Specific Learning Disorders Often Fosters Creative Excellence

Ron Davis, author ofThe Gift Dyslexia: Why Some of the Smartest People Can’t Read and How They Can Learn, suffered severe dyslexia.  His insights and analysis supported by research with Dr. Fatima Ali, Ph.D. led to the creation of the Dyslexia Correction Center in California and later the Davis Dyslexia Association. Davis argues that specific developmental disorders, such as dyslexia, often prompt students to excel outside structured academic environments:

Almost everyone considers [dyslexia] a learning disability, but the learning disability is only one face of dyslexia. Once as a guest on a television show, I was asked about the ‘positive’ side of dyslexia.  As part of my answer, I listed a dozen or so famous dyslexics.  The hostess of the show then commented, ‘Isn’t it amazing that all those people could be geniuses in spite of having dyslexia.’ She missed the point.  Their genius didn’t occur in spite of their dyslexia, but because of it! . . . The same mental function that produces a genius can also produce [reading] problems. [Dyslexics] have certain mental functions in common:

1. They can utilize the brain’s ability to alter and create perceptions.
2. They are highly aware of the environment.
3. They are more curious than average.
4. They think mainly in pictures instead of words.
5. They are highly intuitive and insightful.
6. They think and perceive multi-dimensionally.
7. They can experience thought as reality.
8. They have vivid imaginations.

These eight basic abilities, if not suppressed, invalidated or destroyed by parent or the educational process, will result in two characteristics: higher-than-normal intelligence and extraordinary creative abilities (3-5).

To learn more about the Davis Dyslexia Association,  go to http://www.dyslexia.com/.

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