NY Times article on dyslexia

[OrganicAnn]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/opinion/defining-my-own-dyslexia.html?src=me&ref=general&_r=0

 

Just in case anyone is interested... I find it so interesting how dyslexic people a big achievers in certain areas.

[Serenade]

Thanks for posting.

[Melissa in Australia]

it is always great to read another article on Dyslexia. I, and at least 3 of my children have Dyslexia, So do some of my brothers, my Uncles and at several of my cousins.

[Butter]

Thanks.

[Sisyphus]

Thank you- I will have to read it (aloud, lol) to my 11 year old dyslexic. He knows his brain is different, but he longs so for a normal one!

[merry gardens]

http://www.nytimes.c...ef=general&_r=0

 

Just in case anyone is interested... I find it so interesting how dyslexic people a big achievers in certain areas.

Thanks for sharing that article! If you're interested in further reading about people with dyslexia being high achievers, you'd probably enjoy reading The Dyslexic Advantage by Brock and Fernette Eide http://www.amazon.com/The-Dyslexic-Advantage-Unlocking-Potential/dp/0452297923/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369401310&sr=8-1&keywords=dyslexic+advantage

[AimeeM]

I'll have to read this to Autumn. Thanks!

[Tammyla]

Thanks for linking the article.

[Mommyof4ks]

My middles son is dyslexic, and he has the potential to be an engineer as the article mentioned. It will be interesting to see if dyslexia is ever labeled as a learning style rather than a disability. It is sad that people make fun of what is different or they do not understand. :(

[DianeW88]

My dd is a professional ballerina, and her dyslexia has been a huge help to her. She sees "whole to part" and with choreography, that is a major asset. She is very quick to learn new steps and she sees the entire production in her head and does not require much rehearsal time to get her role down cold. She's very grateful for her dyslexia...unless she's taking a spelling test. ;)

[FO4UR]

That is encouraging.

 

My 10yo is reading after working so hard! Now, we double efforts at spelling.

 

I think part of the "gift" of dyslexia is the work ethic it grows just simply learning to read and write. Seriously! If my non-dyslexic child spent that much time on school, she could graduate highschool at 14yo.

[Slartibartfast]

I guess never thought of it that way before, I do tend to use spatial reasoning.

 

But if dyslexics are supposed to make good engineers then why do they make engineers do math? (lulz)

[Melissa in Australia]

I guess never thought of it that way before, I do tend to use spatial reasoning.

 

But if dyslexics are supposed to make good engineers then why do they make engineers do math? (lulz)

because some Dyslexics are brilliant at math. Everyone who has Dyslexia has it differently. Give my son for an example. according the specialist psychologist who gave the formal diagnosis of Dyslexia on him, he doesn't use short term memory at all for math. He LOVES math. (he is doing Aerospace Engineering and absolutely loves every second of it.)

[Tokyomarie]

 

because some Dyslexics are brilliant at math. Everyone who has Dyslexia has it differently. Give my son for an example. according the specialist psychologist who gave the formal diagnosis of Dyslexia on him, he doesn't use short term memory at all for math. He LOVES math. (he is doing Aerospace Engineering and absolutely loves every second of it.)

 

Dyslexic people tend to have difficulty with some of the earlier math- things like memorizing math facts and learning math concepts if they are taught by rote methods. Those dyslexics who are really good at math tend to begin to excel at math when they reach the upper levels that require strong spatial reasoning and problem solving. This has been true in our household: one child with a diagnosis and one adult w/o, who is highly successful as an engineer, but who has left a trail of clues that suggest what side of the family the dyslexia genes come from.

 

OTOH, one of our family members with a diagnosis of a language based LD is not strong in math, but has strong gifts in the visual and musical arts.

[kentuckymom]

Great article! I had to share it on Facebook. I'm the sister of a dyslexic, the wife of a dyslexic, and the mother of at least one dyslexic (I have some suspicions about my two year old, but she's still so young that the "signs" I'm seeing could go away). My dyslexic brother is a successful musician, a composer who is well known in certain avant garde music circles. My dyslexic husband is a successful engineer who, after struggling through arithmetic in school, surged ahead of his classmates in higher math and can do calculus in his head. My dyslexic 8 year old is finally starting to get a handle on reading after a lot of work, and is the most creative thinker I know. It remains to be seen where DS's unique brain will take him. I could see him succeeding in either the arts or the sciences. I always love to read stories about and by successful, creative dyslexics.

[Farrar]

I read that the other day and it was really interesting. But here's my question... I've also read that dyslexics are diagnosed at phenomenally higher rates in the US and the Englsh speaking world in general than anywhere else. That, in fact, it's nearly unknown in many other countries. Is that true? And if so, how would that relate to this research? On the surface, it seems like this new research is implying that this is an overall brain condition that people are born with (one with some advantages even), but if that's true, then why would only children of English-speakers be born with it? And if it's not something one is born with, then why is the English language doing this to so many?

[Melissa in Australia]

Dyslexic people tend to have difficulty with some of the earlier math- things like memorizing math facts and learning math concepts if they are taught by rote methods. Those dyslexics who are really good at math tend to begin to excel at math when they reach the upper levels that require strong spatial reasoning and problem solving. This has been true in our household: one child with a diagnosis and one adult w/o, who is highly successful as an engineer, but who has left a trail of clues that suggest what side of the family the dyslexia genes come from.

 

OTOH, one of our family members with a diagnosis of a language based LD is not strong in math, but has strong gifts in the visual and musical arts.

I would agree with this. My oldest son could not ever show workings out for any of his math, just the question and then the answer.

[Melissa in Australia]

I read that the other day and it was really interesting. But here's my question... I've also read that dyslexics are diagnosed at phenomenally higher rates in the US and the Englsh speaking world in general than anywhere else. That, in fact, it's nearly unknown in many other countries. Is that true? And if so, how would that relate to this research? On the surface, it seems like this new research is implying that this is an overall brain condition that people are born with (one with some advantages even), but if that's true, then why would only children of English-speakers be born with it? And if it's not something one is born with, then why is the English language doing this to so many?

I have heard ( but no idea if it is correct) that the reason that people with Dyslexia have so much trouble with English is the was the language works both phonetically and all the exceptions. There are so many different rules etc. in English. apparently lots of other languages make more sense

[Butter]

I read that the other day and it was really interesting. But here's my question... I've also read that dyslexics are diagnosed at phenomenally higher rates in the US and the Englsh speaking world in general than anywhere else. That, in fact, it's nearly unknown in many other countries. Is that true? And if so, how would that relate to this research? On the surface, it seems like this new research is implying that this is an overall brain condition that people are born with (one with some advantages even), but if that's true, then why would only children of English-speakers be born with it? And if it's not something one is born with, then why is the English language doing this to so many?

 

I haven't heard it and I don't know if it is true or not. However, I have experience with a Hungarian dyslexic young man. He said it is *not* uncommon in his home country In fact, because he is dyslexic, he had to do an extra year of high school before he could graduate. I'm not quite clear on how it works, but he said most kids graduate in x number of years, but dyslexics have to do x+1. He knows many, many other dyslexics from growing up in Hungary.He did not learn English until he was nearly an adult. My sister met a couple dyslexics in Romania. They did not know English at all. So, anecdotally, I definitely know of dyslexics being in non-English-speaking countries.

[kentuckymom]

Yet again, this is only anecdotal, but, when I was helping DS do research for a school project about Sweden, we learned that Crown Princess Victoria is dyslexic. I thought that was pretty cool. So it would seem that dyslexia is known and acknowledged there, and Swedish is a pretty phonetic language. I spent a year as an exchange student in Sweden, and I didn't meet any dyslexics that I know of, but, then again, dyslexia wasn't really on my radar back then, so I wouldn't have thought to ask. Plus, I was put in the humanities track, which involves lots of classes in foreign language and literature, so I would guess that it's the rare dyslexic who pursues that track.

[FO4UR]

I read that the other day and it was really interesting. But here's my question... I've also read that dyslexics are diagnosed at phenomenally higher rates in the US and the Englsh speaking world in general than anywhere else. That, in fact, it's nearly unknown in many other countries. Is that true? And if so, how would that relate to this research? On the surface, it seems like this new research is implying that this is an overall brain condition that people are born with (one with some advantages even), but if that's true, then why would only children of English-speakers be born with it? And if it's not something one is born with, then why is the English language doing this to so many?

 

 

 

There are different types of dyslexia. The type of dyslexia that produces engineers is a brain-wiring difference, and often these kids have crazy letter reversals (not just the typical b/d at 5yo) b/c they simply see the world differently. (My 10yo would reverse phonograms even..."hs" for "sh"....so "shirt" might be spelled hsirt or hsrit or shrit and it all looks like "shirt" to him.) This is my child who cannot memorize the times tables, but intuited an amazing amount of math through play with cuisenaire rods. I am totally nodding, "Yep" to the poster who said their child just pops out with an answer to math problems and has trouble showing work. The brain just works faster than they can communicate, and walking back through sequentially is not natural or easy.

 

Some "dyslexia" is educationally-induced, meaning that mass groups of children are taught "sight words" without ever being explicitly taught how our language works. I think a large portion of reading LD's in America are due to poor teaching...or rather poor organization of our public school system...the teachers in the classrooms are stuck teaching what the Standards dictate.

[Serenade]

Regarding languages and dyslexics, this may shed a little light:

 

Despite the neurological similarity of dyslexic brain activity, the prevalence of dyslexia differs across culture. Researchers blame this discrepancy on the shallowness or complexity in orthography of different languages. English has a deep orthography, which consists of 44 phonemes that can be combined in over 1120 different ways. French has an equally deep orthography. Italian, on the other hand, has a shallow orthography, which consists of 25 phonemes that can be combined in just 33 ways. Thus, it is not surprising that dyslexia is more prevalent in English and French speaking countries in comparison to Italy. In fact, the researchers were not able to find any diagnosed Italian dyslexics are the university level. Instead, the researchers identified Italian "dyslexics" by selecting subjects with demonstrated verbal memory problems and slowed reading problems. Ken Spencer of the University of Hull in the UK contends that the shallowness of the Italian orthography allows the Italian dyslexics to cover up or compensate for their reading deficits, whereas the deep orthography of English and French "comes with a built in deficit"

 

Here is the entire article -- I found it very interesting, and it has explained some things about my son. It's rather dry reading, though. But at least it's short!

 

http://serendip.bryn.../Slaughter.html

[EKS]

I read that the other day and it was really interesting. But here's my question... I've also read that dyslexics are diagnosed at phenomenally higher rates in the US and the Englsh speaking world in general than anywhere else. That, in fact, it's nearly unknown in many other countries. Is that true? And if so, how would that relate to this research? On the surface, it seems like this new research is implying that this is an overall brain condition that people are born with (one with some advantages even), but if that's true, then why would only children of English-speakers be born with it? And if it's not something one is born with, then why is the English language doing this to so many?

 

 

I would guess that the English language simply makes the dyslexics more obvious.

[LeslieAnneLevine]

Regarding languages and dyslexics, this may shed a little light:

 

 

 

Here is the entire article -- I found it very interesting, and it has explained some things about my son. It's rather dry reading, though. But at least it's short!

 

http://serendip.bryn.../Slaughter.html

 

Thanks for that--very interesting. My son is dyslexic and bilingual English/French. I guess he can't catch a break!

 

I know dyslexia is pretty well-known in France as there are associations, Davis centers, etc.

[TravelingChris]

My 16 yo dd is dyslexic and she definitely has gifts related to it. She still has problems with reversals because she sees b and d as basically the same thing, just reversed and since she manipulates pictures in her head all the time, she has a hard time remembering which goes which way. On the other hand, she is also great at figuring out solutions for mechanical problems probably because of that trait. She always amazes me how she comes up with answers to math problems- again very differently than my other kids. I also found out that she remembers facts presented in a story very well but does very poorly at remembering random facts not related to anything else. She thinks that for her, languiages that use pictures would have been easier since she remembers visually,. I am not so sure since she doesn't necessarily remember them correctly in a directional sense so I think she very well might still have issues. She does have a lot less problem with spelling in Spanish. That was true for both of my girls- the one who saw things in parts too.

[LibraryLover]

I don't have any great talents. ;) But, My dyslexic kid is a standout in dc's particular field. Dc does see the world quite differently, and it is exactly because of the dyslexia.

 

We have it rough in certain areas, and especially if not diagnosed and helped. Yet when we find our niche, it makes all the difference. Sadly, because of the great need to communicate well, we often seem ignorant when far from it.

[LibraryLover]

My 16 yo dd is dyslexic and she definitely has gifts related to it. She still has problems with reversals

 

 

That handy 'tool' by making an L with both hands...doesn't work. I am never sure which L is reversed. Let me just say that The Pledge of Allegiance, with right hand on heart is the only reason I can drive at all. (You don't even want to know how long it took me to spell allegiance correctly. ;) ) It finally looks right. lol Still, I'll need to check.

 

OK...it's right. No, left. Um, correct.

[Tokyomarie]

That handy 'tool' by making an L with both hands...doesn't work. I am never sure which L is reversed. Let me just say that The Pledge of Allegiance, with right hand on heart is the only reason I can drive at all. (You don't even want to know how long it took me to spell allegiance correctly. ;) ) It finally looks right. lol Still, I'll need to check.

 

OK...it's right. No, left. Um, correct.

 

 

Google is my newest trick for checking spelling. :-) *I'm* not even dyslexic and, in fact, was quite the natural speller when young. But for some reason, as I have aged, my spelling has gone to the dogs. So, whenever I'm not sure of my spelling, I open a new tab and begin to type the word into the Google search box. Saves me every time!

[Slartibartfast]

because some Dyslexics are brilliant at math. Everyone who has Dyslexia has it differently. Give my son for an example. according the specialist psychologist who gave the formal diagnosis of Dyslexia on him, he doesn't use short term memory at all for math. He LOVES math. (he is doing Aerospace Engineering and absolutely loves every second of it.)

 

Yes, I was making a joke.

 

I was always good at math, but not really great at showing my work. I struggled for years in math, my mom would go crazy sending me to tutors and making me take extra classes. I always tested very high on the tests where I could just fill in a bubble, but not on the things where I had to show my work. My math score on my ACT was my highest score among them, my mom could have spit nails.

[LibraryLover]

 

 

Google is my newest trick for checking spelling. :-) *I'm* not even dyslexic and, in fact, was quite the natural speller when young. But for some reason, as I have aged, my spelling has gone to the dogs. So, whenever I'm not sure of my spelling, I open a new tab and begin to type the word into the Google search box. Saves me every time!

 

Oh, I know. A bit ago, I decided to challenge myself, and also see if study/practice/turning off the spell check etc would help. If it has helped, it has been marginal. Really, really marginal. I don't know why I torture myself.

[lailasmum]

I looked up this artical that I read a while back here is a link to it. Basically discussing advantages of dyslexia.