How Dyslexia Looks to Those Who Suffer from It

For most of us, the word “dyslexia” immediately brings up mental images of kids struggling to tell the difference between “d” and “b,” or between “c,” “e,” and “o.” Considering that these all are related to reading, this isn’t surprising. Dyslexia, at its most basic, is a condition that makes processing written words more difficult. At the same time, this is not a singular problem. While people with dyslexia share certain characteristics, there’s a wide range of struggles and abilities among them.

Considering the differences, it isn’t surprising that a lot of ink has been spilled about dyslexia. When a disability-we prefer to call it a difference or means of being exceptional-has such diversity, much discussion is needed to learn how to help. At the same time, scientists and educators alike want to know how dyslexia looks, both scientifically and from the standpoint of individuals with dyslexia.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at this curious, complex condition. We will start by discussing some of the basic problems faced by many individuals with dyslexia. Then we’ll consider how dyslexia looks from the viewpoint of the people who must deal with it every day of their lives.

A birds-eye view of dyslexia

In order to better discuss how dyslexia looks to individuals with dyslexia themselves, it’s important to understand the basic features of dyslexia. As we mentioned above, most people first think about the student who is struggling to read. While this is usually true, at least to some extent, the problems that individuals with dyslexia face is often a lot more complicated.

The biggest hallmark of dyslexia

Arguably, the biggest “red flag” that gets school children “referred” for additional interventions is difficulty learning how to read. Teachers and evaluators typically look for a few of the following challenges when considering if a child might have dyslexia:

• Slow reading speed, or low accuracy when reading.
• Words don’t “look right,” but they don’t need glasses after an eye exam.
• Trouble converting spoken words into written notes, or expressing oneself less clearly in writing than in oral communication.
• Difficulty understanding what they read.
• Difficulties with spelling or organizing written material such as an essay or report.

At the end of the day, the most important thing that defines dyslexia is that someone is unable to perform certain reading and writing-related tasks at a level that is expected for their intelligence level, age, and education. In other words, someone with average or better intelligence, and without other confounding issues such as blindness or brain injuries, should be able to learn how to read and write easily.

Other ways in which people with dyslexia are different

Here’s the thing. Besides the diagnostic differences between individuals with dyslexia and “typical” people, there are other components to how dyslexia looks. These vary from person to person, but they do provide us a view on how certain people with dyslexia perceive their world. In addition, they let us help young people with dyslexia discover their strengths, which can then turn into opportunities for an education and career as adults.

Many individuals with dyslexia are very creative.

There’s a reason why a lot of artists and actors are dyslexic. While most people are highly word-driven, many individuals with dyslexia have a special ability to think outside the box. These individuals with dyslexia are highly visual in the way they think. Besides this, most creative careers don’t require a high level of writing or reading ability. For that reason, you’ll see a lot of people who are dyslexic in the visual and performing arts.

Individuals with dyslexia think outside the box.

Another place we can point out what dyslexia looks like is that many individuals with dyslexia think outside the box. This means that while most people look at facts and problems a certain way, these people will take another route. One description we hear often is seeing the entire forest, then the individual trees, rather than seeing the trees first like most people. From this different vantage point, someone with this condition will often come up with an innovative solution to each problem.

Individuals with dyslexia are often empathetic

We’ll talk about this a bit more later, but there’s nothing that prepares you to empathize with other people better than struggles in life. In the case of people with dyslexia, the struggle learning how to read and effectively express oneself in written form means they know what struggles look like. As a result, they can more easily put themselves in someone else’s shoes-and interact accordingly.

Individuals with dyslexia are excellent at strategy.

A lot of people with dyslexia work for themselves. Sometimes this is a result of needing to control their working environment. A few, like Charles Schwab and Richard Branson, have started major companies. Why? Being good at strategy and having an entrepreneurial spirit are a big part of how dyslexia looks for many people who have it. And when you think outside the box, it’s often easier to start your own company that does things your way than it is to function within an existing system.

How dyslexia looks from their own perspective.

Now that we understand the basic features of dyslexia, and some of the good traits that can arise from it, let’s look at their point of view. Remember, people with dyslexia have a different viewpoint from the rest of us. But this isn’t a huge difference: think of it as a cross-cultural experience.

Dyslexia looks like a string of frustrations.

What if you wanted to learn something, but it was difficult to get information? Your peers are all learning to read, and it comes easily. And yet, if you talk to them, they don’t seem any smarter. Why?

For us, it would be tempting to think that the person with dyslexia is less intelligent. After all, trouble learning things is also associated with low intelligence and other types of impairments. It isn’t always a learning challenge per se.

Unfortunately, in many situations someone with dyslexia will give up. For them, dyslexia looks like one challenge after another. And if they can understand a concept, but have difficulty expressing it, then it’s easy to see why school is frustrating. Their grades don’t measure up to their own expectations, much less anyone else’s. So they make jokes about everything in sight, thinking this is their best way to survive school.

However, for many people with dyslexia, these challenges lead to an opportunity. For instance, famous business leader Kevin O’Leary learned how to leverage his strengths and become successful. This involved a lot of positive thinking and determination. For him, a major part of how dyslexia looks is having a “superpower.”

Dyslexia looks like not thinking the way other people do.

For many of us, doing a task looks like a specific set of steps that need to be followed in order, and that always should have the same results. However, for someone with dyslexia, the way to accomplish a task isn’t always the same. Certainly they’ll buy groceries like everyone else, but more complicated tasks they might want to do a different way.

What does this mean in practice? Simply put, individuals with dyslexia look at a concept, then attack it their own way. In addition, individuals with dyslexia use their different perspective to visualize solutions that nobody else thought possible. If you’ve ever seen someone blurt out a solution to a problem that seems at once outlandish and effective, then you know what we’re talking about.

Not thinking the same way that other people do has led to many dyslexic people being innovators. In fact, dyslexic entrepreneur Craig McCaw pointed out that thinking differently has set him apart. But it has also helped him become a major player in the cell phone industry. In other words, how dyslexia looks for him is an indispensable part of his success.

Dyslexia looks like not thinking in words.

Snap poll: who’s the most famous dyslexic of the 20^th century? There are a couple of contenders, but one of them is Albert Einstein. While most of us think of him as the developer of the theory of relativity, he also was a very keen visual and spatial thinker. This is true of many scientists and mathematicians: Seeing new and different things often involves looking at them from a different perspective.

In addition, Einstein complained that he struggled with writing. It was one thing to have ideas in his head, or even to express them orally. However, as soon as he needed to write them down, it became much more difficult to express himself. He couldn’t think the way that the rest of us do. And yet, we owe him for major advances in both math and science.

Dyslexia looks like needing help for the little things-but not necessarily the big ones.

By now, you’ve probably realized how dyslexia looks to individuals with dyslexia: being creative and curious, having lots of ideas, but having difficulty executing them. These problems can be due in large part to difficulty reading and writing: Tom Cruise had trouble reading movie scripts as a young dyslexic actor. But because he was so good at acting, the jobs rolled in, and now his movies make a lot of money.

Let’s look at this a different way. Richard Branson is known for being a great ideas guy. He famously states that his secret is delegating tasks to other people. In particular, they are the tasks which he has problems doing himself. Meanwhile, he does the big ideas thinking and business strategy. This has been enormously successful for him, and he’s now a billionaire.

At the end of the day, it should be easy to see how dyslexia looks to the people that have it: thinking differently from everyone else. In particular, individuals with dyslexia have trouble thinking in words, but they are typically very visual and highly creative. For dyslexic children and young adults, being tough and learning how to adapt is often the key to success. And as a result, there are lots of very famous, successful people with dyslexia in our world today. Some of them, like Einstein, have even changed the world.

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