Dyslexia: Are We Being Cruel To Bright Kids?

One of the cruelest acts that we as parents, teachers or colleagues might be inadvertently indulging in is failing to recognize dyslexia, and labelling it as mental weakness.

Dyslexics, comprising 5% of the population, can be spotted from pre-school age. Typically, these kids have bright intelligent eyes, seem to follow what you tell them, react intelligently to situations, are emotionally normal, but seem to get into problems when asked to read or write. They may sit with the book open for long hours without progressing down the page, write poorly with lots of spelling mistakes, confuse “b” with “d” (mirror images) and hence get poor marks in the way tests are “normally” conducted.

They are certainly not mentally weak. In fact studies show that some of the brightest and most successful have had the trait. Albert Einstein the great scientist, John Lennon of Beatles fame, Richard Branson the owner of Virgin Airlines, Tom Cruise the Hollywood star, Thomas Edison who gave us the electric bulb, Winston Churchill the British PM are some examples of immensely successful people with dyslexia.

The problem in dyslexia is not with intelligence but with the wiring in the brain that deals with the way we learn or reproduce the symbols of language, such as alphabets or words, especially the written ones. Language, especially alphabets and words, have been made by man as an instrument for communication, and is therefore not something truely “natural”. Dyslexics have a problem learning symbols of this man-made language and hence struggle in assesments that test the ability to learn and reproduce them.

What complicates the lives of dyslexic children is that parents as well as school teachers are often not aware or trained to pick up dyslexia. The trauma of a lovable bright child starts when he underfperforms in his first written test, gets poor grades and is told that he is dull or inattentive. Parents are then informed in PTMs that their child is mentally weak. Imagine how we would feel if we were told that we are dull just because we could not reproduce or write words or sentences well, but we had wonderfull skills in painting, music or designing that our teachers never tested us at!

That then is the tragedy. Dyslexics are often very creative and artistic and can leave their “scholar”colleagues way behind if only they were tested at what they were gifted with – art, designing, music, creativity etc. They would grow up and make the list of geniuses longer and brighter.

Amir Khan’s “Taare Zameen par” helped bring dyslexia to society’s notice. Now special training modules are available that can help dyslexic children learn language well and rub shoulders with the toppers of his class. Picking these kids with special traits up at an early age, perhaps in preschool, is what we need to strive for. Our dyslexic geniuses will then realize their true potential and lead us forward with their creativity. 

As published in HT City ( Hindustan Times) dated 12 december, 2010.