
The Advantages of Dyslexia - luu
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-advantages-of-dyslexia/
======
Someone1234
Disclaimer: I have dyslexia.

I'd like to see this studied further but reading the article and glancing at
the studies there are more unknowns and possibly conflating issues than there
are solid pieces of data right now.

So I guess what I am saying is, take this with a grain of salt for now.
Dyslexic scientists putting out studies which prove they're special snowflakes
should be taken with some skepticism, particularly when it is so hard to
control other variables.

Do I think dyslexics might "think differently," maybe? But I bet everyone
thinks that about their own in-group.

~~~
Mz
Eh, everything is a two-edged sword. Nature doesn't design "bad" things. It
just tosses stuff out, sees what doesn't fail catastrophically. Whatever
doesn't die out is called "the fittest" by humans.

Cystic Fibrosis protects against Typhoid Fever* which is likely why it is so
much more common in some populations than others. Sickle Cell protects against
malaria, so if you are born into an area with malaria and an inadequate
medical treatment for it, hey, having the gene makes you less likely to die,
not more.

I have raised two special needs sons with multiple issues. I have found it
very valuable to look for the so-called silver lining or, perhaps more
accurately, to try to look at their characteristics as objectively as possible
and assess not only what's bad about it but also what's good about it. This
article may or may not have much real scientific merit in that it may not have
much solid research to support it. But the general idea that it posits -- that
dyslexia (and other "disabilities) may have an upside -- is extremely sound
and should be talked about a good deal more.

* [http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/may98/niaid-06.htm](http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/may98/niaid-06.htm)

~~~
delecti
For a while society just plain ostracized anyone atypical, and then swung back
really hard to our current position of "everyone is the same". I would like to
think we're near a point where we'll settle back on a more nuanced middle
ground, where instead of having a single box we shove everyone into (with
those who don't fit being either left aside or crammed in awkwardly), we can
instead recognize the benefits in "disadvantages" like you mentioned.

I think we'll come to accept that dyslexia, autism, ADD/ADHD, and countless
other "disorders" are really just specializations.

------
walterbell
> people with dyslexia may see things more holistically, and miss the trees,
> but see the forest

> people with dyslexia were able to pick out more words spoken by voices
> widely-distributed in the room, compared with people who were proficient
> readers.

> Logan of the Cass Business School in London.. found that dyslexia is
> relatively common among business entrepreneurs; people who tend to think
> differently and see the big picture in thinking creatively about a business.

Richard Branson: _" From a young age, I learned to focus on the things I was
good at and delegate to others what I was not good at. That’s how VIrgin is
run. Fantastic people throughout the Virgin Group run our businesses, allowing
me to think creatively and strategically. This isn’t a skill that comes easily
to some, but when you’re dyslexic, you have to trust others to do tasks on
your behalf. In some cases, that can involve reading and writing. You learn to
let go.”_, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-
innovations/richar...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-
innovations/richard-branson-and-the-dyslexia-
advantage/2012/11/07/67a05b2a-2906-11e2-bab2-eda299503684_story.html)

Related 1: font for dyslexics,
[http://opendyslexic.org/](http://opendyslexic.org/)

Related 2: _" The auditory system is crucial for the development of language
and there is an enormous amount of evidence in the population of hearing
impaired children that auditory perceptual deficits at the periphery can cause
significant delays and disorders of language development. It seems reasonable,
therefore, to expect that for at least some of the children with phonologic
dyslexia, there may be a disorder within the auditory system that has
disrupted the normal acquisition of language."_,
[http://www.readingrockets.org/article/16285](http://www.readingrockets.org/article/16285)

