The Up Side of Dyslexia

One of the more interesting connections regarding people with wiring differences is the positive impact of dyslexia. Dyslexic students may confound their teachers, and cause those teachers to pursue alternative teaching styles, but in the long run, those same students may turn out to be the more creative and entrepreneurial.

There have been a number of articles written, and research studies carried out, showing that “dyslexics are extraordinarily creative about maneuvering their way around problems.” This comes from a December 2007 article in the NY Times Tracing Business Acumen to Dyslexia.

For a more in-depth article about some well-known dyslexics who are highly successful, read Overcoming Dyslexia, an article published in May 2002 in Fortune magazine. The article discusses Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin line (records and airways), Charles Schwab, developer of the discount brokerage business, John Chambers, CEO of Cisco (a technology company), and David Boies, “a celebrated trial attorney, best known as the guy who beat Microsoft” and also for pushing Al Gore’s case in the 2002 battle between Gore and George W. Bush for President of the United States.

The author, Betsy Morris, provides the best description of dyslexia that I have yet to see, and one that most people can probably understand.

What exactly is dyslexia? The Everyman definition calls it a reading disorder in which people jumble letters, confusing dog with god, say, or box with pox. The exact cause is unclear; scientists believe it has to do with the way a developing brain is wired. Difficulty reading, spelling, and writing are typical symptoms. But dyslexia often comes with one or more other learning problems as well, including trouble with math, auditory processing, organizational skills, and memory. No two dyslexics are alike–each has his own set of weaknesses and strengths.

I found it interesting to learn more about the characters mentioned in Morris’s Fortune article. Richard Branson participated in a wonderfully entertaining and illuminating interview, Life at 30,000 feet, at the March 2007 TED. Here is the opening text lead in to his interview: “When Richard Branson was at school, his headmaster predicted he would wind up either a millionaire or in jail.”

Charles Schwab may be one of the wealthiest people in America, having amassed a fortune running a brokerage business, but he put his money where his heart was – in helping others with learning difficulties. In addition to partnering with Mel Levine to create All Kinds of Minds, his Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation has undertaken a number of initiatives, among them SchwabLearning.org – A Parent’s Guide to Helping Kids With Learning Difficulties, and SparkTop.org, “the first website created expressly for kids with learning difficulties…”

CISCO Systems is a billion dollar technology company and its CEO is John T. Chambers, noted “for his visionary strategy, his ability to drive an entrepreneurial culture, and his warm-hearted, straight-talking approach.” Not content to merely run the company, Chambers is also involved in international philanthropy.

Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP came into existence in 1997 when David Boies and Jonathan Schiller joined forces to create their own law firm and build on their expertise.

Going back to our first character, Richard Branson, and his TED interview, I recently watched The Future We Will Create: Inside the World of TED, a 74 minute movie about the 2007 TED conference. Since the TED talks are available online, I had already viewed many of the talks highlighted in the movie. This second time ‘round got me thinking about something else other than the content of the talks: As many of the one thousand TED attendees are entrepreneurs, how many of them have dyslexia or other learning differences? It would be an easy poll to conduct, and a fascinating topic to discuss amongst them. I’m off to send TED curator Chris Anderson an email!

p.s. R – Happy 17th Birthday on the 16th!

Dealing with the Issues

My previous post described the beginning of Mel Levine’s January talk, and ended with a case in point describing a young child and the learning issues with which he was diagnosed. This post describes one avenue for dealing with those issues, along with how Mel Levine, in general, deals with children and young adults who come his way.

There are a number of ways to deal with wiring issues (that often translate to learning issues), some of which can be overcome or circumvented.

The young man mentioned in the previous post, diagnosed with an auditory processing issue and dyslexia, learned the letters of the alphabet over a two year period. From second to third grade he met regularly with a speech and language therapist who used the Orton-Gillingham method. He also met for several weeks with an occupational therapist, where the focus was on understanding where his body was in relation to the space around him.

By the middle of third grade he was reading, and as a young adult he is described as an avid reader with an outstanding vocabulary. His penmanship has not changed much in the intervening years; while legible, a quick glance at his writing might cause you to think the writer was younger than his late teenage years. He is better able to follow directions when they are phrased precisely and clearly, and for oral directions, stated slower rather than hastily spewed out. Other areas impacted by the dyslexia include processing abstract information, which in this case translates to mathematics. One-on-one tutorials have been found helpful for developing an understanding of some of the mathematical concepts.

Mel Levine noted that his approach in dealing with “students who are innocent victims of their own wiring” is to “strengthen strengths.” This plays a large role in the demystification process championed by his organization, All Kinds of Minds. Mel explains the process in this brief article, Demystification: Taking the Mystery Out of Disappointing Mastery. You can gain further insight into the philosophy behind the practice by viewing any of the videos or listening to the audio interviews on the Media page. (There are also transcripts available for all talks). Essentially, the student is made a partner in the process, and the process involves having the student understand their strengths and weaknesses. In other words, the student learns about how s/he learns. Another word for that is metacognition

In conjunction with Dr Levine, Channel Thirteen, the New York public television station, produced Misunderstood Minds, a content rich site that “profiles a variety of learning problems and expert opinions”. The site includes many simulations and hands-on activities related to attention, reading, writing and mathematics. It is well worth the time to investigate these activities, as they provide a glimpse in to what it is like to have wiring anomalies that impact learning.

The other key, not just for kids with wiring anomalies but for all young adults (indeed, for each of us), is to find your niche and “then all else will fall into place”. My next post on Levine’s talk will continue with this idea.

Meanwhile, if you or someone you know has learning issues, below are organizations that have plenty of helpful information to get you started in understanding your or their wiring. The first site focuses on dyslexia, but the other three include extensive information on a range of topics.

Dyslexia Teacher: Symptoms of Dyslexia

Kids Health – Dyslexia

Learning Disabilities Worldwide

National Center for Learning Disabilities: Dyslexia

Next post: A Niche in Time, continuation of Mel Levine’s talk

Work Life Readiness: Equipping Kids’ Minds Before 24

The title of this post is the title of the talk given by Dr Mel Levine in mid-January to parents and teachers in my community on the coast, some 30 miles north of New York City. He captivated us, an audience of about 400, for two complete hours, as he spoke and took questions.

Levine is a pro at presenting, having been doing this for probably over 19 years. (I first heard him speak 19 years ago.) His life’s work is filled with counseling children and young adults, so it is no surprise that both his books and talks are peppered with anecdotes. He looks out at his audience and makes eye contact with those in the front rows, he uses humor but gets serious where needed, and he appreciates that we all listen differently. To that end, he hands out an extensive outline of his talk for those who want to follow along, take notes, or just relax and listen but have something to jog their memory when they’ve gone home. This talk revolved around his 2005 book, Ready or Not, Here Life Comes, which I have not read.

Levine’s handout runs ten typed pages; my notes span one and a half. I attended his talk for many reasons: because I have two sons, one age 23 and the other soon to be 17; because I have always enjoyed hearing Levine speak; because I am a teacher; because I know a student who will be doing a related independent study next year; and because I am interested in the brain and how we learn. So what did he have to say?

Dr Levine began by describing young adults, particularly those who have learning difficulties. These students, he said, are “innocent victims of their own wiring.” That line hits home. Sadly, there have been, and continue to be, teachers who blame the student when work is not done and information is not learned, rather than acknowledging there is always a reason behind the action (or lack of action), figuring out what that reason is (or getting help to figure it out), and then working with the student to deal with that “it”.

Case in point: When a young man I know was in first grade, his teacher was indignant that he did not know his ABCs, and complained that he was not trying hard enough. He was six years old and told his parents that he wasn’t smart because his teacher said he did not know his alphabet. It turned out he had an auditory processing dysfunction and was dyslexic. Can you imagine what it feels like, at the young age of six, to already feel you are not smart?

Having an auditory processing issue coupled with dyslexia meant, for this child, that he was unable to put sounds to letters of the alphabet and often misheard words that did not have definitive sounds, thus misinterpreting what he heard. Multistep oral directions were difficult for him to process and follow. Reversals filled his writing, meaning that several letters and numbers resembling other letters or numbers were flipped with one another. (For instance, upper case “E” and the number “3”, the numbers “9” and “6”, lower case “p” and “q”, and so on.) The hearing of language, which comes naturally to most of us, was a foreign affair. An intense finger grip made written language both physically and mentally tiring to write. He was, as Mel Levine says, an innocent victim of his own wiring.

Next post: Dealing with the issues.