The Dyslexic Advantage
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Epigraph
Preface
PART I - A Matter of Perspective
CHAPTER 1 - A New View of Dyslexia
CHAPTER 2 - Dyslexia from Two Perspectives
PART II - How Dyslexic Brains Differ
CHAPTER 3 - Differences in Information Processing
CHAPTER 4 - Differences in Brain Structure
PART III - M-Strengths Material Reasoning
CHAPTER 5 - The “M” Strengths in MIND
CHAPTER 6 - The Advantages of M-Strengths
CHAPTER 7 - Trade-offs with M-Strengths
CHAPTER 8 - M-Strengths in Action
CHAPTER 9 - Key Points about M-Strengths
PART IV - I-Strengths Interconnected Reasoning
CHAPTER 10 - The “I” Strengths in MIND
CHAPTER 11 - The Advantages of I-Strengths
CHAPTER 12 - Trade-offs with I-Strengths
CHAPTER 13 - I-Strengths in Action
CHAPTER 14 - Key Points about I-Strengths
PART V - N-Strengths Narrative Reasoning
CHAPTER 15 - The “N” Strengths in MIND
CHAPTER 16 - The Advantages of N-Strengths
CHAPTER 17 - Trade-offs with N-Strengths
CHAPTER 18 - N-Strengths in Action
CHAPTER 19 - Key Points about N-Strengths
PART VI - D-Strengths Dynamic Reasoning
CHAPTER 20 - The “D” Strengths in MIND
CHAPTER 21 - The Advantages of D-Strengths
CHAPTER 22 - Trade-offs with D-Strengths
CHAPTER 23 - D-Strengths in Action
CHAPTER 24 - Key Points about D-Strengths
PART VII - Putting the Dyslexic Advantage to Use
CHAPTER 25 - Reading
CHAPTER 26 - Writing
CHAPTER 27 - Getting a Good Start: Elementary through Middle School
CHAPTER 28 - Thriving in High School and College
CHAPTER 29 - Thriving in the Workplace
Epilogue
APPENDIX A - Accommodations and Resources
APPENDIX B - Popular Careers for Individuals with Dyslexia
NOTES
INDEX
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Copyright © Brock L. Eide and Fernette F. Eide, 2011
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To Karina (Braveheart): You’re an amazing person and an unending source of joy, and we love you with all our hearts.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We’ve been truly blessed during the writing of this book by the support and assistance of many remarkable people, whose help we are pleased to acknowledge.
First, we wish to thank our wonderful agent, Carol Mann, who in a very difficult market managed not only to get us a choice of great offers but also helped guide us to the publisher of our dreams. Thanks for watching out for us in so many ways.
And to our team of dreamworthy—but fortunately real—colleagues at Hudson Street Press/Penguin, words are not adequate to express our thanks for your input and support throughout this project. To editor in chief Caroline Sutton, we express our deepest thanks for sharing and supporting our vision, and for assembling such a fantastic team at Hudson Street. To Meghan Stevenson, whose equally astonishing talents as editor and motivational coach of the “tough love” school contributed immeasurably not only to the clarity and structure of the manuscript but also to our inordinate fear of missing deadlines (by too much . . . ), you’re a true star of your profession, and it has been an honor to work with you. To Courtney Nobile, our lead publicist, and publicity director Liz Keenan, we feel enormously privileged to be backed up by publicists whose enthusiasm is equaled only by their expertise. To Jason Johnson and Eve Kirch, who were responsible for the wonderful design work on the outside and the inside of the book, respectively, thank you for your beautiful and creative contributions. And to John Fagan and Ashley Pattison in marketing, production editor Katie Hurley, copy editor Sheila Moody, and managing editor Susan Schwartz, our deepest thanks for all your work on our behalf. Also, we’d like to thank Bonnie Bader at Grosset & Dunlap at Penguin Young Readers for passing the book on to Henry Winkler so quickly.
We also wish to offer our profoundest thanks to the families and individuals who’ve come to our clinic and shared their stories and their lives with us. The real work was yours. All we did was listen.
To all those who agreed to be interviewed for this book, to share their stories and expertise, we offer our fullest thanks. The chance to talk to so many acc
omplished and creative people was one of our most enjoyable professional experiences ever.
Our special thanks to Tom (Thomas G.) West, who’s worked harder and longer than anyone to promote the idea that dyslexia has advantages. Ever since we first met Tom he’s been unstinting in his kindness and encouragement toward us. Without any question Tom is one of the most generous and selfless individuals we’ve ever been privileged to know, and the full extent of his impact is only just beginning to be felt.
And to all of our family and friends, old and new, who’ve become a part of Karina’s support community: without your help—emotional, spiritual, professional, and financial—this book could have never been written. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
I would now like to turn to . . . the advantages of the predisposition to dyslexia. . . . [To] the apparently paradoxical notion that the very same anomalies . . . of the brain that have led to the disability of dyslexia in certain literate societies also determine superiority in the same brains. We can, thus, speak of a “pathology of superiority” without fear of being contradictory.
Norman Geschwind, M.D., “Why Orton Was Right”
PREFACE
In 2004, a top business school in England sent out a press release with the headline: “Entrepreneurs five times more likely to suffer from dyslexia.” Its subheading went on to ask, “What makes Sir Richard Branson, Sir Alan Sugar, and Sir Norman Foster special?”1
The answer, as revealed in the body of the press release, was that each of these highly successful entrepreneurs also “suffered from dyslexia,” a condition researchers at the school found to predispose individuals with dyslexia quite strongly to entrepreneurial success.
Just how successful are the particular entrepreneurs that they cited? At last count, Sir Richard Branson has a net worth of approximately US$4 billion. Alan Sugar, now Baron (Lord) Sugar of Clapton, has a net worth of US$1.2 billion. Norman Foster, now Baron (Lord) Foster of Thames Bank, has a comparatively smaller fortune of “only” US$400 million—though he does have the consolation of being one of the world’s most admired and distinguished architects.
In light of the tremendous success enjoyed by these entrepreneurs, it seems rather odd to describe them as “suffer[ing] from dyslexia.” Yet as almost anyone with dyslexia can tell you, being dyslexic really can involve a great deal of suffering: like the suffering of constantly failing at skills others master with ease; the ridicule of peers and classmates; or exclusion from classes, schools, or careers one would otherwise pursue. These experiences can all involve sufferings of the cruelest sort. Yet it’s equally clear when we examine individuals with dyslexia—when we see how they think and what they can do and the often remarkable persons they become—that in many respects “suffering from dyslexia” is suffering of a most unusual kind.
This book isn’t about dyslexia, but about the kinds of individuals who are diagnosed with dyslexia. It’s about the kinds of minds they have, the ways they process information, and the things they do especially well. It’s not a book about something these individuals have. It’s about who they are.
Most books on dyslexia focus on problems with reading and spelling. While these problems are extremely important, they’re not the only—or even the most important—things that individuals with dyslexia find critical for their growth, learning, and success.
As experts in neuroscience and learning disabilities, we’ve worked with hundreds of individuals with dyslexia and their families. In the process we’ve found that individuals with dyslexia often share a broad range of important cognitive features. Some of these features are learning or processing challenges—like difficulties with reading and spelling, rote math, working memory, or visual and auditory function. But others are important strengths, abilities, and talents; gifts we call the dyslexic advantage. While these features differ somewhat from person to person, they also form recognizable patterns—just as the different musical works of Mozart are distinguishable yet recognizably the work of the same composer.
Traditionally, attempts to understand dyslexia have focused almost entirely on problems with reading, spelling, and other academic skills. As a result, little attention has been paid to the things individuals with dyslexia do especially well—particularly once they’ve become adults. In our opinion, this is a grave mistake. Trying to understand what dyslexia is all about while overlooking the talents that mature individuals with dyslexia characteristically display is like trying to understand what it’s like to be a caterpillar while ignoring the fact that caterpillars grow up to be butterflies.
As we’ll show you in this book, the brains of individuals with dyslexia aren’t defective; they’re simply different. These wiring differences often lead to special strengths in processing certain kinds of information, and these strengths typically more than make up for the better-known dyslexic challenges. As we’ll show you in this book, by learning how to recognize, nurture, and properly use these strengths, individuals with dyslexia can be helped in their efforts to achieve success and personal fulfillment.
There are two big differences between the traditional view of “dyslexia” and the one we’ll present in this book. First, we don’t see the reading, spelling, or other academic challenges associated with dyslexia as the result of a “disorder” or a “disease.” Instead, we see these challenges as arising from a different pattern of brain organization—one whose chief aim is to predispose dyslexic individuals to the development of valuable skills. When dyslexia is viewed from this perspective, we can see that the strengths and challenges that accompany it are like two sides of the same neurological coin. In this book, we’ll identify these advantages, describe how they can be used, and explain why we believe that they—rather than challenges with reading and spelling—should be seen as dyslexia’s true “core features.”
Second, unlike most books on dyslexia this book won’t focus solely on making individuals with dyslexia into better readers. Instead, it will focus on helping them become better at “being dyslexic.” While reading instruction changes certain brain features, it doesn’t change all the things that make dyslexic brains different from nondyslexic ones. However, this is a good thing, because dyslexic brains aren’t supposed to be like everyone else’s. Dyslexic brains have their own kinds of strengths and benefits, and these advantages should be recognized and enjoyed. Our goal is to help individuals with dyslexia recognize these many wonderful advantages, so they can enjoy the full range of benefits that can come from having a dyslexic brain. The first step in achieving this goal is to help them think more broadly about what it really means to “be dyslexic,” by expanding the concept of “dyslexia” so that it no longer means only challenges but also includes important talents.
The best way to broaden our view in this fashion is to look not just at the things that individuals with dyslexia find challenging but also at the kinds of things that they often do especially well. One obvious way to do this is by studying people who’ve excelled at “being dyslexic.” Most instructional books or DVDs on topics like playing sports or musical instruments, cooking, or speaking foreign languages have one thing in common: they feature expert practitioners sharing and modeling tips and strategies they’ve personally found useful. Since this is a book about how to excel at “being dyslexic,” we’ll share lots of stories, tricks, and pointers from dyslexic individuals who’ve enjoyed success in their own lives. While not every individual with dyslexia will succeed in precisely the same ways as these talented individuals, anyone with a dyslexic processing style can benefit from their insights and from studying the strategies they’ve used.
In the early chapters of this book, we’ll describe how dyslexic brains differ from nondyslexic ones. Then we’ll devote five chapters to each of the four dyslexia-associated strength patterns we’ve found to be common in individuals with dyslexia. We’ve called these patterns the MIND strengths to make them easy to remember: Material reasoning, Interconnected reasoning, Narrative reasoning, and Dynamic reasonin
g. These strength patterns are not meant to be rigid or watertight categories but to be helpful ways of thinking about and understanding dyslexic talents. While none of the MIND strengths is exclusive to individuals with dyslexia, each is linked to particular cognitive and structural brain features common in individuals with dyslexia. As you read these chapters, please remember that while individuals with dyslexia share many features in common, each is also unique. Dyslexic processing isn’t caused by a single gene, so different individuals with dyslexia will show different patterns of strengths and challenges. Very few will show all the MIND strengths, but essentially all will show some. After discussing the MIND strengths, we’ll conclude with several chapters of practical advice describing how individuals with dyslexia can profit from their dyslexic advantages both in school and at work.
We hope that this book will provide a resource and an encouragement for those who haven’t yet fully learned the many wonderful advantages that can come from “being dyslexic.”
PART I
A Matter of Perspective
CHAPTER 1
A New View of Dyslexia
Throughout his school career, Doug struggled with reading and writing. He flunked out of community college twice before he finally gained the skills he needed to earn his college degree. Today he’s the president of a highly successful software firm that he founded a decade ago.