Dyslexia, A Child's Gift
By Claudette Anderson
In the US, researchers estimate that there are five to nine percent of school aged children who are dyslexic. Due to under diagnosis, some argue that figure to be as high as twenty percent. Even with these differences, Dyslexia is anything but a curse; instead, it is a gift.
Dyslexia is a medical condition that affects ten to fifteen percent of the US population as a whole, yet only five out of one hundred dyslexics are recognized and receive assistance. Contrary to popular belief, Dyslexia is a language disability, not a reading disability. Not only does it affect the ability to learn to read, write, and spell by conventional methods, it affects the ability to communicate in more subtle ways.
So why is dyslexia a gift?
Dyslexic children grow to process 400 times to 2,000 times faster than that of a normal individual. They also tend to over compensate their disabilities with more desirable characteristics such as enhanced creativity, the ability to understand the bigger picture, understand how to develop new strategies, spend more time exploring ideas and are excellent problem solvers. These are traits seen in successful entrepreneurs. A study by the Tulip Financial Group found that 40% of 300 millionaires who participated in a comprehensive study are dyslexic. Some famous people who were diagnosed with dyslexia are Walt Disney who was determined to bring his creations to life, Thomas Edison who didn’t speak until he was 4 years of age, Tom Cruise who considered himself “a functional illiterate” but now works with children and teaches them to read, Agatha Christie who toiled with her words but persevered to become “the Queen of Crime” and Charles Schwab who has a website, www.dyslexiacenter.org dedicated to dyslexia and learning disabilities.
Some symptoms of dyslexia in young children range in age but may include frequently mispronouncing words, using baby talk, having difficulty remembering names of letters, number, days of the week and seasons, have trouble breaking spoken words into syllables, failing to connect letters and sounds, spelling terribly and having messy handwriting. But to be sure there are new assessment methods that have more indicators of dyslexia that one could test in.
Where there is no cure for dyslexia, there are methods that children can learn to overcome their barriers to learning and can become successful in their academic studies in childhood, and successful professionals as adults. Dyslexic children are visual, three dimensional thinkers. They are intuitive, highly creative and they excel at hands-on learning. Because it is sometimes hard for them to understand letters, numbers, symbols, and written words, dyslexic children need to work with methods geared to their unique, three dimensional learning style.
In an article published by WebMD this month, Dyslexia – Helping Your Child, parents are encouraged to respect and challenge their child’s natural intelligence, despite the challenges of dyslexia. They stress that their dyslexia has nothing to do with the amount of intelligence a child has, it is simply a learning disability that can be overcome. With the help of parents of a dyslexic child, the child can come to understand that even with dyslexia, they are most likely to come into greatness, mastering skills throughout their life faster than the average person with proper therapy and training.
About Claudette Anderson
Claudette Anderson is owner of Prescription For Success that offers a training program for Dyslexics called BrainMastery, A Unique Strategy to Control Dyslexia. For more information on BrainMastery or Prescription For Success, contact Claudette at (303) 993-4648 or email info@PrescriptionForSuccess.net.
Prescription for Success
Claudette & Perry Anderson
(303) 993-4648
Parker, CO
email us at: info@prescriptionforsuccess.net
