"Stupid or dumb"?!

Myths Surrounding Dyslexia

‘People with dyslexia are stupid or dumb.’ No. In fact, mounting evidence shows that many people with dyslexia are highly creative, out of the box thinkers and extremely intelligent. That helps explain the long list of entrepreneurs, inventors, scientists, actors, doctors and lawyers who have excelled despite, or perhaps because of, their affliction. Neuro-imaging studies demonstrate that the dyslexic brain really does things differently. The second, very peculiar myth about dyslexics is that they have vision problems. That is also untrue.

People with dyslexia

We have a long list of successful people who were afflicted, or rather, blessed with dyslexia, who went on to become famous in their own right. People like Archer Mortin, Tom Cruise, Pierre Curie, Michael Faraday, Albert Einstein, Muhammad Ali, Leonardo da Vinci, Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, William Hewlett etc. This list can go on and on, and one of these leaders has said, "I frankly think dyslexia is a gift. If you are supported in school and your ego remains intact, then you emerge with a strong work ethic and a different view of the world." Truer words were never spoken.

I was trying to look for people from India who have embraced their dyslexia and achieved success. There are 1.27 billion people living in this country (according to the latest census report) and I still couldn’t manage to meet a single person with dyslexia. What a crying shame! As per official records, more children are attending school now, as compared to the last decade. In a developing country like India, what exactly are we developing? Around 17% of school children today suffer from one or the other learning disability, and out of those, 3-6% are dyslexic. Where are these children?  Or, do we really not have any dyslexic in this country or they have been killed/crushed? How are they handling this conservative society? There is a big WHERE and How in this question which needs to be answered. 

Two innocent questions...

A little six year old girl looks up to her mother and asks,”Ma! When will I be writing like my friends? All of us started writing at the same time. They’re writing and drawing so nicely, why does my writing look like this? Am I stupid?”

A touching question by a little girl, who is troubled by the fact that her handwriting is indecipherable to others. If it’s just a question of bad handwriting, why am I going forth with this blog? What is my objective? There are two very powerful reasons behind my writing this blog and trying to get it across to millions of readers out there. One, to try and answer the queries of parents and teachers of children who have been struggling with learning difficulties for a long time, and two, to let these children, who have been called ‘stupid’ and ‘slow’ all their lives, know that they are not!

Some children are extremely different from their peers. Some might be slow to grasp concepts, some might have trouble with their motor coordination, some might struggle to speak ordinary sounding words, some simply have trouble looking at an object and understanding its significance. These kids are usually put into brackets like “slow”, “stupid”, ”not motivated”, ”mentally retarded”,”hyperactive”, ”destructive” and so on. These are the kids you usually find in the last row of the classroom, laboring over the classwork, struggling to understand the teacher’s rapid teaching and grappling with their homework at home.

The little girl, mentioned earlier, watches a science show on TV with intense concentration. After it’s over, she asks her mother,” I have understood that the earth moves around the sun and the moon moves around the earth. If, for some reason, the earth falls down, what will happen to the moon?” The mother is nonplussed and starts thinking. Without giving her time to ponder upon the first question, the little girl now asks,”Ma, why do we need a rocket to launch a satellite in space? Why can’t an aeroplane do the same job?” Mentally retarded? Stupid? Slow to understand? I think not. On the contrary, the girl is displaying a serious knack for science and scientific thinking. This little girl, with her sunny smile, extensive vocabulary and a charming disposition wins hearts everywhere she goes. 

But let me tell you she is also dyslexic.