One of the Empowering Learning Practitioners heard a child say “I know that as I am dyslexic, I understand there are lots of things that I won’t be able to do”. I wonder who gave them this belief and how they would have grown up differently if they had spent a few minutes exploring their strengths.
There is a common misconception in the world that having Dyslexia is a bad thing. Whilst the symptoms of Dyslexia present some challenges, the rest is sheer genius and the concept of neurodiversity now allows for strengths to be celebrated. The following is a list of exceptional characteristics that I consistently see in myself, my clients, friends and colleagues with Dyslexia:
- Ability to see things from different perspectives, at the same time. Dyslexics can not only imagine what physical objects look like from different perspectives, including cross sections, they can see, without any difficulty, the other side of an argument, business opportunities others don’t see, the list is endless.
- Ability to see 2D objects in 3D. For example when looking at an Ordnance Survey map, which is flat, they notice the contour lines and can create within seconds a 3D pictures of the mountains and hills, in their mind’s eye.
- High speed ability to make connections between different facts. This leads to amazing insights but can lose the audience.
- Picture thinking and a mind’s eye that can run anything as a very fast video. This is invaluable for fast recall and in particular working in the media.
- Exception interpersonal skills. Their creative verbal communications often makes up for their lack of written communications.
- Look back in history to all the famous people who were Dyslexic, they were all very creative. Today we have Jamie Oliver and Richard Branson for example.
- High intelligence. Every Dyslexic I meet has well above average intelligence.
- I created a word “Perspectious” once to mean genius level ability to see different perspectives simultaneously, I think this sums up their attributes.
Recently we have had the privilege of working with some successful adult dyslexics. When exploring how they do what they do, their metacognition, we have been bowled over by how they create their exceptional skills in sports, architecture, design, all aspects of art, culinary arts, entrepreneurs, marketing and all aspects of out of the box thinking.
Olive Hickmott is the Founder of Empowering Learning, author of the bestsellers, Seeing Spells Achieving and Bridges to Success – how to transform Learning Difficulties. Olive and those she has trained work with people in a coaching framework to help them understand their own experiences, springboard off their strengths and learn new skills to change these if they want. Their outstanding skills are just enhanced, never diminished.
FOLLOW this blog for regular updates during ADHD and Dyslexia Awareness month and register at www.empoweringlearning.co.uk for our newsletters.
Olivehickmott 