Why a cure for Dyslexia?

December 18th, 2006

Last week a parent gave me yet another web site address to investigate; yet another web site and yet another group of people claiming to cure dyslexia.

I have worked with dyslexic children and adults for over thirty years. I am dyslexic and I have three very successful dyslexic children. I taught my eldest dyslexic son to read before he went to school. I made sure his spelling was good, but I never taught him how not to be dyslexic. How could I? He was born dyslexic. His brain matured differently from the brains of his friends. He was born dyslexic and would always be dyslexic.

Does this worry me and is he still looking for a cure? No of cause he is not. Why would he want to not be dyslexic? Why on Earth would he want to be normal when most normal people are well – ordinary.

My daughter had great problems coping with the sheer volume of reading during her degree in writing. Of course she wanted a to be able to read quickly and without continual eye strain. But did she wish not to be dyslexic? No because she was getting better marks for her writing than most of her class.

Do I ever wish not to be dyslexic? You must be joking. Why would I want to be one of the masses? Why, when as a dyslexic, I am so special?

There are just so many things that we dyslexics can do that you non dyslexics struggle like hell with. And one of those things is making money.

We have the ideas, the intuition, we can see the big picture, we can solve problems, we have the people skills and we have the determination. This is why nearly half of all self made millionaires are dyslexic.

I have seen many of these millionaire dyslexics talk about their success but I have never heard any of them wish hey were not dyslexic. Dyslexia is a gift and all you have to do to harness it is to stop trying to be like everyone else and embrace the gift of dyslexia.

Instead of making your dyslexic child try to conform, spell perfectly and memorize his or her times tables let him or her be his or herself. Let the true genius come out.

When your dyslexic child tells you of some new idea he has – listen to it. When a dyslexic walks into your bank with a badly spelt business proposal take special note of it, because a dyslexic is statistically ten times more likely to succeed with a business than a non dyslexic – and it does not matter whether he or she can spell well or not. Nor does it matter that he or she does not know his times tables. We are entrepreneurs not mere calculators.

Entry Filed under: Dyslexia