A Better Understanding

Today I read the article, "Gifted Dyslexics: More Common Than Most People Think". It shares about famous folks with dyslexia and helps people better understand the condition. So many people don't understand it. I've talked about it  during Jared's soccer matches... because I worry he might kick it to the wrong goal (and he has not!) I think people question that theory, as they assume dyslexia just refers to reading. Here are a few nuggets I especially liked in this article:

When most people hear the D word, they think reading. "But reading difficulties are just one part of this condition," according to Fernette Eide, M.D., a leading learning specialist and physician who, with her husband, Brock Eide, M.D. M.A., runs the Eide Neurolearning Clinic in Edmonds, Washington. The clinic specializes in the evaluation and care of children with school and learning challenges. As they write in their book The Mislabeled Child (Hyperion), "Children with dyslexia often struggle not only with reading but also with handwriting, spelling, oral language, math, motor planning and coordination, organization, sequencing, orientation to time, focus and attention, right-left orientation, auditory and visual processing and memory."

"They stretch the boundaries," Brock Eide says. "When they read, they can't just automatically match sounds and letters, so they use contextual cues and problem solving and no one may realize there's a problem." Dyslexic kids grow so good at problem solving, at finding alternative ways to compensate for the fact that they can't read, that they become expert brainstormers. "Dyslexic children often become some of society's greatest thinkers," Brock Eide says.

And my favorite line - "...don't be so heartbroken by a diagnosis like 'learning disability' that you fail to see a gift."

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17 (NIV)