Dyslexia-Curse

Dyslexia- A curse on the Innocent???

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INFORMATIONAL, POSTAWEEK2011
Dyslexia-A curse on the innocent???
In Information-Usefull on October 31, 2010 at 1:47 am
This is a “must read” blog for anyone who has trouble reading “technical” information
& has to re-read it several times to understand what it says. One who has always
considered himself “not quite as swift” as most people but one who can actually can
do any thing that others do. It just takes a little longer.If, after reading this, you feel
as if you may be dyslextic, you are not alone. 5%
to 17 % of the people in this country have the same problem.

Be sure to read-Share 102   Famous People who are dyslexic  or have dyslexia, at
the end of thi blog’ —It is a “must read”! You will be surprised at who the people were
and the challenges they over-came!!

I am one of them as well is my wife, one son and one brother-we all have dyslexia.
 We learned about “Dyslexia” when our son’s teacher informed us that she was
going to have to keep him back in the 6th grade because he wasn’t keeping up with
the class. Also,at that time, we were given the name of a woman who specialized in
 teaching students who have a problem with dyslexia, and how to compensate for it.
 Gary had ten-one hour sessions on learning tocope with his problem.
(Believe me, for an eleven year old child it was pretty frustrating, butit did help).We
enrolled him into a private school that coming year, with a teacher-to-stunent ratio
 of ten students per teacher.The private school was 35 to 40 miles away and had living
 quarters for the students. (The schoolingcleaned out our savings…. and it was worth
every penny).

You can not cure Dyslexia-there is no cure! What you can do is to equalize the playing
field! Equalize the playing field! Just how do I do that?  First, you have to accept the fact
that  ”YOU ARE NOT DUMB”! ” YOU ARE NOT STUPID”! Then you ask, if I am not
‘dumb or stupid’, what am I? Very good question! For the answer  I went to the internet
and found;

Mayo Clinic.com/dyslexia:
Dyslexia is an impairment in your brain’s ability to translate written images received from your eyes
into meaningful language. Also called specific reading disability, Dyslexia is the most common learn
ing disability in children.This statement best describes Dyslexia as it affects me and probably most
others. What this is saying is; “What you see is not always what you think it is”.  Here is an simple
 example of word reversal ; “Jack saw the big bully”. What a person with dyslexia might see with
word reversal is this ; “Jack was the big bully.”In his mind a word reversal took place, but he  does
not know it. The word “saw” was reversed going to  his brain, into “was” coming out .This, of course,
 changes the meaning of the sentence and may  not make sense in the story. An older person
 would stop and go back and reread the sentence. A child in the 1st or 2nd grade would continue
 to read on trying to make sense, not realizing that he must have mis-read a word. The results is
 frustration. This is called word reversal. You also have letter reversal and number reversal. What
comes easy to a normal student is a constant battle for the poor child with dyslexia. Be patient
and give them the help that they need and they will make you proud.

Share102
Famous People who are Dyslexic or had DyslexiaHomeEntertainment
By Disabled World – 2008-01-17A list of famous and well known people who are and have been
Dyslexic.* * *What is Dyslexia?Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that manifests primarily as
a difficulty with written language, particularly with reading and spelling.Although dyslexia is the
result of a neurological difference, it is not an intellectual disability. Dyslexia occurs at all levels of
intelligence, average, above average, and highly gifted.Dyslexia is most commonly characterized by
 difficulties with learning how to decode at the word level, to spell, and to read accurately and fluently
.There is no cure for dyslexia, but dyslexic individuals can learn to read and write with appropriate
education or treatment.There is wide research evidence indicating that specialized phonics instruction
 can help remediate the reading deficits.In the United States, researchers estimate the prevalence
of dyslexia to range from five to nine percent of school-aged children, though some have put the
figure as high as 17 percent.A list of famous people who are Dyslexic or had Dyslexia:

Agatha Christie – (15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) Agatha Christie was the world’s best
selling book writer of all times only truly surpassed by the Bible and equaled by Shakespear, her
books sold approximately 4 billion copies worldwide. Agatha suffered from dyslexia but in no way
did it stop her from being creative and learning how to write, her mystery novels have always been
some of the most captivating of all times. Her bestselling book was without a doubt “And then there

 was none” which was a source of inspiration for novelists and movie makers even many years after.

Albert Einstein – (March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955) Being one of the most important great minds of
his century Albert Einstein was then known to suffer from dyslexia mainly because of his bad
 memory and his constant failure to memorize the simplest of things. He would not remember the
 months in the year yet he would succeed in solving some of the most complicated mathematical
 formulas of the time without any trouble. He may have never learned how to properly tie his
shoelaces but his scientific contributions and theories still have a major effect on all of todays
current knowledge of science.

Alexander Graham Bell – (3 March 1847 – 2 August 1922) Well known as the inventor of the
telephone Alexander was actually attempting to find a way that could make deaf people hear. His
mother was slowly becoming deaf when Alexander was only 12 years old making him extremely
sensitive to disabilities. Once older he was constantly seeking a way to cure them through
technology. He himself had dyslexia which would cause him problems at school, but he always
kept his interest for science, especially biology. He would show a great indifference for everything
else and would have poor grades. Today Alexander Graham Bell is also well know as one of the
founders of the National Geographic society.

Cher – (Born May 20, 1946) Cher was a fatherless child and was most of the time very poor. Her
mother tried to make money by singing and acting which ultimately brought Cher to follow into her
footsteps. Due to dyslexia cher decided she would quit school and try to take some acting lessons
in Los Angeles to finally do what she loved. One day while at the renowned Aldo’s Coffee Shop her
life changed upon meeting Sonny Bono, which was at the time successful in show business. They
 eventually made songs together and through fantastic duos with Sonny. The beginning of Cher’s
lifetime career was at birth.

Dale S. Brown – Dale Brown is a strategic leadership consultant at Washington D.C and an author.
 Her most recent book is called “Steps to Independance for people with Learning Disabilities” which
 was published by Learning Disabilities Association of America in 2005. Dale suffers herself from
dyslexia and wants to tell the world that learning disabilities does not have to stop you from being
 who you want to be. It does not have to stop you from striving or harm your capabilities to integrate
 to everyday life

Danny Glover – (Born July 22, 1947) A great actor in both Lethal Weapon with Mel Gibson and
Predator 2. Danny Glover suffered dyslexia at school when he was younger and the school staff
 would label him retarded. This definitely was not very encouraging for him but he ended up finding
 ways to feel better about himself. He says that dyslexia had given him the feeling that he was not
worthy to learn and that the people around him would not care of what would happen to his education
. With time he eventually regained his self esteem and became a great actor.

George Burns – (January 20, 1896-March 9, 1996) An Academy-Award winning Jewish-American
actor and comedian George Burns was a man filled with joy. He and his wife Gracie Allen would
frequently team up on radio and television which made them both well known. George was an
entertainer until a few years before his 100th birthday. Dyslexia never kept him from being who he
was, a legend who had one of the longest American careers in show business history.

Hans Christian Andersen –  (April 2 1805 – August 4 1875)  Being an author of children’s fantasy
stories, he was a victim of dyslexia and showed the world that when you want something, nothing
can stop you from obtaining it. The books that he wrote have been translated into hundreds of
different languages and continue to be distributed even today in millions of copies. Hans wrote books
 such as “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, “The Princess and the Pea” “Thumbelina”, “The Snow Queen”
, “The Ugly Duckling” and “The Little Mermaid”.

Henry Winkler – Henry Franklin Winkler (born October 30, 1945) is a Golden Globe Award-winning
American actor, director, producer and author. He is perhaps most famous for his role as Arthur
“Fonzie” Fonzarelli on the popular sitcom Happy Days (1974-1984). Winkler attended the McBurney
 School and received his bachelor’s degree from Emerson College in 1967 and his MFA from the
Yale School of Drama in 1970. In 1978, Emerson gave Winkler an honorary doctorate of humane
letters. Winkler has also received a Doctor of Humane Letters from Austin College. Having struggled
 throughout his school years with unidentified dyslexia Winkler, at age 31, finally understood what
 he’d been grappling with all his life, when making a documentary about dyslexia, Winkler himself
 found that he was dyslexic.

Jackie Stewart – Sir John Young Stewart, OBE (born 11 June 1939 in Milton, West Dunbartonshire)
, better known as Jackie, and nicknamed The Flying Scot, is a Scottish former racing driver. He
competed in Formula One between 1965 and 1973, winning
three World Drivers’ Championships. Former F1 champion Sir Jackie Stewart, said he thought he
was “thick” at school before discovering he was dyslexic. Sir Jackie said “word blindness” meant he
 had to race to keep up with other pupils. In those days dyslexia wasn’t something that got identified
 in many schools.

Leonardo Da Vinci – Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was a Tuscan
polymath: scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect,
botanist, musician and writer. As an engineer, Leonardo conceived ideas vastly ahead of his own
time, conceptualising a helicopter, a tank, concentrated solar power, a calculator, and the double
hull, and outlining a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics. He also had the gift of dyslexia. Most of
 the time, he wrote his notes backwards. Although unusual, this is a trait shared by many left-handed
 dyslexic people. Most of the time, dyslexic writers are not even consciously aware that they are
 writing this way.

Magic Johnson – Earvin Effay Johnson, Jr. (born August 14, 1959 in Lansing, Michigan) is a retired
American National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers. John
son is acknowledged as one of the most popular NBA basketball players of all time, being well-known
 for his uncanny passing and dribbling skills, and for his cheerful nature on and off the court. In the
 words of Magic Johnson: “The looks, the stares, the giggles . . . I wanted to show everybody that I
could do better and also that I could read.”

Thomas Edison – Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American
inventor of Dutch origin and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life
around the world, including the phonograph and a long lasting light bulb. In school, the young Edison’s
 mind often wandered. He was noted to be terrible at mathematics, unable to focus, and had difficulty
 with words and speech. This ended Edison’s three months of official schooling. The cause of Edison’s
 deafness has been attributed to a bout of scarlet fever during childhood and recurring untreated
middle ear infections. Thomas Edison was dyslexic, a problem child, and a mischief-maker.  He
talked when he was supposed to be listening and did not listen when the teacher talked. He had no
 patience. He was not well-coordinated and did poorly in sports. He applied himself with a passion
to whatever caught his attention, but his attention was easily diverted.

Tom Cruise – Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962), more commonly known as Tom
Cruise,
 is an American actor and film producer. Cruise has said that he suffered from abuse as a child.
This was partially due to him suffering from dyslexia. He stated that when something went wrong,
his father came down hard on him. Having gone through fifteen schools in twelve years, Cruise, who
 dropped his father’s name at age twelve, was also a victim of bullying at school.

Walt Disney – Walter Elias Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) was an American film
 producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Disney is
notable as one of the most influential and innovative figures in the field of entertainment during the
 twentieth century. Walt Disney had dyslexia, which is a learning disorder characterized by reading
 difficulties. While Walt Disney was attending high school he also went to the Academy of Fine Arts
. This caused him to have double the school work than an average student on top of  the fact that he
 also dealt with being dyslexic.

Whoopi Goldberg – Whoopi Goldberg (born November 13, 1955) is an American actress, comedian,
 radio host, TV personality, game show host, and author. Whoopi Goldberg was born Caryn Elaine
Johnson in New York City. Whoopi had a lot of difficulty in school, but it was not until she was an
adult did she learn that she had dyslexia. Despite her dyslexia, Whoopi Goldberg has gone on to
 have a highly successful film and television career.

Winston Churchill – Churchill described himself as having a “speech impediment”, which he
consistently worked to overcome. After many years, he finally stated, “My impediment is no
hindrance.” Although the Stuttering Foundation of America has claimed that Churchill stammered,
the Churchill Centre has concluded that he lisped. Churchill’s impediment may also have been
cluttering, which would fit more with his lack of attention to unimportant details and his very secure
ego. According to several sources Winston Churchill was not dyslexic and had no learning disability

 whatsoever. In his autobiography he played up his low grades at Harrow, undoubtedly to convince
readers, and possibly himself, how much he had overcome; but in this he exaggerated. He was
actually quite good at subjects he enjoyed and in fact won several school prizes.

Woodrow Wilson – Former president of the United States. Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28,
 1856-February 3, 1924), was the twenty-eighth President of the United States. Wilson did not learn
 to read until he was about 12 years old. His difficulty
reading may have indicated dyslexia or A.D.D., but as a teenager he taught himself shorthand to
 compensate and was able to achieve academically through determination and self-discipline. He
studied at home under his father’s guidance and took classes in a small school in Augusta.

Fanny Flagg – (born September 21, 1944) is an American author and actress. Flagg has spoken
publicly about being dyslexic. Flagg has said she was enormously challenged as a writer because
she was “severely dyslexic and couldn’t spell. So I
was discouraged from writing and embarrassed”. Her burgeoning writing career was put on hold
for much of the 1970s, but Flagg overcame her fear and completed several novels and screenplay
.

George Patton – George Smith Patton GCB, KBE (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945)
was a leading U.S. Army general in World War II in campaigns in North Africa, Sicily, France,
and Germany, 1943-1945. Patton not begin his formal education until age 11, most likely due to
dyslexia. Patton attended high school in Pasedena. Upon graduation, Patton was accepted at the
 Virginia Military Institute. He spent a year at VMI before being accepted to West Point.

Harry Belafonte – Harold George Belafonte, Jr. (born March 1, 1927) is an American musician,
actor and social activist. One of the most successful Jamaican musicians in history, he was
dubbed the “King of Calypso” for popularizing the Caribbean musical style in the 1950s. Due to
problems with dyslexia, Belafonte dropped out of high school and at the age of 17, he joined the
US Navy for a couple of years. After that, he returned to New York and settled there. Belafonte
became involved with the American Negro Theatre and soon began singing in clubs around the
city.

Richard Branson – Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English
entrepreneur, best known for his Virgin brand of over 360 companies. Richard Branson has been
 involved in a number of world record-breaking attempts since 1985, when in the spirit of the Blue
Riband he attempted to cross the Atlantic Ocean in the fastest recorded time. Branson has dyslexia,
 resulting in poor academic performance as a
student. School was something of a nightmare for him. He was the captain of football, rugby
union and cricket teams, and by the age of fifteen he had started two ventures that eventually
failed, one growing Christmas trees and another raising budgerigars.

Nelson Rockefeller – Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979) was the forty
-first Vice President of the United States, governor of New York, philanthropist, and businessman
. Rockefeller was born in Bar Harbor, Maine. He was the son of John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. and
 Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. He was the grandson of Standard Oil’s founder and chairman John
Davison Rockefeller, Sr. Nelson Rockefeller died on the evening of Friday, January 26, 1979 at
age 70 from a heart attack under circumstances whose details have never been completely
revealed.

Neil Bush – Neil Mallon Bush (born January 22, 1955 in Midland, Texas) is the fourth of six
children of former President George Herbert Walker Bush and Barbara Bush (Barbara Lane
Pierce). Neil is the younger brother of President George Walker Bush, former Florida Governor
Jeb Bush, and the late Robin Bush. At age 11, he entered the exclusive private St. Albans
School in Washington, DC. He struggled through school. A counselor told his mother that it was
 doubtful the boy had the potential to graduate. He was later diagnosed as having dyslexia, and
 his mother spent much time coaching him through his learning disability. Eventually his grades
 improved and he graduated from St. Albans in 1973.

It is a good thing that these people didn’t quite trying to overcome their problems and just plain
give up. See what they accomplished, and in doing so, showed  to the world what it can be done
 if you really try!

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