Dyslexia’s Silver Lining

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The world is not set up to make life easy for people with dyslexia. Reading quickly and accurately is a necessary skill in most professions (as well as on the roads and in the grocery stores), and difficulty processing symbols makes reading a challenge for most people with the condition.

Dyslexia is considered a learning disability, but (as with so many conditions) “disability” might be a word choice that says more about societal structure than about the person in question. As Annie Murphy Paul wrote in “The Upside of Dyslexia” for the Sunday Review, people with dyslexia actually learn more quickly than others under some circumstances. Readers with dyslexia identified letters briefly flashed at the periphery of their vision better than typical readers did, and research subjects with the condition are quicker to grasp information from a whole scene or a blurred picture, called “absorbing the visual gist.”

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The Upside of Dyslexia

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THE word “dyslexia” evokes painful struggles with reading, and indeed this learning disability causes much difficulty for the estimated 15 percent of Americans affected by it. Since the phenomenon of “word blindness” was first documented more than a century ago, scientists have searched for the causes of dyslexia, and for therapies to treat it. In recent years, however, dyslexia research has taken a surprising turn: identifying the ways in which people with dyslexia have skills that are superior to those of typical readers. The latest findings on dyslexia are leading to a new way of looking at the condition: not just as an impediment, but as an advantage, especially in certain artistic and scientific fields.

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Parts of the Brain Affected by Dyslexia

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Have you ever wondered which parts of the brain are affected by dyslexia? This video helps makes it a little clearer:

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Is giftedness always a gift?

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“Children in the top 5 per cent need a differentiated curriculum just as much as children in the bottom 5 per cent,” says Colm O’Reilly, director of the Centre for Talented Youth, Ireland. “By definition, the average or mainstream curriculum will not serve their needs. Yet there is no recognition of giftedness as a learning need in schools. There is no training for it at the teacher-training colleges, either.”

About 15 per cent of children who access services through the centre are described as “twice exceptional”: gifted and diagnosed with a learning disability such as autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or dyslexia. It can be a huge challenge to create an appropriate curriculum for them. And such children are presenting in even greater numbers, says O’Reilly, probably because of more frequent assessment. “Five years ago we would probably have had one child in 20 at the centre that would be twice exceptional. Now it’s three times that amount. These children can be hard to identify if their learning disability masks their giftedness.”

Children with poor writing skills from dyslexia, for example, cannot be assessed for giftedness using a written exam. The Centre for Talented Youth, Ireland has developed new entry systems to deal with such children, including varied assessments and referrals from teachers.

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Dyslexia

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While it’s most often associated with reading difficulties, dyslexia can also impact a child’s writing and spelling. In this Children’s Channel video podcast, Lisa Stanford, PhD, director of the Division of Neurobehavioral Health at Akron Children’s Hospital, discusses the diagnosis and treatment of this life-long neurological condition.