When I listened to music, I used to get really frustrated because I could never understand the words of a song that I had just heard for the first time... then I reread my report: "Isla struggles with auditory processing." Now, I understand...that makes a lot of...
The Karina Eide Young Writers Awards 2023
Congratulations Karina Eide Young Writer Award Winners 2023! Read the creative entries here!
Smooth Sailing into September
It's that time of year again when students have either started back or are beginning to start back to the school year and even old work routines. While some aspects of getting back to old routines are welcome, there are plenty of reasons why students, teachers, and...
Dyslexic Strengths in Times of Adversity
"...dyslexics sometimes seem unusually well suited to deal with major changes -- to being able to see opportunities inside of adversity. They are known to be particularly good at rethinking situations in an original way. They are known to be able to see what others...
Building Spatial Talents [Premium]
“…Spatial reasoning has been key to numerous scientific advances, such as the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA and the epidemiological research using maps to discover the true source of cholera outbreaks. It is also essential to many 21st-century careers, particularly in science and engineering… But are we able to see and support these particular kinds of talent in our classrooms?” — Lakin and Wai, Phi Delta Kappan What are spatial talents? In short, they are talents that involve visualizing objects and places in 3d and being able to manipulate them at will. These are talents that seem rich within the dyslexic community, but may be overlooked or neglected in conventional school activities. It’s an important strength set to recognize because it tends […]
Dyslexic Super Learners [Premium]
“This isn’t how I think either; this is how I have trained myself to think, because it works.” – Kevin Horsley, World Memory Champion and author of Unlimited Memory It seems surprisingly common that dyslexics are found among the world’s super-learners. It might be that all share a passion for understanding their memory strengths after suffering what may have been years in the school system, not realizing how to use their gifts. It also might be that dyslexics as a group have strengths in metacognition, especially when studied in selected groups like those found in universities. When Kirby and colleagues studied dyslexic and non dyslexic students in college, his study group of dyslexic students were more likely to use metacognition (i.e. thinking about their thinking), […]
Actor Stephen Graham [Premium]
Actor Stephen Graham has been described as one of the most talented actors the United Kingdom has ever seen. Yet, he almost didn’t get a chance at his breakthrough role in Snatch when the director Guy Ritchie, asked whether he had come to read for the part. Stephen had just come along to support his friend who was trying to get the job, but when Guy found out that he was also an actor, he encouraged him to give it a try. Stephen told him that because he was dyslexic, he couldn’t do a cold read. I don’t know whether he knew that Guy Ritchie is also dyslexic – but fortunately for Stephen, Guy asked him to improvise the scene instead and he completely smashed […]
Creative Productivity [Premium]
“…the progress of civilization, can, in many ways, be charted by the actions of history’s most gifted and talented contributors to the arts, sciences, and all of their areas of human performance…” — Joseph Renzulli, UConn Three Ring Conception of Giftedness In a clarion call for society to recognize the importance of developing creative productivity in young people, Joe Renzulli makes the point that “the most efficient lesson learners are not necessarily those persons who go on to make important contributions in the realm of creativity.” This point is undoubtedly true for many creative dyslexics who have made and are making important creative contributions to the world. He talks about “schoolhouse giftedness” which he also calls “test- taking or lesson-learning giftedness” and “creative […]
Novelist Natasha Solomons
"Books are my refuge, but I had to overcome dyslexia to write the stories I was bursting to tell." — Natasha Solomons Natasha is a lifelong storyteller, but it took a lot of persistence and resilience to get those stories out. As a child, she listened to...
Complementary Cognition
" ...our current education and work environments are often not designed to make the most of dyslexia associated thinking, we hope this research provides a starting point for further exploration of the economic, cultural and social benefits the whole of society can...
Questions and Answers
From our recent virtual lecture for the Hamlin Robinson Speaker Series, here are a few questions from viewers: QUESTION: How do you separate vision processing disorders from dyslexia? How do you think about these? Also same with auditory processing disorders like...
No Small Project: Harvey Fite’s Opus 40
When I heard that what's been called America's Stonehenge, Opus 40, was hand-built by a dyslexic artist, I wasn't really surprised. A lot of dyslexics are grand slam-type creators. Harvey Fite spent half his life creating the Opus 40 Sculpture Park. He hand cut and...