Jamie is spot on (see attached); people with dyslexia really do look at things differently and are invariably big picture thinkers. There is massive evidence being documented about this now from exceptional scientific brains in adults to astounding children. For instance look at Thomas G West’s book Seeing What Others Cannot See, which is full of examples of adults. These people have fabulous skills for all sorts of things with a great focus on creativity, imagination and visual thinking. Jamie sees problems and solutions differently and for example agrees that he knows what a dish is going to look like in advance of making it.
The Guardian article, Jamie is Right: Dyslexic people do think differently can be found here:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/shortcuts/2017/sep/05/jamie-oliver-right-dyslexics-do-things-differently-lucky
A significant problem is the word Dyslexia, that is derived from the Greek word, dys, meaning poor or inadequate, and the word lexis, meaning words or language. But this gives no space for exceptional advanced skills. For people who think differently we need a different way of teaching that uses their great visual strengths, rather than purely the auditory aspects of literacy, that don’t favor big picture thinkers and aren’t accurate for English anyway. There are 4 aspects to literacy: a mental image of what the word looks like, what it should like, what it means and above all to be in an effective calm state to learn. Teaching children when they are stressed will guarantee they can’t remember what they are being taught.
Inventing the word Perpectius, to mean genius level ability to see different perspectives simultaneously, would be more accurate and shift away from locking these brilliant visual brains into literacy problems.
If you want to learn more about how to take a different perspective on Dyslexia go to www.empoweringlearning.co.uk or sign-up here: http://www.tiahl.org/spelling/
#madebydyslexia #perspectius #empoweringlearning
Olivehickmott 