexic. You can see from this that the dyslexic uses less of h/h left brain that a non-dyslexic does and that (s)he also uses more of his/her right brain than a non-dyslexic does. When we are unable to do the left-brained things the world thinks we are stupid, but when we do the extra right-brained things the world thinks that we are very clever indeed.

This means that dyslexics are able to “think outside the normal box” and “see the bigger picture”. This is one reason why so many of us go on to become millionaires. When studying the makeup of a millionaire another attribute that dyslexics showed was tenacity. Dyslexics, it was discovered, hate to ever accept failure.

It is so sad that much of the current education system causes us dyslexics to fail. We have to turn this around and teach dyslexic kids differently.

Reference:

1. The Sunday Times 5th October 2003 Ben Dowell

Entry Filed under: Dyslexia