People with dyslexia often excel at big-picture thinking, creativity, problem-solving, and visual-spatial skills, allowing them to see patterns, connect ideas, and excel in fields like engineering, design, entrepreneurship, and the arts, despite challenges with reading/writing. They develop strengths in areas like holistic thinking, empathy, intuition, and dynamic reasoning, making them adept at identifying complex relationships and navigating multi-dimensional problems.
Dyslexic Strengths:
Research by the University of Strathclyde has found that people with dyslexia are much better at being curious and exploring new ideas and more likely to be found in careers where this is an advantage, such as art, media, architecture, creativity, engineering and inventing things!
Hidden Strengths of dyslexia
Dyslexic individuals often excel in creative fields like art, design and storytelling. Our brains are wired to think visually, making us great at generating unique ideas and seeing connections where others might not.
Learners with dyslexia often lose the thread of multi-step calculation and can't perform mental maths at speed. You can support them by visualising problems, using diagrams, and supporting learning with concrete materials.
Common Misconceptions about Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a sign of low intelligence: Dyslexia does not impact your child's intelligence in any way. As a matter of fact, many dyslexic students are super intelligent and bursting with talent. The only challenge they have is that their brains process language differently.
People with dyslexia have the ability to see how things connect to form complex systems, and to identify similarities among multiple things. Such strengths are likely to be of particular significance for fields like science and mathematics, where pictures are key.
Do you:
Highly intuitive – Dyslexics often have a strong sense of intuition and heightened emotional intelligence. They can quickly grasp complex concepts and situations, often arriving at conclusions before others.
The majority of people think mainly with their brain's left hemisphere, whereas dyslexics think predominantly with their right hemisphere. This leads to a different kind of thinking and learning style that we call conceptual thinking.
The most commonly observed cognitive impairment in dyslexia is a difficulty in phonological processing (i.e., in phonological awareness, phonological processing speed or phonological memory). However, phonological difficulties do not fully explain the variability that is observed.
A study from Cass Business School in London found that 35% of entrepreneurs in the US and 20% of entrepreneurs in the UK showed signs of dyslexia compared with just 5–10% of the overall population. And a survey of 69,000 self-made millionaires indicated that 40% of them showed signs of dyslexia.
Albert Einstein
He had problems through school, that lead people tio believe he was Dyslexic. He overcame these problems to become arguably the most famous scientist of the modern era.
Albert Einstein
Often at the top of the list of historical figures with dyslexia, Albert Einstein, known for his brilliant mind, also struggled with delayed speech, language difficulties, and putting thoughts on paper.
Inventiveness and big-picture, long-term thinking are among the skills and strengths linked to these explorative behaviours. The researchers link dyslexia to human evolution over hundreds of thousands of years, where humans – and our brains – have had to adapt to constant change, rather than one fixed environment.
Interconnected reasoning, or I-strengths, is another common dyslexic strength that aligns perfectly with science. Dyslexic thinkers are adept at noticing relationships and drawing analogies, skills that are invaluable in understanding the complex systems found in physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering.
Famous actors like Johnny Depp, Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom all have dyslexia. Pablo Picasso's teachers described him as “having difficulty differentiating the orientation of letters”.
These creative processing skills allow dyslexics to see the bigger picture, and visualise new solutions. This skill is really valuable to employees, in fact, 50% of NASA employees are dyslexic. They are deliberately hired because of their excellent critical thinking skills and spatial awareness.
Many of the emotional problems caused by dyslexia occur out of frustration with school or social situations. Social scientists have frequently observed that frustration produces anger. This can be clearly seen in many children with dyslexia. Anger is also a common manifestation of anxiety and depression.
No, dyslexia is not a form of ADHD; they are separate neurodevelopmental conditions, but they often co-occur (comorbid) because they share some symptoms like attention issues and can affect similar brain functions, though their core problems differ: dyslexia is a language-based learning disorder, while ADHD involves inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Many people have both, making proper assessment crucial for targeted support, as dyslexia impacts reading/language processing, while ADHD broadly affects executive functions like focus and self-regulation.
Understanding and supporting individuals with Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia, and Dyspraxia is essential for fostering an inclusive and effective learning environment. These disorders can also coincide with other conditions such as ADHD and Autism, requiring a comprehensive approach.
Yes, trauma – both physical and emotional – have been cited in potentially causing the onset of dyslexia. Trauma Dyslexia, also commonly referred to as acquired dyslexia, can develop after a person has experienced a traumatic brain injury (TBI), such as a fall from a ladder, a car accident, a sports injury, etc.
Bill Gates, one of the richest people in the world didn't let his dyslexia hold him back.
9 Other Private Schools for Dyslexia in the USA
Strong Memory Skills:
Many people with dyslexia have excellent long-term memory, particularly when it comes to experiences and visual information.