Gifts that comes with Dyslexia

I had sought experiences from people on how they feel about dyslexia and their experience of it as a gift.

Now many people are waiting to understand, how it can be a gift!

This article explains how a dyslexic brain works and what are the traits that people can possess with such thinking style. Please share your feedback and your thoughts.

If you are a dyslexic or parent or a friend of a dyslexic you will relate with qualities listed below.

Gifts that come along with pains of being a Dyslexic thinker are associated with their versatile ability to-

•  Perceive their thoughts as reality and alter them at will.
•  They can have multisensory, 3 dimensional thinking style; mostly think in images with highly vivid imagination.
• High Emotional Quotient
• Highly intuitive and insightful

Verbal Thinking - Thoughts as self speech

Non Verbal Thinking - Thoughts are multi dimensional, including all senses 

These qualities bestow them with following abilities-
- One who can view things in broader perspective 
- Out of the box solution providers 
- Can see correlation in things which people generally ignore.
- Inventor 
- Innovator 
- Good at design 
- Good at mechanics 
- Good at science and engineering 
- Individuals with very high emotional intelligence 
- Good at interpersonal skills as they have great empathy too
- Highly imaginative, so can excel in creative field.
- Good at dramatics 
and many more such amazing qualities…

We have many examples to corroborate this. Below are some high achievers in their fields and proud dyslexics-

Richard Branson- A billionaire, founder of Virgin group. He says "Once freed from archaic schooling practices and preconceptions, my mind opened up. Out in the real world, my dyslexia became my massive advantage: it helped me to think creatively and laterally, and see solutions where others saw problems."

Tom cruise – One of the most successful star in Hollywood. He was diagnosed with learning disability when he was 7 years old. Tom says," I trained myself to focus my attention. I became very visual and learned how to create mental images in order to comprehend what I read."

John Chambers – Former CEO of Cisco, he is dyslexic and had turned his dyslexia to his advantage.  He says," I give no speeches: I just do an outline in my head".

These few examples highlight on the 'giftedness' of the brain in non verbal thinking. And how these successful people had managed their dyslexia.

Some of  the other well-known personalities  - 

Agatha Crystie 

Albert Einstein

Leonardo di vinci

Walt Disney 

Steven Spielberg

Steve Jobs

Tommy Hilfiger

Jay Leno

Many more such examples of success stories, you can google and read more about them. I am sharing a link where you can find the consolidated information - https://www.dyslexia.com/about-dyslexia/dyslexic-achievers/

        

Links on interview experts, news articles, websites I have referred -               

http://money.cnn.com/…/…/investing/richard-branson-dyslexia/

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/dyslexia-richard-branson-potential-intelligence-genius-advantage-virgin-a7710676.html

http://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/success-stories/tom-cruise

https://www.businessinsider.in/Cisco-CEO-John-Chambers-My-Dyslexia-Is-A-Weakness-AND-A-Strength/articleshow/38979345.cms

https://chiefexecutive.net/quarter-ceos-dyslexic-says-ciscos-john-chambers/

Sharing & Spreading Happiness!!

August brings lots of festivities, fun and fervor in Indian house hold. If one diligently follow all customs and celebrate all the festivals, they be celebrating an occasion each day during monsoon season (The Shravan month!). More so, the monsoon showers make the environment so colorful and full with life making everyone so happy….and yesterday my happiness grew multi-fold among the galore of Independence day and Janamashtami celebrations, for a very special reason!!!

I got call from a mom whose son completed Davis® Dyslexia Correction Program and Davis® Math Mastery Program with me last year. She had called to congratulate me! Her son has cleared his 10^th Grade exams in flying colors, securing marks in range of 75 to 79% in Science and Mathematics. This is a commendable feat for him. He is now aim for a degree in Computer Science, of course after completion of his IB Diploma.

Not just that he proved himself in studies; this young brilliant chap is an avid footballer! He had been also selected for professional football coaching in Spain.  

Mother is so delighted and was thankful that he got the Davis® tools on time, and how his dedicated in follow up exercises along with his consistent use of tools he conquered his battle… and now is confident to march on journey of his dreams…

She was very excited to share that how few months before the exams the school councilor was worried for his performance and suggested he opt for the core curriculum instead of extended curriculum….  But with his sheer grit and determination, he didn’t fall prey to the prejudice and ignorance of the councilor, on the contrary proved her wrong.  I must mention here mom’s unrelenting support is exemplary. Her unwavering confidence and determination to support the child is commendable.  

I remember this boy was so determined to overcome all his difficulties he improved his reading and comprehension dramatically, so after completion of his first program he asked his mother to enroll immediately for Math program and completed that too successfully.

He had unlocked his potential by fully adopting Davis tools. I remember, her mother has send me the school monthly report note after 1 month of the program. It mentioned that now her son has started showing remarkable improvement in vocabulary and how he contributes enthusiastically in all classroom discussions and also improved on spellings.  

There can be no bigger satisfaction than being the medium of someone’s enlightenment! This feeling which I find difficult to express in words is what motivates me and makes me keep going….

Daivs® Methods are gaining popularity in India now.. .. but still large section of society is unaware of these wonderful self-empowering methods. If you know someone who is bright and intelligent but is not able to realize this full potential, do provide my reference, who knows you can be first in the chain to help someone. If you think you need such empowering tools to enhance your life skills, don’t wait more to call…

Dyslexia does not happen only in English!

Dyslexia does not happen only in English! It is language neutral.....

I often state this fact to the parents of my little clients while asking them about the symptoms, and also as one of the strengths of Davis® Correction Programs. Davis® methods are completely language neutral. These can be delivered in and for any language using same techniques and are equally effective.

This is the reason the best seller book written by Ronald D Davis The Gift of Dyslexia is translated and published in 21 languages, and worldwide Davis Facilitator's network is providing this program in 30 different languages across 47 nations. But, very sad to say that the book is not available in Hindi or any other Indian languages.

Today, when I bumped into the news article from Indian Express,, about the toolkit designed in Hindi, Marathi & Kannada, to diagnose dyslexia in schools in grade 1, my heart filled with joy and hope. Congratulations and kudos to Ms Nandini Chatterjee Singh & team for taking up this noble work.  

Worldwide, approximately 15% to 20% children are said to be affected by learning differences and 10 % are estimated as having trouble in learning to read and write (typical dyslexia.)  This toolkit brings a ray of hope for 35 million children in our country. Out of which  a fraction who are the privileged to be studying English medium and those too elite schools. Among these privileged ones too only few get identified and get timely help due to various issues.

There is big need to reach out children with timely help and this toolkit is going to serve a great deal.

Davis®  Program is one such unique program which does not rely on phonics and language specific instructions, but builds it's foundation on creating an image of every symbol with it's meaning using the individual's creativity. It the learning and hence is equally effective in any language.

A glimpse of  work done in Davis ® Correction Program, the picture also shows handwriting improvement after 5 days of Program. 

The efforts to come-up successfully with the toolkit for Indian languages has encouraged me to initiate the search again for a suitable  publisher who will translate the book The Gift of Dyslexia in Hindi and other vernacular languages. The wonderful program which is provided one-on-one, is customized and personalized to suite each individual's need. It provides self empowerment to individual by controlling the symptoms at will.

Two years back, I was discouraged by following up with some publishers who made false promises but never got back even with the reasons of not pursuing the project. Now, again I am filled with hope. It has to reach so many people who will be able to relate with the problem and will get introduced to the wonderful correction methods.Amen!! the search begins.....

Enhance Learning Potential right from EarlyYears!

What will you find in this article  --
1. Symptoms in Pre-reading years.
3. Recent Research references in early detection and Need of early intervention.
4. Learning enhancement Programs.
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We all are aware how critical is the gift of learning to lead a happy life! For some people it becomes little more challenge as their needs are different in terms of learning style. Though dyslexia is a gift because of the creative and out of the box thinking style, it poses learning difficulty. Often come across as reading fluency, spelling and words decoding difficulty. (you can refer these links for more details - symptoms of dyslexia, informal assessment )

As per the sources, 17 to 21% of the population is effected by Dyslexia. Lack of right support and help is hugely detrimental and is an opportunity loss for the bright child to flourish in life. Parents generally tend to ignore or want to stay in 'Ostrich mode' and most of the times are ignorant on the symptoms which can be noticed and appropriate corrective action can be initiated. There is big need for the means of early detection and awareness about the correction methods.

Lately, lots of studies are being conducted and research papers are published which suggest that dyslexic traits exists can be identified early on.

Boston Children's hospital is conducting research to establish that dyslexia can be detected in pre-reading years and as early as in infancy stage, with the aim to identify early neural markers of dyslexia among the kids. The site quotes, "Researchers have shown that the brains of children and adults diagnosed with dyslexia are organized differently than those of other people the same age, and have also provided evidence that susceptibility to dyslexia may run in families". 

Hope, such test soon gets available to public as a common test and children at risk can get appropriate help in pre-reading years.

Dyslexia is characterized by difficulty in decoding the phonetic sounds. Some of the typical symptoms parents can watch out during pre- reading years -If the kid is having difficulty in learning nursery rhymes but other things he is quick to learn. Second lead could be difficulty in associating starting letter of the words example failing to relate that word Table is starting with T, and the kid otherwise generally shows sign of brilliance. If these symptoms are observed then that kid might be a dyslexic thinker and early right help would help. 

Davis Learning Strategies is one such program, which works as prevention for 'at risk kids'' and enables life long self learning. This program is effective for not just children who are at risk but enhances potential by enabling self learning in typical not at risk kids also. The beauty of the program is that it is all fun and kids love it!  

Now coming to the effect of unattended dyslexia; A paper published in The Journal of Pediatrics in 2015, an extensive ongoing research over many years, gives scientific and statistical proof for the need of early correction. The paper quotes,"As early as first grade, compared with typical readers, dyslexic readers had lower reading scores and verbal IQ, and their trajectories over time never converge with those of typical readers. These data demonstrate that such differences are not so much a function of increasing disparities over time but instead because of differences already present in first grade between typical and dyslexic readers." 

Below are the graphs showing the comparison of typical and Dyslexic kids. It shows the reading skill gap consistently exists till higher grades and how the IQ gap widens with the increasing grades. 

Comparison of Reading skills

The study was conducted on 414 participants from 1st to 12th grade and test were conducted on two groups dyslexic readers and typical readers and these tests were followed every year.

Comparison of Verbal IQ

Link for reference to this paper is given here   http://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(15)00823-9/abstract.

But there is no reason to lose heart if you or your loved one is facing this difficulty. Davis^TM

programs are very effective correction methods as these help alleviating the root cause of dyslexia and enables the person to realize his full potential in life.

If you feel you or anyone you know need help feel free to contact me!

Thanks for taking time to read this article. It will be helpful if you leave your comments and also let me know if you find this article informative and useful.