[Dyslexia, meaning a general term for a impairment that involves difficulty in learning to read or interpret words, letters, and other symbols to a certain extent, in spite of normal or above-average intelligence and cognitive abilities]

All visually oriented creative people (artists, photographers, designers, art directors) I have ever met, who are honest enough to admit it and smart enough to understand it and utilize it to their advantage, have noticed that they have dyslexia to ‘a certain extent,’ and should come to recognize it as an asset.

I BELIEVE DYSLEXIA IS WHAT ALLOWS ARTISTS TO:

. . . process information better visually, to visualize, to conceptualize, and to think in images;

. . . to see, and to picture things visually, rather than verbally;

. . . to see things differently, clearly, better, and from many varied angles;

. . . it allows their ‘intuitive thought’ to happen, allowing a dyslexic to know the answers without knowing why;

. . . it gives them the gift of visual analogy;

. . . it allows them to be as artistic, original, and gifted as they are;

. . . dyslexia makes artists visual orientation stronger than other peoples;

. . . it breeds, develops, and expands their imagination;

. . . it is also the mysterious ingredient that forms their individual stylist point of view or the look of their work;

. . . and allows them to dissect, analyze, or put things together in their mind, then magically transform them into reality via drawing or design or photography or art directing like mindsets.

Dyslexia is more of a blessing than a curse to an artist as long as you know how to deal with it, and somehow compensate for it, so it does not get in your way on other levels.

Nature has a way of compensating or substituting ‘this for that,’ and doling out strengths needed for individual creatures (and people) to survive, cope, and prosper; that our education and mental health system is not smart enough to recognize and nurture.

The naïve or uninformed often feel dyslexia is some type of a learning disability disorder in the brain, which can hamper people. I believe the visually gifted artist owe what they can do, that others cannot do, to dyslexia-- Leonardo da Vinci being a notable case in point.

***THE DESIGN -VERSUS- DYSLEXIA AS A DEFICIT DEBATE —

Thomas G. West, towards the end of the 20th century, suggested the theory that dyslexia may be design not deficit related, citing Galaburda and his own research. West suggests that many dyslexics belong to a much larger group of visual spatial thinkers who are wired for the big picture — designed to process information visually. It is only in a secondary state that dyslexics come to process information in a logical, sequential, language-based context. The uncomfortable reality may be that our education system indirectly attempts to screen out the Einstein gene, and thereby all our most original and gifted thinkers. West goes on to examine the difficult early experiences within education of five Nobel prize winners. or near-winners: Einstein, Edison, Marconi, Churchill and Faraday.

West's theory is echoed in the work of Ronald Dell Davis, author of The Gift of Dyslexia (a good book by the way-MI), who describes dyslexia as the outgrowth of a primarily picture-thinking mind. Davis posits that the symptoms associated with dyslexia arise from disorientation that results from confusion over language symbols. This view has also been supported indirectly by the research of by Linda Silverman, author of Upside Down Brilliance - the title reflects the counter-intuitive experiences of those who find the easy tasks difficult and hard tasks easy.

Echoes of this theory can be traced to the emerging discipline of NLP, the origin of VAK, now backed in the UK by the DFES [Department for Education and Skills ]. Robin Williams of ABC, extended the theory to explain the paradox of bright under-achievers in his 2000 broadcast, The Einstein factor. The importance of a design-based theory is that design-based solutions are quite different from deficit solutions. A design solution suggests that literacy as a focus of the condition dyslexia must be considered a symptom and not the condition, that Professor Joe Elliott, the man most closely associated with 'The Dyslexia Myth documentary, may be right but for the wrong reasons. That IQ, as Elliott has argued, has nothing to do with literacy. This is where Elliott stops. A design theory argues that dyslexia as a condition is the result of a trade off and by identifying that trade off you can use strengths to offset the constellation of traits which constitute dyslexia, a condition related to a single root cause a difficulty with language [ dys - difficulty & lexia — language ] in all its forms: writing, reading, oral presentations and importantly memory. In other words, design not deficit.

INDIVIDUALS WITH DYSLEXIA:

• May appear bright, intelligent, and articulate however their reading, writing, spelling level is below their average age group.

• Have average or above average intelligence, yet may have poor academic achievement.

• May have good oral language abilities but will perform much more poorly on similar written-language tests.

• Might be labeled lazy, dumb, careless, immature, "not trying hard enough," or as having a "behavior problem."

• Because dyslexia primarily affects reading while sparing other intellectual abilities, affected individuals might be categorized as not "behind enough" or "bad enough" to receive additional help in a school setting.

• Might feel dumb and have poor self-esteem, and might be easily frustrated and emotional about school reading or testing.

• Might try to hide their reading weaknesses with ingenious compensatory "strategies". Might learn best through hands-on experience, demonstrations, experimentation, observation, and visual aids.

• Can show talents in other areas such as art, drama, music, sports, mechanics, story-telling, sales, business, designing, building, or engineering.

• Have related problems with attention in a school setting; for instance they might seem to "zone out" or daydream often; get lost easily or lose track of time; and have difficulty sustaining attention.***

***Supplemental information is from-- Click to Open Web Page

For further reference, check out my manifesto entitled, ‘100 Ways to Kill a Concept: Why Most Ideas Get Shot Down™’ for additional insights. It is A MUST READ for every creative person. Enjoy!

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