9 Strengths of a Dyslexic by Nessy

When you think of the term dyslexia, do you view it as a weakness? a disability? a disadvantage compared to others? Often times, dyslexia is viewed negatively, with the emphasis on what the dyslexic individual cannot do. However, the mind of a dyslexic individual possesses many strengths too. The following list compiled by the team at Nessy highlights 9 strengths of a dyslexic.

Be sure to also check out these previous posts featuring resources designed and shared by Nessy: 

• Dyslexia Awareness Month: 10 Classroom Indicators of Dyslexia
• Dyslexia Awareness Month: Dyslexia Explained eBook

1. Seeing the bigger picture

People with dyslexia often see things more holistically.
They miss the trees but see the forest.

“It’s as if people with dyslexia tend to use a wide-angle lens to take in the world,
while others tend to use a telephoto, each is best at revealing different kinds of detail.”
Matthew H. Schneps, Harvard University

2. Finding the odd one out

People with dyslexia excel at global visual processing and the detection of impossible figures. Scientist Christopher Tonkin, described his unusual sensitivity to “things out of place.” Scientists in his line of work must make sense of enormous quantities of visual data and accurately find black hole anomalies.

There are so many people with dyslexia in the field of astrophysics that it prompted research at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Findings confirmed that those with dyslexia are better at identifying and memorizing complex images.

3. Improved pattern recognition

People with dyslexia have the ability to see how things connect to form complex systems, and to identify similarities among multiple things. Such strengths are likely to be of particular significance for fields like science and mathematics, where visual representations are key.

“I recognized that I had dyslexia and then I realized I had this gift for imaging. I live in a world of patterns and images, and I see things that no one else sees. Because of dyslexia, I can see these patterns.”

“You can’t overcome it (dyslexia); you can work around it and make it work for you, but it never goes away. That’s probably a good thing, because if dyslexia went away, then the other gifts would go away too.”

Beryl Benacerraf, M.D., Physician. World-renowned radiologist and expert in ultrasound.

4. Good spatial knowledge

Many people with dyslexia demonstrate better skills at manipulating 3D objects in their mind. Many of the world’s top architects and fashion designers have dyslexia.

“I was called stupid. Not only could I not read, but I couldn’t memorize my school work. I was always at the bottom of the class. I became very depressed.”
Richard Rogers

“I performed poorly at school – when I attended, that is – and was perceived as stupid because of my dyslexia. I still have trouble reading. I have to concentrate very hard at going left to right, left to right, otherwise my eye just wanders to the bottom of the page.”
Tommy Hilfiger

5. Picture Thinkers

People with dyslexia tend to think in pictures rather than words. Research at the University of California has demonstrated children with dyslexia have enhanced picture recognition memory.

Nineteenth-century French sculptor, Auguste Rodin, could stare at paintings in museums by day and paint them from memory at night. His dyslexia meant he could barely read or write by the age of 14, with his reading skills developing much later.

6. Sharper peripheral vision

People with dyslexia have better peripheral vision than most, meaning they can quickly take in a whole scene. Although it can be hard to focus in on individual words, dyslexia seems to make it easier to see outer edges.

James Howard Jr., a professor of psychology at the Catholic University of America, described in the journal Neuropsychologia an experiment in which participants were asked to pick out the letter T from a sea of letter L’s floating on a computer screen. Those with dyslexia identified the letter more quickly.

7. Business entrepreneurs

Did you know that one in three American entrepreneurs have dyslexia?
Entrepreneurs like Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs and Charles Schwab all had dyslexia. Perhaps better strategic and creative thinking could provide a real business advantage.

“I seemed to think in a different way from my classmates. I was very focused on trying to set up a business and create something. My dyslexia guided the way we communicated with customers.”
Richard Branson

8. Highly creative

Many of the world’s most creative actors have dyslexia, such as Johnny Depp, Keira Knighltly and Orlando Bloom.

“Many of the super creative designers I have worked with seemed
to have one thing in common; they suffered from dyslexia.”
Soren Petersen, Design Research PH.d

 
Pablo Picasso (Artist)
Picasso was described by his teachers as “having difficulty differentiating the orientation of letters”. Picasso painted his subjects as he saw them – sometimes out of order, backwards or upside down. His paintings demonstrated the power of his imagination, which was perhaps linked to his the inability to see written words properly.
 

9. Thinking outside the box – problem solving

Those with dyslexia are well known for having sudden leaps of insight that solve problems with an unorthodox approach.
This is an intuitive approach to problem solving that can seem like daydreaming. Staring out of the window is how they work, letting their brain slide into neutral and ease itself around a problem to let connections assemble.

Dyslexia Awareness Month: Dyslexia Explained eBook

Although dyslexia has become a more common discussion in classrooms and homes, it is certainly not a black and white disability. Just like snowflakes, each person with dyslexia is unique in how their disability manifests. If you’ve heard the term dyslexia and aren’t sure what it means, you’re not alone. Many questions tend to arise when it comes to dyslexia.The incredible folks at Nessy created an eBook, Dyslexia Explained, to provide answers and help others develop a better understanding of dyslexia. Below you can find an overview of the book and the chapters highlighted. Click here to access the full Dyslexia Explained eBook.

Click here to access the full

Dyslexia Explained eBook. 

Dyslexia Awareness Month: 10 Classroom Indicators of Dyslexia

The following list of 10 Classroom Indicators of Dyslexia was created and compiled by Nessy. Nessy has been making fun, educational software for children since 1999 and has developed a reputation for exceptional quality. Nessy offers the complete dyslexia aware solution with a suite of multi-sensory products aimed at making learning to read, write and spell fun. Nessy has a fun, multi-sensory approach to learning through games, videos, worksheets and a suite of apps to help build confidence and teach valuable reading, writing and spelling skills. Visit the Nessy website to learn more about the products they offer.

To read the original article click here.

Signs of dyslexia usually become more obvious when children start school and begin to focus on reading and writing. Here are ten of the most common warning signs.

1. Phonological awareness

This is the ability to recognise individual sounds (phonemes) and work with phonemes to create new words.

Typical problems are:

• Confusing vowel sounds, e.g. writing ‘i’ for ‘e’.
• Difficulty rhyming.
• Chunking words into syllables.
• Blending sounds into a whole word.

2. Typical spelling mistakes

• Spelling words as they sound
e.g. wont instead of want
• Mixing up the sequence of letters
e.g. hlep instead of help
• Reversing the sequence of letters
e.g. was instead of saw
• Missing out a letter
e.g. wich instead of which
• Using the wrong letter
e.g. showt instead of shout
• Adding an extra letter
e.g. whent instead of went
• Using a ‘t’ instead of ‘ed’
e.g. lookt instead of looked
• Can’t remember when to use ‘ck’ or ‘ke’ at the end
e.g. lick instead of like


Words and letters are often jumbled in the mind.




3. Unable to remember times tables and number sequences



A multiplication fact may seem to be learned and then a few days later has been forgotten again.
The same goes for phone and pin numbers. Difficulty remembering a sequence of numbers is a sure sign of dyslexia.



4. Writing

Someone with dyslexia is likely to have lots of ideas but have difficulty putting them into writing.
They will take much longer to write and produce less than other students.
Many people with dyslexia write long, rambling sentences with no punctuation.
Although there may be lots of ideas they often do not know where to start.



5. Reading

Immediately forgetting what has just been read.
Slower reading speed.
Missing out words or skipping lines as they read.



Have you ever read a page, got to the bottom and realised you’ve just forgotten everything you read?This happens all the time to those with dyslexia. Words and their meanings don’t stick very well.
Reading becomes slow when you have to work out every word.
So much mental energy is used on the process that no memory capacity is left to comprehend.

Dyslexia means you may read a word and then further down the page not recognise it again. There is no visual memory of the word.
Their eyes can seem to jump over words, missing them out, skip out whole lines, sometimes they just skip part of a word.



6. Homophones: there – their

A homophone sounds the same as another word but is spelled differently.
They are a nightmare for those with dyslexia who usually have a poor memory for how a word looks and quickly learn to rely upon the strategy of learning to spell a word by building it phonetically. This doesn’t work for homophones.




7. Do you know the Alphabet? Backwards!



Dyslexia causes difficulty recalling sequences accurately so it is very likely that learning the alphabet will be problematic.
Using songs and rhyme often helps but the real giveaway is whether they can say it backwards – a nearly impossible task for those with dyslexia!
Dyslexia is also likely to cause problems learning the names and sounds of letters.





8. Mixing up left and right

It has become a cliché but its true that many with dyslexia cannot learn to automatically remember left and right. They have to stop and think about it.




9. Can’t remember what you’ve been told



A sure sign is difficulty carrying out a sequence of directions.

“Get out your book. Turn to page 23. Read three pages.”

Someone with dyslexia might only remember one of these things and have to ask again. Having to ask again makes them feel stupid.


10. Reversing numbers

Someone with dyslexia might see 57 but remember it as 75
Or write the answer to 6×7 as 24 instead of 42.
The output of the information becomes muddled.



Children with dyslexia that have been taught phonics can often learn to say the individual sounds but not blend them together. They can’t hold the sequence of sounds in their head for long enough. They might just panic and guess wildly.
Remember, no two people with dyslexia are exactly the same so any child with dyslexia is likely to have a mix of these signs of dyslexia.


Source: Nessy