![[Symptoms]](graphics/sympt.GIF) |
Symptoms of Dyslexia |
Summary of Warning
Signs |
DISCLAIMER: No two people with dyslexia are exactly alike because dyslexia ranges from mild to moderate to severe to profound. Some people with dyslexia also have AD/HD.
Therefore, someone with dyslexia may not have every single symptom listed below. But they will have many of them. Professional testers look for a "constellation"
or cluster of symptoms in the following areas.
If someone struggles with spelling, is a slow reader who has a difficult time sounding out unknown words, and has difficulty getting their great thoughts down on paper in acceptable form, AND that person has 3 or more of these classic warning signs, it is worth getting that person tested for dyslexia.
These problems are unexpected
when compared to the person's proven abilities in other
areas.
NEW:
One page summary sheet of
the warning signs of Dyslexia.
One is also available on the warning signs of ADD/ADHD.
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NEW: Watch our "Could it be Dyslexia?" video online - FREE.
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Pre-school and
kindergarten warning signs |
If three or more of these warning signs
exist, especially if there is dyslexia or AD/HD in the family
tree, the child should be tested for dyslexia
when the child becomes five years old. Also, phonemic
awareness games and other reading readiness activities should be done daily during the preschool years.
- delayed speech (not speaking any words by the
child's first birthday. Often, they don't start talking until they are two, two-and-a-half, three, or even older.)
- mixing up sounds in multi-syllabic words (ex:
aminal for animal, bisghetti for spaghetti,
hekalopter for helicopter, hangaberg for hamburger, mazageen for magazine, etc.)
- early stuttering or cluttering
- lots of ear infections
- can't master tying shoes
- confusion over left versus right, over versus
under, before versus after, and other directionality words and concepts
- late to establish a dominant hand
May switch from right
hand to left hand while coloring, writing, or doing any other task. Eventually, the child will usually establish a preferred hand, but it may not be until they are 7 or 8. Even then, they may use one hand for writing, but the other hand for sports.
- inability to correctly complete phonemic
awareness task
- despite listening to stories that contain lots of rhyming words, such as Dr. Seuss, cannot tell you words that rhyme with cat or seat by the age of four-and-a-half
- difficulty learning the names of the letters or
sounds in the alphabet; difficulty writing the alphabet in order
- Trouble correctly articulating R's and L's as well as M's and N's. They often have "immature" speech. They may still be saying "wed and gween" instead of "red and green" in second or third grade.
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Reading and Spelling |
People with dyslexia do not
make random reading errors. They make very specific types of
errors. Their spelling reflects the same types of errors. Watch for
these errors:
Reading:
- can read a word on one page, but won't recognize it on the next page.
- knows phonics, but can'tor won'tsound out an unknown word.
- slow, labored, inaccurate reading of single words in isolation (when there is no story line or pictures to provide clues)
When they misread, they often say a word that has the same first and last letters, and the same shape, such as form-from or trial-trail.
they may insert or leave out letters, such as could-cold or star-stair.
they may say a word that has the same letters, but in a different sequence, such as who-how, lots-lost, saw-was, or girl-grill.
- when reading aloud, reads in a slow, choppy cadence
(not in smooth phrases), and often ignores punctuation
- becomes visibly tired after reading for only a
short time
- reading comprehension may be low due to spending
so much energy trying to figure out the words. Listening comprehension
is usually significantly higher than reading comprehension.
- directionality confusion shows up when reading and when writing
b-d confusion is a classic warning sign. One points to the left, the other points to the right, and they are left-right confused.
b-p, n-u, or m-w confusion. One points up, the other points down. That's also directionality confusion.
- Substitutes similar-looking words, even if it
changes the meaning of the sentence, such as sunrise for surprise,
house for horse, while for white, wanting for walking
- When reading a story or a sentence, substitutes
a word that means the same thing but doesn't look at all similar,
such as trip for journey, fast for speed, or cry for weep
- Misreads, omits, or even adds small function words,
such as an, a, from, the, to, were, are, of
- Omits or changes suffixes, saying need for needed,
talks for talking, or late for lately.
Spelling:
- Their spelling is far worse than their reading. They sometimes flunk inventive spelling. They have extreme difficulty with vowel sounds, and often leave them out.
- With enormous effort, they may be able to "memorize" Monday's spelling list long enough to pass Friday's spelling test, but they can't spell those very same words two hours later when writing those words in sentences.
- Continually misspells high frequency sight words (nonphonetic
but very common words) such as they, what, where, does and becausedespite extensive
practice.
- Misspells even when copying something from the
board or from a book.
- Written work shows signs of spelling uncertainty--numerous
erasures, cross outs, etc.
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Handwriting
Dysgraphia |
Also known as a visual-motor integration
problem, people with dyslexia often have poor, nearly illegible handwriting.
Signs of dysgraphia include:
- Unusual pencil grip, often with the thumb on top
of the fingers (a "fist grip")
- Young children
will often put their head down on the desk to watch the tip of
the pencil as they write
- The pencil is gripped so tightly that the child's
hand cramps. The child will frequently put the pencil down and shake
out his/her hand.
- Writing is a slow, labored, non-automatic
chore.
- Child writes letters with unusual starting and
ending points.
- Child has great difficulty getting letters to
"sit" on the horizontal lines.
- Copying off of the board is slow, painful, and tedious. Child looks up and visually "grabs" just one or two letters at a time, repeatedly subvocalizes the names of those letters, then stares intensely at their paper when writing those one or two letters. This process is repeated over and over. Child frequently loses his/her place when copying, misspells when copying, and doesn't always match capitalization or punctuation when copyingeven those the child can read what was on the board.
- Unusual spatial organization of the page. Words
may be widely spaced or tightly pushed together. Margins are often
ignored.
- Child has an unusually difficult time learning
cursive writing, and shows chronic confusion about similarly-formed
cursive letters such as f and b, m and n, w and u. They will also
difficulty remembering how to form capital cursive letters.
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Quality of
Written Work |
People with dyslexia usually have
an "impoverished written product." That means there is a huge difference between their ability to tell you something and their ability to write it down. They tend to:
- avoid writing whenever possible
- write everything as one very long sentence
- not understand that a sentence has to start with a capital letter and end with punctuation
- be confused about what is a complete sentence versus a fragment
- misspell many wordseven though they often use only very simple one-syllable words that they are "sure" they know how to spell
- take an unusually long time to write, due to dysgraphia
- have nearly illegible handwriting, due to dysgraphia
- use space poorly on the page; odd spacing between
words, may ignore margins, sentences tightly packed into one section
of the page instead of being evenly spread out
- do not notice their errors when "proofreading." They will read back what they wanted to say, not what is actually on the page.
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Directionality |
Most dyslexic children and adults
have significant directionality confusion.
- Left-Right confusion:
- Even adults have to use whatever tricks their mother or teacher taught them to tell left from right. It never becomes rapid and automatic.
- A common saying in household with dyslexic people is, "It's on the left. The other left."
- That's why they are b-d confused. One points to the left and one points to the right.
- They will often start math problems on the wrong side, or want to carry a number the wrong way.
- Up-Down confusion:
- Some children with dyslexia are also up-down confused. They confuse b-p or d-q, n-u, and m-w.
- Confusion about directionality words:
- First-last, before-after, next-previous, over-under
- Yesterday-tomorrow (directionality in time)
- North, South, East, West confusion:
- Adults with dyslexia get lost a lot when driving around, even in cities where they've lived for many years
- Often have difficulty reading or understanding maps.
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Sequencing steps
in a task |
Learning any task that has a series
of steps which must be completed in a specific order can be difficult.
That's because you must memorize the sequence of steps, and often, there is no logic in the sequence.
These tasks are usually challenging for people with dyslexia:
- Tying shoelaces: this task not only has a series
of steps, but many steps have directionality as part of them. Many
children do not master this task until they're teenagers.
- Printing letters: the reason they form letters with such unusual beginning and ending points is that they can't remember the sequence of pencil strokes necessary to form that letter. So they start somewhere and then keep going until the letter looks approximately right.
- Doing long division: to successfully complete
a long division problem, you must do a series of five steps, in
exactly the right sequence, over and over again.
They will often know how to do every step in the sequence, but if they get the steps out of sequence, they'll end up with the wrong answer.
- Touch typing: learning to touch type is an essential
skill for people with dysgraphia. But
it is usually more difficult (and requires much more effort) for
a dyslexic child to learn to type. Not only are the keys on the
keyboard laid out in a random order (which requires rote memorization).
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Rote memory
of non-meaningful facts |
Memorizing non-meaningful facts (facts
that are not personally interesting and personally relevant) is extremely
difficult for most dyslexic children and adults. In school, this leads
to difficulty learning:
- Multiplication tables
- Days of the week or months of the year in order
- Science facts: water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit,
the speed of light is 186,000 miles per second, etc.
- History facts: dates, names, and places. Dyslexic
students do well in history classes that emphasize why some event
happened, and the consequences of that event, rather than rote memorization
of dates and names.
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Telling time on a clock with hands |
People with dyslexia have extreme difficulty telling time on a clock with hands:
- When asked what time it, they may say something ridiculous, such as, "It's ten past quarter to."
- They may be able to tell whole hours and half hours (5:00, 5:30, etc.) but not smaller chunks, such as 5:12.
- Concepts such as before and after on a clock are confusing.
- Therefore, time arithmetic is impossible.
- Getting them a digital clock only helps a little bit.
- Now they can tell what time it is at the moment, but if you tell them to be home in 15 minutes, they can't figure out when that would be.
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Extremely messy bedrooms |
People with dyslexia have an extremely
difficult time organizing their belongings. They tend to pile
things rather than to organize them and put them away. It is almost
as though if they can't see item (if it is behind a door or in a drawer),
they will forget where it is.
So they have extremely messy bedrooms, lockers, desks, backpacks, purses, offices, and garages.
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Math Difficulties |
People with dyslexia are often gifted
in math. Their three-dimensional visualization skills help them "see"
math concepts more quickly and clearly than non-dyslexic people. Unfortunately,
difficulties in directionality, rote
memorization, reading, and sequencing can make
the following math tasks so difficult that their math gifts are never
discovered.
- Memorizing addition and subtraction facts
- Memorizing multiplication tables
- Remembering the sequence of steps in long division
- Reading word problems
- Copying an answer from one spot to a different spot
- Starting a math problem on the wrong side
- Showing their work
- They often "see" math in their head, so showing their work in almost impossible.
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Doing math rapidly
- They often excel at higher levels of math, such as algebra, geometry, and calculusif they have a teacher who works around the math problems caused by their dyslexia.
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Co-existing Conditions |
Attention Deficit Disorder (with or without Hyperactivity)
Attention Deficit Disorder is a completely separate condition than
dyslexia. However, research has shown that at least 40% of people
with dyslexia also have AD/HD.
Light Sensitivity (Scotopic
Sensitivity)
A small percentage (3% to 8%) of people with dyslexia also have light
sensitivity (sometimes called scotopic sensitivity). These people
have a hard time seeing small black print on white paper. The print
seems to shimmer or move; some see the rivers of white more strongly
than the black words. These people tend to dislike florescent lighting,
and often "shade" the page with their hand or head when
they read.
Colored plastic overlays and/or colored lenses can
eliminate the harsh black print against white paper contrast, and
may make letters stand still for the first time in someone's life.
However, the plastic overlays or colored lenses will not "cure"
dyslexia, nor will they teach a dyslexic person how to read.
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Significant Strengths
of people with dyslexia |
Although their unique brain
architecture and "unusual wiring" make reading, writing, and
spelling difficult, most people with dyslexia have gifts in areas controlled
by the right hemisphere of the brain. The right side controls: |
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- artistic skill
- athletic ability
- musical ability
- mechanical ability
- people skills
- 3-D visual-spatial skills
- vivid imagination
- intuition
- creative, global thinking
- curiosity
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Good careers
for people with dyslexia |
You'll find people with dyslexia
in every field. However, many excel and become "super stars" in the following fields: |
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- architecture
- interior or exterior design
- psychology
- teaching
- marketing and sales
- culinary arts
- woodworking
- carpentry
- performing arts
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- athletics
- music
- scientific research
- engineering
- computers
- electronics
- mechanics
- graphic arts
- photography
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Famous Dyslexics
Famous Dyslexics: What they remember
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The following people
had either dyslexia, ADHD, or both. These people succeeded BECAUSE
of their dyslexic gifts, not despite their dyslexia.
The starting list was created by the Kitty Petty
Institute, but it has been added to for years. If you have an addition
to this list, please e-mail it to Susan@BrightSolutions.US
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Actors or Entertainment Industry Figures:
Henry Winkler (The Fonz)
Tom Cruise
Whoopi Goldberg
Danny Glover
Harry Anderson
Daniel Stern
Bill Cosby's brother and son
Steven Spielberg
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Dustin Hoffman
Steve McQueen
Jack Nicholson
Tom Smothers
Suzanne Somers
Sylvester Stallone
Robin Williams
Lindsay Wagner
George C. Scott
George Burns
Anthony Hopkins
Bob Jimenez (TV anchorman)
Tracey Gold
Steven J. Cannell
Jay Leno
Woody Harrelson
Jamie Oliver, "The Naked Chef"
Brian Grazer, producer of "A Beautiful Mind"
Edward James Olmos
Tracey Gold, "Growing Pains"
Walt Disney
Quentin Tarantino
Lara Flynn Boyle
Keira Knightley
Dom Delouise
Dave Foley
Bruce McCulloch
Patrick Dempsey
Orlando Bloom
Sports:
Magic Johnson
Greg Louganis (Olympic diver)
Bruce Jenner
Jackie Stewart, inducted into the Grand Prix Hall of Fame
Dexter Manley, former NFL player
Carl Lewis
Pete Rose
Nolan Ryan
Billy Blanks, Captain of 1980 U.S. Olympic Karate Team, Creator of
Tae-Bo
Terry Bradshaw
Rulon Gardner, Gold Medal Winner in Greco-Roman wrestling, 2000 Summer
Olympics
Adam Heidt, Luge competitor
Jim Shea, Jr., Gold Medal Winner in Skeleton, 2002 Winter Olympics
Stan Wattles, Indy race car driver
Mohammad Ali, boxer
Ellie Hawkins, rock climber
Eric Wynalda, professional soccer player
Neil Smith, NFL
Don Coryell, San Diego football coach (NFL & NCAA)
Duncan Goodhew, Swimmer
Bob Anderson, coach of Olympic wrestling team
Politicians:
Winston Churchill
Benjamin Franklin
Woodrow Wilson
Nelson Rockefeller
Thomas Kean, governor of New Jersey
Gaston Caperton, governor of West Virginia
Frank Dunkle, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
John F. Kennedy
Robert Kennedy
Luci Baines Johnson Nugent
Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy
James Carville, Political Analyst
Peter Leonard, member, State House of Representatives, New Hampshire
Julius Caesar
Andrew Jackson
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Anwar Sadat
Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco
John Hickenlooper, mayor of Denver |
Military:
General George Patton
Dwight D. Eisenhower
General Westmoreland
Napoleon Bonaparte
Artists:
Rodin
Leonardo da Vinci
Gustave Flaubert
Robert Rauschenberg
Chuck Close, artist (photorealist portraits)
Margaret Whittington
Allison Merriweather
Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert comic strip)
Charles Schulz (creator of Peanuts comic strip)
Ansel Adams
Fredrick Law Olmsted, Landscape Engineer: designed Central Park in
New York City and Chicago's Grant Park
Robert "Bob" Fowler, Sculptor & jewelry maker
Robert Toth
Mark Wilkinson, kitchen & furniture designer
Martha Sturdy, Designer
P. Buckley Moss
Michelangelo
Pablo Picasso
Vincent Van Gogh
Musicians:
Harry Belafonte
Cher
Beethoven
John Lennon
Mozart
Aimee Osbourne (Ozzie's eldest)
Jewel
Science & Medicine:
Thomas Edison
Michael Faraday
James Clerk Maxwell
Nicolai Tesla
Albert Einstein
Alexander Graham Bell
The Wright Brothers
Benjamin Franklin
Henry Ford
Galileo
Steven Hawkings
Louis Pasteur
Tom Francis (AIDS researcher)
Jack Horner (paleontologist)
Baruj Benacerraf, MD (winner of the Nobel prize in Physiology)
Charles "Pete" Conrad (astronaut)
Dr. Fred Epstein, Brain Surgeon
Dr. Edward Hollowell (ADD Specialist)
Dr. Larry Silvers (ADD Specialist)
Paul MacCready, "Engineer of the Century", invented "Gossamer
Condor"
Dr. Harvey Cushing, Father of Modern Brain Surgery
Charles Darwin
William Spicer
Dr. Delphos Cogrove, CEO of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation |
Writers and Poets:
William Butler Yeats
Agatha Christie
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Hans Christian Anderson
Richard Cohen, syndicated columnist for the Washington Post
Marc Flanagan, TV writer and producer
Elizabeth D. Squire
Edgar Allen Poe
Thomas Thoreau
Jules Verne
John Irving
Elizabeth Daniels Squire
Robert Scheer
Fanny Flagg, wrote "Fried Green Tomatoes"
Richard Ford, wrote "Independence Day"
Patricia Polacco, Author and Illustrator of children's books
Norla Chee, Native American Poet
Victor Villasenor, Mexican-American Writer
Debbie Macomber, Novelist
John Schumacher, Cookbook Author and Chef
Mark Twain
John Grisham
Entrepreneurs & Business Leaders:
Charles Schwab
Bill Hewlett, co-founder of HP
Richard C. Strauss, real-estate financier
Mark Torrance, CEO, Musak Corporation
Malcolm Goodridge III, senior vice president, American Express
William Doyle, chairman, William Doyle Auction Galleries of New York
Paul J. Orfalea, founder and chairman, Kinko's copy shops
G. Chris Anderson, vice-chairman of PaineWebber
Weyerhauser family
William Wrigley, Jr.
Russell Varian
Craig McCaw (McCaw Cellular)
Fred Friendly (former CBS News president)
David Murdock, CEO, Dole Foods
John Chambers, CEO, Cisco Systems
Richard Branson, Founder, Virgin Corporation (Airline, Records)
Diane Swonk, Bank One
Tommy Hilfiger, Fashion Designer
Donald Winkler, CEO of Ford Motor Credit
Horst Rechelbacher, Founder of Aveda Corporation
Other:
Ann Bancroft, arctic explorer
Roger W. Wilkins, scholar and head of the Pulitzer Prize Board
Hugh Newell Jacobsen, famous architect, winner of 90 different awards
for design, including 20 Architectural Record Awards for the best
house design of the year.
Son of former U.S. President, George H.W. Bush
Prince Charles
Erin Brockovich, Enviromental Activist
Dexter Scott King, son of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. & President
& CEO of The King Center in Atlanta, GA
Peter W.D. Wright, Special Education Attorney
Click here for more
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Articles on and by Famous Dyslexics |
Patrick Dempsey, of Grey's Anatomy
Excerpt of an article published on the
USA Weekend website
by Michele Hatty
"Dyslexia really hurt me during auditions. There was a 10-year period where I had to memorize pages of dialogue and invest so much of my time and energy into every audition, going in knowing I wouldn't get it anyway," Patrick Dempsey says with a trace of bitterness.
Grey's creator, Shonda Rhimes, admits Dempsey's dyslexia threw her at first, particularly at the first few "table readings" -- meetings when the cast gathers to read fresh scripts aloud. "I did not know about Patrick's dyslexia in the beginning," she says. "I actually thought that he didn't like the scripts from the way he approached the readings."
"When I found out, I completely understood his hesitation. Now that we all know, if he is struggling with a word, the other actors are quick to step up and help him out. Everyone is very respectful."
To read the entire interview, go to:
www.dys-add.com/DempseyInterview.pdf
Dan Malloy
running for governor of Connecticut
Excerpt of an article on the
Boston.com website
by Susan Haigh
When Dan Malloy accepted the Democratic Party's nomination for governor at this month's state convention, he mentioned how proud his mother would have been had she lived to see that moment.
As a child, Malloy struggled to read, calculate math problems, and even tie his shoes. He suffered from dyslexia at a time when the term "learning disabilities" was uncommon.
As late as fourth grade, Malloy's teachers thought he was mentally retarded.
He recalls how one teacher posted his failing spelling grades on the chalkboard.
Malloy, 50, and mayor of Stamford, said "People from my childhood would not have predicted the level of success I've been able to accomplish."
To read the entire interview, go to:
www.dys-add.com/MalloyInterview.pdf
Barbara Corcoran
Jersey girl trumped Trump with street smarts
excerpt from an article on the
Bankrate.com website
by Jay MacDonald
As a girl growing up in New Jersey, Barbara Corcoran would gaze across the Hudson River at the Manhattan skyline, not knowing that one day, she would reign as queen of New York residential real estate.
After all, she was hardly a born deal maker. Severe dyslexia earned her nothing more than straight D's in school and dire warnings from the nuns.
But what she could not accomplish in school, she made up for with a winning personality and a way with people.
To read the entire interview, go to:
www.dys-add.com/CorcoranInterview.pdf
Jack Horner
excerpt of this article
Jack Horner: An Intellectual Autobiography
published on the LD OnLine website
"I suffered from a lack of confidence due to dyslexia. I wasn't diagnosed until well after I had reached adulthood, had struggled through school being considered lazy, dumb, and perhaps even retarded, and had flunked out of college seven times. Most people expected I'd wind up working at a service station, or if I was really lucky, I might get to drive a truck at my father's gravel plant.
"Kindergarten through eighth grade was extremely difficult for me because my progress in reading, writing, and mathematics was excruciatingly slow. I would never read out loud in class, even if the teachers threatened to give me failing grades. The joke was that I only carried schoolbooks to ballast my lanky body against the strong winds of Montana. Eventually, I managed to graduate from high school, but just barely, having received Ds in all required classes, including English, in which my grade was a D minus, minus, minus. The teacher told me that this was essentially an F, but that he never wanted to see me again.
"There was, however, one area of school besides P.E. in which I excelled: science projects."
Jack Horner became one of the most well known paleontologists in the world. He has discovered the most dinosaur eggs, the first dinosaur embryos, and three species of dinosaurs. Although he never graduated from college, Jack received the MacArthur Foundation Award (called the "Genius Award"), several honorary doctorate degrees, and served as technical advisor for all of the Jurassic Park films.
To read the entire article, go to:
www.dys-add.com/Horner.pdf
Jackie Stewart
excerpt of an article by
David Leafe
published on the Telegraph.co.uk website
Reclining in the comfort of an executive limousine and looking every inch the motor-racing legend and multimillionaire businessman that he is, Sir Jackie Stewart shared that his parents were baffled by his poor performance at school. He remembers with horror one occasion when, as a little boy, he was asked to read in front of the class.
"All I could see as I looked at the book was a jungle: a whole clutter of words. My teacher, Miss Shaw, was telling me to get on with it, but I was blushing and couldn't swallow.
"All around me, the other children were sniggering, or pretending to blow their noses to hide their laughter."
Describing school as "the most painful and humiliating period of my life," he recalls his desire to leave school at the age of 15.
"When you are being called thick, dumb and stupid, you end up leaning towards others who are like you, who won't humiliate and abuse you. Unfortunately, I ended up in a very bad crowd."
It was not until he was 42, and one of his sons was diagnosed with dyslexia, that he discovered, "I wasn't stupid after all. I felt like I had been saved from drowning." To read the entire article, go to:
www.dys-add.com/JackieStewart.pdf
Sarah Entine
excerpt of an article about
Sarah Entine
published on the ReadMeDifferently.com website
Sara Entine, a talented independent filmmaker, has created a film that tells the story of her family, whose complicated relationships stem from misunderstandings due to unidentified dyslexia and AD/HD. It is the story of a mother, daughter, and granddaughter who long to feel seen, accepted, and loved for who they are.
Watch a 10-minute trailer, free, on her website. Just go to www.ReadMeDifferently.com and click on the gray movie camera in the lower right-hand corner.
When asked for a password, type in: rmd_trailer
You will then want to see the entire movie to find out how it ends. But Sarah needs donations in order to finish this important film on dyslexia.
Donations can be made by going to:
www.ReadMeDifferently.com
Masters Champion
From an article on MSNBC.com
by Associated Press
George Archer, the former Masters champion who died in September, kept a lifelong secret that his widow recently revealed in Golf for Women magazine.
He was illiterate.
"Despite years of effort, he never learned to read beyond a rudimentary level. He never could write more than a few crude sentences," Donna Archer wrote in the article, The Secret They Shared.
"Eventually, he was able to get through an article on the sports page, and he learned to write his name for autographs," she wrote, "But that was it."
"Over the years, George became incredibly adept at covering up his disability. But he was always afraid fans would want him to personalize an autograph, or that he'd have to read some prepared sentences on television."
Olympic Swimmer
From an article on the Belfast Telegraph website
by David Kelly
When Duncan Goodhew won the 100 meter breaststroke gold medal at the Moscow Olympics in 1980, he knew his life would never be the same. He said, "For me, the whole process of swimming was to change the deck of cards, because dyslexia is incredibly corrosive to your spirit.
"At the age of seven, I was asked to read out loud in class. I was laughed at because I was struggling. I was fidgeting so much that I was literally tied to a chair and put in a corner with the dunce's hat on.
"There was a lack of understanding then -- and it's still happening.
"Dyslexia is like being in a job you're not qualified for, and you don't speak the language. You're sitting there being told you are stupid all day, every day.
"School gave me a fundamental understanding of what I was not good at. It gave me an acute desire to find something, a life preserver, and I found swimming."
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