Debunking some dyslexia myths

Dr Ginny Stacey is intelligent and articulate: she holds a PhD in physics from Oxford University, she’s writing her fourth book—and she’s dyslexic.

Ginny doesn’t read newspapers because the columns of text present a problem. She stands up to write because words “send her to sleep”; she’ll often read a chapter in a book and miss its meaning; letters and numbers sometimes get out of order.

Ginny taught me some truths about dyslexia.

“Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty, not a learning disability. Intelligence isn’t affected,” says Ginny.

Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Hans Christian Andersen and Leonardo da Vinci may have all been dyslexic—and also very intelligent. According to the Dyslexia Research Trust, the brain changes in dyslexia may result in stronger connections elsewhere in the brain, allowing for “exceptional artistic, engineering and entrepreneurial talents”.

Dr Helen Taussig was a dauntless, discerning dyslexic (who was also deaf). She is seen as the founder of children’s heart surgery, developing an operation to help “blue babies” born with heart defects.

According to Dyslexia Action, many adults with dyslexia have “issues with short-term memory and speed of processing that are more frustrating than issues with reading or spelling.” This can make it difficult to keep track of conversations and follow instructions.

Time management can also be troublesome: a new app has been designed to help.

Some dyslexics find it difficult to envisage space: driving a car presents its own challenges. The British Dyslexia Association offers some helpful tips for the dyslexic person taking a driving test, including use of hand gestures to indicate direction and keeping information to a minimum.

Ginny didn’t know that she was dyslexic until she was in her mid-thirties, long after she’d completed her PhD. In fact, it was when she decided to learn the guitar as an adult that she first began to think about how we learn. Many students only discover that they are dyslexic at university.

Studying a foreign language at university can reveal that you are dyslexic—and help you manage it too. “When you learn a second language, you begin to understand how language works and fits together—it can really help fill in the gaps in your first language,” Ginny explains. 

It used to be thought that dyslexia was four times more likely in boys. “It’s now thought to affect boys and girls equally: it’s just that girls develop earlier and cooperate more so that the learning difficulty is better hidden,” says Ginny.

Dyslexia may have a genetic cause, since it often runs in families.

It’s known that tutoring and technology can help the person with dyslexia, but what about coloured glasses? Professor John Stein from Oxford has shown that using yellow filters on reading glasses can sometimes help the person with dyslexia “take off with their reading”.  Stein finds that others are helped by blue glasses.

Coloured glasses don’t work for everyone, however. A more helpful strategy would be to get practical, cost-effective learning support into every school, so that children receive the help they need as soon as possible.

Helen Cowan completed a PhD in cardiac pharmacology at Oxford in 2002. She is a qualified nurse and has written for the British Journal of Cardiac Nursing, and worked as a columnist in the Nursing Times. Read more from Helen here.