* 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 time for a new edition?

A: Because there’s simply so much more that we can now say about dyslexia-associated strengths and the brain systems that underlie them.

This information is extremely helpful not only in understanding how dyslexic brains work and develop, but also how to best support, nurture, and get the most out of them.

Q: In the first edition, you said that dyslexic minds are different because they are optimized to excel at big picture thinking in areas like 3D spatial reasoning, making connections, reasoning using personal experiences and examples rather than generalizations, and making predictions. Do you still stand by those ideas?

A: We stand by those ideas 100%, and we explain even more clearly in this new edition the developmental processes that led to these changes. One of the things we’re most excited about is the enormous amount of new research that’s been produced over the last 15 years suggesting that the MIND strengths, rather than being four completely distinct patterns, are all different expressions of a common underlying set of brain networks. By collaborating both together and with other brain centers, these brain networks create the different MIND strengths.

Q: If they arise from common sources, what do the MIND strengths share in common?

A: Each of the MIND strengths appears to use the brain’s episodic or personal memory network as the main source of information as they go about their work.

The MIND strengths also use a network in the brain called the Default Mode Network (DMN) that combines imagery centers, personal memory centers, and attentional centers to engage in many kinds of imaginative and complex problem-solving processes.

Thirdly, each MIND strength also employs a network (grid and place cell network) that creates mental models of different kinds of information, whether spatial, or conceptual, or temporal, or experiential. It’s important to understand this because it has implications for education and how dyslexic people can excel in their careers.

Finally, all of the MIND strengths use these three networks to engage in processes of mental simulation, where they create mental stages on which they play out the various kinds of processes that are the subject of the different MIND strengths.

Q: Is there enough new to interest readers of the first edition?

A: There’s enough new material here to interest even our most dedicated readers, including: updates to each MIND strengths chapter, 18 new stories of amazing dyslexic people, our research comparing 2000 dyslexic and non-dyslexic adults, discussion with the co-author of an exciting new theory that dyslexic minds are specialized for exploration, and new chapters on the significance of dyslexic strengths for dyslexic education, workplace, and self understanding.

We’re looking forward to seeing some of you at our bonus event! Learn more here.

 

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