Here are five likely reasons, supported by research and insights into dyslexic strengths.
1. High Curiosity Fuels Scientific Passion
In Dyslexic Advantage’s Dyslexia at School Survey, 88% of parents reported that their dyslexic students demonstrated high curiosity and interest. This natural inclination to ask “why” and explore how things work can make science a particularly attractive field. Rather than simply accepting facts, many dyslexic individuals seem driven to understand the underlying principles behind phenomena, a foundational mindset for scientific inquiry.
2. Material Reasoning: Learning Through Hands-On Exploration
Many dyslexic students may also excel at reasoning through materials, or what Dyslexic Advantage calls M-strengths. They often prefer direct observation and experimentation to rote memorization or book learning.
Inductive reasoning—gathering observations, finding patterns, and developing hypotheses—is a natural fit for many dyslexic learners.
In interviews with dyslexic scientists, fieldwork and lab experiences often emerge as highlights. These hands-on opportunities allow them to connect deeply with the material, leading them to come up with original ideas and hypotheses.
3. Interconnected Reasoning Sparks Creative Ideas
Interconnected reasoning, or I-strengths, is another common dyslexic strength that aligns perfectly with science. Dyslexic thinkers are adept at noticing relationships and drawing analogies, skills that are invaluable in understanding the complex systems found in physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering. This ability to see connections where others might not is why engineering programs often report a higher proportion of dyslexic students compared to the general population.
For many dyslexic scientists, interconnected reasoning provides a pathway to innovation. Whether it’s designing new systems or understanding ecosystems, their ability to draw parallels and imagine solutions can lead to breakthroughs.
4. Narrative Memory Brings Science to Life
Because of strong narrative or personal memory, dyslexic individuals may observe and interpret science through stories, relationships, and unexpected findings. This N-strength allows them to remember and relate to the narratives behind scientific discoveries and translate abstract concepts into interesting analogies and metaphors.
5. Dynamic Reasoning: Predicting and Finding Patterns
Dynamic reasoning, or D-strengths, involves recognizing patterns, connecting dots, and making predictions in situations with many unknown variables. This intuitive way of thinking can be a hallmark of many dyslexic individuals.
In interviews with adult dyslexics, this skill repeatedly emerged as a driving force behind innovative thinking and discoveries. People tell us that they knew what was going to happen next, they knew that something would work or had to be true. Some scientists ran experiments or simulations in their head, then followed up with work that only confirmed their intuition.
The Unique Blend of Strengths
Dyslexic individuals bring important talents to science that some non-dyslexics may not have.
Besides 3d spatial perception and visualization, others have described negative space thinking – or an ability to notice what doesn’t fit in a particular paradigm or scenario.
With early life experiences with failures and navigating schools systems that weren’t designed for them, they may approach life with unusual resilience, being undaunted by setbacks and outright failure.
Many dyslexics can also have much richer hands-on knowledge by regularly solving problems they confront in day-to-day living, and learning through physical processes, making prototyping, and re-designing. By having such rich physical experiences, they may be more likely to analogize between processes and come up with new approaches.
Finally, the fact that many dyslexic people have such strong personal and incidental memories means that they will notice and remember things in their activities of sciences that others may overlook or not remember. These experiences form a pool of knowledge that can be called upon when imagining how things may or may not work, or running theoretical experiments to solve challenging questions.
Students may not see themselves as having the potential to be successful in science or engineering because of early school-related challenges, but that is definitely not true. We have assistive technology and spellcheck to help with later clerical writing tasks, but dyslexic minds have enormous potentials to contribute significantly to science and society as a whole.
