I have only one
grade school memory that’s worse than when my kindergarten teacher
refused to call on me even though my hand was patiently up…
I peed my favorite rainbow-colored, checked jumpers in front
of everyone (hey, it was the 1970’s–every body wore them!).
The memory I doubt will ever be erased from my mind though,
is the memory of disrupting my class daily by getting up from
my desk to make that long, agonizing walk down the hall to the
“Remedial Reading Room.”
It’s not what
you think. I don’t think my peers ever teased me because I went
to the remedial reading room. In fact, I think many were jealous
they were stuck in class while I was off on some mysterious
adventure.
You see, in grade
school, I was pretty much an A student in everything except
penmanship and, the dreaded, reading. Spelling should
have also been on that list, but, er um, I kinda cheated on
spelling tests, and my mom, being the only non-dyslexic in the
house, was the human dictionary at home. Truth be told, the
remedial room was not a mysterious adventure, it was a torture
chamber. I spent my time there vacillating between crying and
wanting to punch people’s lights out for making me do things
that I failed at repeatedly. And boy, did I hate failing! Like
most dyslexics I was extraordinarily successful at most things
I put my mind to, so failure in the remedial room was hard to
take.
By Junior High,
between Apple Works Spell Checker (God bless spell checkers!)
and a highly developed memory, reading and spelling slow ceased
to be a noticeable problem. Penmanship, well, that is another
story. Truly, my Apple IIE computer had a huge impact on my
academic life. By the time I was in college even the best specialist
had a hard time detecting my dyslexia. I had learned how to
cope so well, that the only noticeable dyslexic trait was the
amount of time I would take to read. To this day reading takes
me two to three times longer than the average person, but do
I ever remember what I have read. In one of the battery of dyslexia
tests my memory of spoken or written word was 95% accuracy in
recall of long and complicated pieces even several days after
reading it.
I graduated from
college with high marks, climbed the career ladder with success
in positions intensely focused on writing and communication,
but somehow, dyslexia still dogged me. Although I was functioning
without any visible signs of dyslexia, I was fully cognizant
that being dyslexic shaped me in both good and difficult ways,
and reading still took longer than it should.
All of that is
changing now, and the reason is just as extraordinary as the
result. A few months ago a friend recommend I check out the
book The Gift of
Dyslexia. I’ll admit, I was skeptical. I had already been
through a battery of specialist and books claiming they knew
“just what to do” for me. So, I grudgingly entered the book’s
title into the search engine, which led me to the Davis Dyslexia Association
site.
What I read on
that site compelled me to get the book from my local library
and read it in a day. I am an avid reader, but reading a book
in a day was a first for me. I went from thinking “Yeah,
it’s a drag, I’m dyslexic” to “Hurray, I am dyslexic!”
Author Ronald
D. Davis, with the help of Eldon M. Braun, uses The Gift of
Dyslexia to explain how dyslexia is truly a gift
allowing dyslexics to accomplish a great many things in a way
non-dyslexics would find hard to do. He proposes the genius
of the great dyslexics everyone cites, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert
Einstein, Henry Ford, Whoopi Goldberg, W.B. Yates… is not in
spite of their dyslexia, but because of it.
According to
Davis, it is widely believed that as humans we either think
in terms of verbal conceptualization or nonverbal conceptualization.
Most people, whether they realize it or not, think in terms
of sound, or verbal conceptualization. Dyslexics think in terms
of pictures, or nonverbal conceptualization. This brings us
to one of my favorite, new-found facts! The rate a verbal conceptualizer
can think is limited to the speed at which words can be composed
in a linear fashion. The average is about 150 words per minute,
or 2.5 words per second. A nonverbal conceptualizer, like a
dyslexic, has the ability to think in a non-linear way, with
pictures, anywhere from 400 to 2,000 times faster than a verbal
conceptualizer.
As nonverbal
conceptualizers, dyslexics are very aware of their surroundings,
often find “day dreaming” an effective way to problem solve,
and can be very gifted at finding creative solutions to difficult,
multifaceted problems at lighting speed.
The problem arises
when the dyslexic talents collide with areas where dyslexia
makes the task more difficult, like reading. Excitingly for
us dyslexics, our teachers and our friends, Davis has discovered
a program that helps dyslexics discover how to use dyslexia
when it is helpful and how to turn it off when it is not. The
book defines dyslexia, discusses successes shared and problems
faced by many dyslexics, and gives detailed instructions on
how to uses Davis’s procedure to overcome the difficulties of
dyslexia. It is amazing—absolutely nothing like any other expert
dyslexia advice I have ever received. I am nothing short of
amazed by what Davis’s program is doing for me!
No! Paul
Popiel is not going to pop out and offer you a related product!
I am completely serious! If you don’t believe me, check out
the web sites in the sidebar, or check the book out from your
local library. What have you got to lose? Only the chance to
fully use one of the greatest gifts you could ever have!
Kellee K. Sikes
is a contributing editor for LiNE Zine and Principal of Pioneer
Technologies. With the gift of dyslexia she founded Pioneer
Technologies, Inc. to shares her lightening fast troubleshooting
abilities and secrets for success with her clients through business
analysis, project management, and business development. Share
your dyslexia story with her at kellee@linezine.com.
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