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Home > Dyslexia

1 Variations

In addition to the typical forms of dyslexia, there are numerous related disorders:

• Dyspraxia- a neurological disorder characterised by a marked difficulty in carrying out routine tasks involving balance, fine-motor control, and kinesthetic coordination.
• Verbal Dyspraxia - a neurological disorder characterised by marked difficulty in the use of speech sounds, which is the result of an immaturity in the speech production area of the brain.
• Dysgraphia- a neurological disorder characterised by distorted and incorrect writing.
• Dyscalculia- a neurological disorder characterised by a problem with learning fundamentals and one or more of the basic numerical skills. Often people with this disorder can understand very complex mathematical concepts and principles but have difficulty processing formulas and even basic addition and subtraction.

2 Facts and statistics

5-15% of the population can be diagnosed as suffering from various degrees of dyslexia.

Dyslexia and other similar disabilities are much more commonly reported in males than in females. Most researchers agree that there is a fairly even gender balance amongst dyslexics, but that the acted-out frustration of dyslexic boys tends to draw more attention from teachers. Since referrals for special education service are linked to such attention, classes and programs designed to help such children often have more boys than girls in them.

Studying dyslexia is very valuable for understanding intelligence and creativity. Dyslexia illustrates the power of inborn wiring of the brain in developing mental skills . At the same time it can show how inborn limitations can be overcome by using the compensatory power of the brain.

Dyslexia's main manifestation is a difficulty in developing reading skills in elementary school children. Those difficulties result from reduced ability to link up visual symbols with sounds. In the past, dyslexia was mistakenly thought to have a motivational background. Contrary to that erroneus belief, modern research has shown that dyslexia is a condition largely inborn. In other words, dyslexia is a condition that children are born with and not the result of poor parenting or the environment. Some have disagreed with these findings, however, and believe that while dyslexia may sometimes be inborn it is often attributable to lack of phonics training when learning to read and the preponderance of the whole language system.

Researchers studying the brains of dyslexics have found that in reading tasks dyslexics show reduced activity in the left inferior parietal cortex. Otherwise, dyslexics are known to often show higher than average intelligence. There are marked anatomical differences between dyslexic brains and normal brains.

3 Famous dyslexics

A number of eminent scholars throughout history have suffered from varying degree of dyslexia. Among those speculated to have been afflicted with dyslexia are: Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein ( March 14 1879 April 18 1955) was a theoretical physicist who is widely regarded as the greatest scientist of the 20th century. He proposed the theory of relativity and also made major contributions to the development of quantum mechanics, Thomas EdisonThomas Alva Edison ( February 11, 1847 October 18, 1931) was an inventor and businessman who developed many important devices. The Wizard of Menlo Park was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production to the process of invention., Alexander Graham BellAlexander Graham Bell ( March 3, 1847 August 2, 1922) was a scientist, inventor, and founder of the Bell telephone company. In addition to his work in telecommunications technology, he also was responsible for important advances in aviation and hydrofoil, Michael FaradayMichael Faraday ( September 22, 1791 August 25, 1867) was a British scientist (a physicist and chemist) who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry and invented the Bunsen burner. Michael Faraday was one of the great scientists, and many others. Walt Disney was dyslexic.

Was Einstein dyslexic or not?

YES. Although many biographers claim to have disproved that Einstein was dyslexic, their arguments are based on the premise that because he actually excelled in school, he could therefore not have had a learning disability. Just because Einstein was reading Immanuel KantImmanuel Kant ( April 22, 1724 February 12, 1804) was a Prussian philosopher, generally regarded as the last major philosopher of the Enlightenment, having a major impact on the Romantic and Idealist philosophies of the 19th century, and as one of history at the age of 13 does not mean he was not dyslexic. Many people who suffer from dyslexia are actually avaricious readers of extremely heavy academic material. The truth is that the Einstein was known to do many of the things that were symptomatic of people suffering from dyslexia, such as to frequently transpose and omit letters, numbers, and formulas in his writings and to scramble sentences.

NO. Einstein excelled at most subjects at school and did not exhibit any signs of a learning disability. Where dyslexics have difficulty with symbolic objects, such as letters and numerals, Einstein did not; samples of his handwriting show exceptional clarity in both flow and form. There is no evidence he ever substituted, omitted, reversed or transposed his words, nor did he ever have trouble with complex formulae. Other symptoms of dyslexia, including trouble with abstract concepts and a difficulty summarizing thoughts, require little explanation. It should be noted that Sir Winston Churchill, another supposed sufferer, is described as "not dyslexic" and having "no learning disability whatsoever" by The Churchill Foundation (Source: http://www.winstonchurchill.org ).

It is not that uncommon for dyslexics who have trained themselves to cope with their affliction, to develop uncannily efficient visual memories which aid in reading and comprehending large quantities of information much faster than is typical. Adversely, some dyslexics may show a natural dislike of reading and, in consequence, compensate by developing unique verbal communication skills , inter-personal expertise, and leadership skills. Different people adopt different strategies for living with the same affliction.

Hence many prominent corporate leaders list minor to severe dyslexia among their childhood disabilities. Those include Richard Branson (Virgin Enterprises), Henry Ford, Jay Leno, Ted Turner ( AOL Time Warner), John Chambers ( Cisco Systems), and Charles Schwab (brokerage), as well as prominent statesmen: Nelson Rockefeller, Winston Churchill, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John F. Kennedy, and successful actors: Richard Chamberlain, Tom Cruise, Whoopi Goldberg, Quentin Tarantino, Henry Winkler, Lara Flynn Boyle and Anthony Hopkins. Additionally, General George Patton also had dyslexia.

The list above indicates that those who show reading difficulties in childhood can also cope well with their deficiency later in lives and become avid readers and skilled writers. Research shows that intense training in dyslexics helps them use the right part of their brain to take over the limited functionality in the left part.

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Topics: Dyslexia Brain Reading Dyslexics Dyslexic Difficulty Cortex...

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DyslexiaDyslexia is a syndrome in which a person's reading and/or writing ability is significantly lower than that which would be predicted by his or her general level of intelligence. People are diagnosed as dyslexic when their reading problems cannot be explain