Diagnosing Dyslexia

What sets a human apart from animals is we can think using language as well as with pictures.

The two ways humans think are:

1. Verbally using the sounds of words. This is linear thinking. Mental sentences are composed one at a time. About 2.5 words a second.

2. Picture Thinking - using mental pictures of concepts or ideas. This is seeing a picture grow as more concepts are added. It is much faster than verbal thought. It happens so fast that the thinker is usually unaware of doing it. It is below conscious awareness.

Everybody uses both thinking styles but one becomes the primary style used. People with dyslexia tend to have picture thinking as their dominant thinking style.

Dyslexia is formed between the ages of three and thirteen and a dyslexic must be primarily a picture thinker. When a person is thinking in pictures there is no internal dialogue and so they do not 'hear' what they are reading. The difficulty with this is that some aspects of language are not easy to visualize. It is impossible for a picture thinker to think with words whose meaning can't be pictured.

Dyslexic symptoms are the confusion that is caused when thinking cannot be pictured. Picture making is stopped, confusion occurs and the thinker often cannot push through the confusion.

A person with dyslexia does not have brain or nerve damage or a physical disability that interferes with the mental processes associated with reading. Instead they have a unique way of thinking.

What every dyslexic person needs is instruction on how to control the disorientations that occur when trigger words are encountered.

There are programs that teach dyslexics a technique for turning off disorientations. The training enables them to manage the confusion that happens when a word cannot be pictured. It is about creating personal pictures that represent the meaning of the trigger words they have been unable to picture.

More is known about dyslexia today and the unique gifts of dyslexia can be developed with the correct understanding and encouragement by people who understand the condition.

For me the knowledge of the two thinking styles available to human beings helps explain why many people have trouble with reading, writing and spelling. I certainly have a realization that dyslexia is complex and an understanding of why so many successful entrepreneurs say they suffer from dyslexia.

For more ideas about reading and specialist educational programs Marilyn invites you to visit her website [http://www.superlearner.com.au]