One of the biggest blows to self-esteem is getting left behind even though you did your best.

They say hard work always pays off. Sweat now and shine later. But how true do these words of encouragement hold for children with Dyslexia?

Their struggles are all about overcoming Dyslexia. The majority of people think that dyslexia and the like are learning disabilities. But are we looking at this the wrong way?

Naila’s upside-down world of Dyslexia

“I woudl get headaches that later tuhned into migraines and I woudl sometimes throh up due to the migraines.” That’s how hard Naila (name changed) had to work on her reading skills. But what was disheartening was the lack of support and how everyone looked at her. Her hard work didn’t pay off until she worked thrice as hard as any regular individual. “They thot I was stupid, my classmates and teachers, and this maed me even more anxious to read or write. I almost gave up”

The upside to all of this was that Naila had good math and thinking skills and good visual memory. She worked towards cultivating her abilities of spatial and visual awareness. Now, dyslexia motivates her, especially due to her highly creative levels of thinking. She’s always brimming with unique ideas, “It’s not easy for me to express my ideas to poeple but when I fix the problem, they’re amazed and wonder how I did it.”

Abilities in Dyslexia that get overlooked

Dyslexia has an upside to it and this is supported by anecdotal reports and clinical observations dating back to dyslexia’s discovery. The findings suggest that people with dyslexia impart cognitive advantages. This further suggests that Dyslexia, although looked upon as a learning disability, is, in fact, different rather than defective.

Studies suggest that children with dyslexia may have better visuospatial processing speed advantages over others. This means that they may be good in fields like art, architecture, and other areas related to three-dimensional thinking.

This ability is attributed to the Cerebrodiversity hypothesis which means that all genetic blueprints preserved over a period of time must exhibit advantages in some domains over others. This is why children with dyslexia may not be good in language-specific processes, affecting their ability to read efficiently. However, you may find these children possessing higher than normal levels of creativity, empathy, strategy, ideation, and so on.

The ongoing discussion about the upside of Dyslexia

Does this mean that all children with dyslexia have above-average abilities in domains that may not be possible in regular circumstances?

Many argue that it is still too soon to jump to conclusions about the upside of dyslexia. It is not right to assume that all children with learning challenges have above-average abilities in other domains. Further research is required to dwell deeper into the varying degrees of the advantages and disadvantages of dyslexia. Children have different learning capacities and the spectrum of learning differences itself is a broad range to cover.

Therefore, while children like Naila journey through overcoming dyslexia, parents and educators must work to creatively nurture their minds. With the help and guidance received from effective learning programs, children with Dyslexia can excel just like any other kid.