Have you ever noticed that your dyslexic child seems to be more emotionally aware than his peers? Or does he/she react strongly to movies? I came across an interesting article on dyslexicadvatage.org about the topic of dyslexic children being more emotionally reactive and/or emotionally aware. During this time in life, what a perfect gift to have, an increased ability to empathize with others without even needing to be close to them. I think as our world begins to navigate its new reality, the ability to empathize with others will be a critical skill. There will always be others that have different viewpoints than yours. It’s our differences that make our world unique after all. However, it can be hard for some to accept and put aside differences to work together.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it, there has never been a better time in history to be dyslexic. Our children have an area of specific struggle, paired with some pretty incredible gifts, empathy being one of them. The technology of today has made it easier and easier to have assistive technology in the classroom and workplace. In fact, most of the assistive technology is used among the general population because it just makes things easier, like spell check, speech to text, audiobooks, etc. Slowly, I think the stigma around dyslexia and their poor reading abilities is being lifted. People are starting to realize dyslexia does not equal a lack of intelligence. Undoubtedly, there is still a lot of work and advocating needed for school-age dyslexics to get the assistance they need easily. But that’s a topic for another day.
Imagining a world where we knew how to empathize with one another and could stop living in this divisive “me versus them” mentality would be so refreshing. I think our children could grow up to make that happen. If we empower their natural abilities to connect with others, see different viewpoints, and think outside the box for solutions, it’s almost a no brainer that a more connected world would exist. This time of COVID-19 restrictions has shown us what we need the most and miss the most, is our connection with others. From the research that is being done on the dyslexic brain, we are understanding their strong reliance on the right hemisphere allows them to pick up body language, understand language subtleties, voice inflection, and feel energetic connections between people. While in some ways, a dyslexic person can struggle to express their own feelings, they often have a good grasp on the emotions of others. Here’s an example from our son recently. Our neighbors invited our children over to play in their backyard. The mother said she’d text me when they were ready for us to come over. Our son was out front as saw her taking the garbage out and asked if they were ready for us to come over. She said sure. When he came in to tell me we could go over, I was a little skeptical as to whether they were really ready or felt like she had to say yes because he bombarded her. Our son relayed that she gave a “real yes, and not a maybe yes, where it’s like uhhh….. Sure.” I thought for a 7-year-old to be able to confidently describe when someone is really saying yes or feeling like they had to say yes, was pretty incredible.
Understanding language subtleties and knowing how to read people is a skill that will only become more valuable in our digital world. As more and more virtual meetings take place, being able to connect with others, and truly understand them, will increase a person’s influence. As we know, people just want to be heard and understood. The more a person can provide that to others, the more endeared they are. It seems to me, that an empowered dyslexic person is often very well-liked by a wide group of people. The teenagers I’ve met often have a very diverse group of friends. I think this goes with their ability to understand different viewpoints and empathize with others. They are natural connectors.
As a parent, we can encourage and emphasize the personal soft skills that could make our children stand out from others. Fun fact: soft skills are often reported as the decision-maker between why one person is hired over another. The person that is more well-liked personally, as well as qualified, is often chosen in job interviews. Of course, we all would choose to be in a work environment with people we like. We can empower our children to embrace their personality and show them how valuable soft skills, like reading body language, can be for their future. The more our children can understand their gifts of being dyslexic, it’ll make the challenges they go through with reading/spelling/writing worth it. When they grasp that they have valuable skills that come naturally to them, that are not things everyone else does, it’ll give them confidence. I believe our children can use all the confidence they can get.
