I heard Brian Grayzer's name mentioned on lists of Hollywood producers who are dyslexic, but only recently learned more about the backstory and motivations for making the films that he does. First, Brian's dyslexia: "I was getting all F’s, maybe an occasional D, but I...
Lewis Hamilton has been hailed as the one the greatest Formula 1 drivers of all time. He’s won 7 world championships and holds many racing championship records. As a 10 year old, Lewis made a name for himself because he walked up to McLaren team boss Ron Dennis, saying “I’m Lewis Hamilton. I just won the British Championship and one day I want to be racing your cars.” Dennis told him to come back in 9 years – but just 3 years later, he signed a contract with McLaren, breaking a record for the youngest person contacted by an F1 team. “…when I was at school, I was dyslexic and struggling like hell, and one of the only few Black kids in my school, being […]
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What many tutors will have noticed is that many structured literacy strategies require frequent repetition because they focus remediation on tasks that are especially difficult for many dyslexic students – the automatic identification of the phonemes that make up words.
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There are many ways of getting from A to Z and many of them don’t require a 4.0 GPA and elite school tracks. Dyslexics as a group may have trouble following the traditional route to their dream career because many of their academic strengths are late-blooming.
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There is a talent cluster that we’ve seen among dyslexics in diverse backgrounds, and it’s a gift of being able to see people and events from multiple perspectives. Within the MIND strengths framework, this could be in I for Interconnected Thinking, N for Narrative Thinking, or D for Dynamic Thinking. It is a gift to be able to visualize or or imagine a simulation of how people and events can be seen from different perspectives, and it allows empathy for people and situations that others might miss, or a connection of events that others see separately, and predictions that provide positive opportunities for bettering one’s situation or the world, or staving off problems. You might notice children who seem unusually empathetic or observant about the […]
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We’re often asked to give suggestions of activities or jobs that might be bad matches for people who are dyslexic, but the best answer is almost always, “It depends.” Dyslexic people tend to excel in creative activities that may include some or all of the MIND strengths (Material Reasoning, Interconnected Reasoning, Narrative Reasoning, Dynamic Reasoning). Difficult activities for dyslexics tend to include secretarial work because of its demands on proofreading and transcription, and rote repetitive jobs that require that tasks be done the same way every time. However, there are few absolute prohibitions when it comes to different activities or fields. In many fields or careers, challenges may arise, but in most cases these can be overcome with workarounds, technology, partnering with someone else, or […]
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How do I develop my strengths? How do I develop my strengths in my kids? We get asked these two questions a lot. It does seem that if you ask people how they found their careers or life’s passions there are twists and turns and there seem to be serendipitous events that make a person take one path vs. the other. But it probably is a good idea to have more conscious thought involved with careers or it may be more likely that you (or your child) could end up in an unsatisfying and poorly fitting career. HOW DO MIND STRENGTHS FIT INTO THIS PICTURE? Dyslexic MIND strengths were the result of surveying this community and comparing them to non-dyslexics. It doesn’t mean […]
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Among professionals who work with dyslexic students, there have long been recommendations to mind map ideas. In recent basic neuroscience research, there’s been a growing understanding why. Neuroscientists have long studied how knowledge seems to work in the brain with schemas -or patterns that can form a flexible reference base that helps us understand new or existing knowledge or make decisions for how to act. But these schemas have largely been studied in a context of verbal memory – with only more recent insights into “the other schemas.” As it turns out there are a lot of other schemas and processes involving schema-making. They are non-verbal and spatial – and that is where the implications for dyslexic people may come into play. If you are […]
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This webinar was rescheduled from a planned presentation at Cambridge University. Although dyslexia has traditionally been defined in negative and narrow terms, these definitions are poorly matched to the breadth of research on dyslexic children and adults. Here the Eides present their case that dyslexia should not be defined solely as a defect or deficiency, but rather as a cognitive specialization – that prioritizes episodic cognition. Bookmark Please login to bookmark ClosePlease login to access.
* MIND is an acronym from the first edition of Dyslexic Advantage. It stands for Material Reasoning, Interconnected Reasoning, Narrative Reasoning, and Dynamic Reasoning. Q: It's been 11 years since the first edition of The Dyslexic Advantage was published. Why is it...
“The more you know yourself, the more patience you have for what you see in others.” – Erik Erikson In the late 1950’s and early 60’s, Erik Erikson, Harvard professor of Psychology, proposed 6 stages of psychosocial development that supplanted other theories of personality development – like those of Sigmund Freud’s. His model of life stages had 8 parts and described the whole life span beginning at birth (trust vs mistrust) and ending at death (integrity vs. despair). Today his work is seen as having contributed tremendously to early childhood education as well as an understanding of psychology throughout the lifespan. Despite the intense social and emotional pressures that dyslexic children face in their early school years, there are surprisingly few routine practices in place […]
Dyslexic storytellers are among the greatest storytellers who ever lived. They weave their stories in family get-togethers, business meetings, novels, screenplays, and poems, films, illustrations, cartoons, and paintings. When we first began learning more about dyslexia from the families we came to know, the gifts that some in the field were familiar with were visual – but when we got to know more members of this community better, stortytelling clearly emerged as a strength. One of our favorite quotes from Jerry Pinkney is this: ” I truly believe dyslexia made me the achiever I am in art. and it made me who I am as a person.” Check out this beautiful watercolor painting by Jerry Pinkney. His original artwork is now sold through the Michelson […]
