5 November 2008
The most important message for Dyslexia Awareness Week must be that dyslexia is a combination of talents and difficulties, all stemmimg from the tendency to utilise visual, multi-dimensional thought. The characteristics are far wider than many people realise and cover far more than just difficulties with reading.
The Davis Dyslexia Association International has a list on their website of the 37 Common Characteristics of dyslexia. For example:
· Excellent long-term memory for experiences, locations, and faces.
· Poor memory for things that have not been experienced.
· Strong sense of justice; emotionally sensitive; strives for perfection.
· High in IQ, yet poor academically.
· Learns best through hands-on experience and visual aids.
· Has poor self-esteem; uses ingenious compensatory strategies.
· Has difficulty telling and managing time, learning sequenced information.
The full list can be found at www.dyslexia.com.
These difficulties are compensated by creativity and intuition. For some dyslexic people, the talents naturally outweigh the difficulties, For others, they will excel when taught in a way that suits their thought process, by using hand-on, sensory learning methods.