A Perspective of a Dyslexic on Dyslexia, It’s not a disability it’s a gift.

Dyslexia can be a very problematic condition that particularly affects a person’s daily living activities. However, it is not one of those well known conditions like cancer, AIDS, and the like. To understand how dyslexia can affect people, specifically adults, you must first understand what dyslexia is, its causes, severity, and prevalence.

What Is Dyslexia?

Dyslexia is basically a condition that presents a person’s difficulty in processing information that is usually related to short-term memory and visual coordination. If you have this condition, your short-term memory could be less accurate or as complete as your colleagues. It can be either your auditory or visual memory that is affected or a combination of both. Due to this, being a dyslexic person, it would be difficult for you to learn the connection between the spoken sound and the written symbol, so in a dimly lit classroom or boardroom setting, it is difficult for the student or listener to hear and read what is being presented by the presenter.

It is mainly categorised as a learning disability, since it mainly affects the vital areas in which learning is related to, in a formal educational setting. Since auditory and visual skills are needed in learning in most mass educational programs, dyslexia can put one at a disadvantage in this field.

The severity and range of the condition can vary widely for dyslexic people. The main problem areas of difficulty would be reading, spelling, numeration, writing, time-keeping, completing expense forms and personal organisation. The degree of the effect on an individual, can be observed from mild spelling and reading difficulties, to severe problems on organisation or even complete illiteracy. There are no typical cases for dyslexia since each case can be unique from one individual to another.

Diagnosis In Later Life

Some people do not even know that they are dyslexic; while there are a huge number of people, who are only diagnosed when they have reached adulthood already, and this was my experience as an adult.

There is no determined cause of dyslexia, even though much research has been conducted to be able to explain its main cause. However, there are some researchers that have gathered some relevant findings on the condition. Some neurological research suggests, that a person who has this condition may have some difference in how his or her brain’s left hemisphere functions. This is relevant, since the left hemisphere, is the one that controls your lexical system.

Cognitive research, however, in the past years has mainly focused on the possibility that the cause is related to having problems with phonological awareness, which is one’s awareness of specific speech sounds in words. Additionally, there is a speculation that such problems are somewhat related to a specific portion of the brain.

Whatever the cause may be, there appears little doubt that a lot of people having literacy problems really do experience sound insensitivity in different ways. Due to this dearth, reading problems can occur. What is also obvious, is that even though the cause of the problems can be multi-causal and can be different from one person to another, they can still be the main source of intense frustration and despair for any dyslexic person.

The estimated incidences of dyslexia can vary greatly every year. It is estimated that it occurs from about to 4-10% of the population has this condition. It is also believed that prevalence in males is four times greater than with females.

Dyslexia is a condition that is quite hard to recognise. It is also one condition that most people who have it try to hide. Simple tasks like filling in forms, taking phone messages, or even completing timesheets, can already be major problems when you have this condition.

The Perspective of a Dyslexic Adult

As an adult living with Dyslexia, I identify with lots of the data and comments above, but I don’t agree that many of the inferred challenges are a disability, that some in the learning and scientific communities categorise. There are difficulties with learning and excelling with Dyslexia, but many people do.

I love singing, and sang semi-professionally in my young adult life in gospel choirs and in a five piece vocal group. I love to read, and I am continuously buying books, autobiographies, subject matter books on business and science, I love numbers and programming spreadsheets. BUT, it’s difficult for me to do these things as quickly as my peers; however, I can do them, when I understand them.

I have found that the challenge of learning in a mass program for me wasn’t that I was slow. I just processed information differently, and rather than just accepting what the teacher or lecturer said, I needed to understand it to process it. So, chucking a whole load of text up on a screen in a darkened room, did not work for me and I struggled. It still happens today, when I am sitting in the boardroom and the presenter puts up a slide, with a mass of numbers or loads of text. I just cannot read, or understand it. In my eyes view, it’s just a blob or mish mash of smudges.

So how have I turned my unique gift of processing information into an advantage?

I always ask questions; I force the speaker to explain what they are saying in the language of a six year old. I will never let you throw up a load of acronyms, and not ask you explain it! Nope! I am going to ask you what it means. Let me give a great example, I have asked many Marketing, Business and Logistic executives over the years, ‘What do you mean when you say SKU, what does it mean?’ I have many answers for example it’s the ‘Product Code’, it’s the ‘Unique Product Identifier’. And I say, yeah I get that, but what does it mean? Very few have been able to tell me that it means, ‘Stock Keeping Unit’, but every year, in very presentation front and center you will see SKU.

As Dyslexic if I don’t understand it, I cannot apply it in learning or work, BUT once I do, I can break it down and reapply it in many alternative situations or market sectors. My brain breaks down concepts, reorganises them and presents them as new. So, in a formal public educational program I struggle, in a formal corporate structure I struggle, but as I have got older, I have come to appreciate more and more, that when it comes to critical thinking or analysis I am wired differently, and that’s an advantage.

What hampered you and I  in our early years is a blessing and a gift in our later years.

Be Dyslexic and proud and change the world!

#Dyslexia #outofthebox #enterepreneurship 

Picture Erda Estremera © Unsplash