Getting Down to Earth About Dyslexia!

"Dyslexic employees are some of the smartest, most imaginative and highly motivated people in your workgroup -- and your company's management. Instead of penalizing them for written language deficiencies, profit from their special talents." -from dyslexia.com The Gift of Dyslexia*

Words of wisdom for this dyslexic want-to-be writer! With that said, may I ask forgiveness right upfront for any mangled sentence structures, strange spellings, punctuation errors, or other ways I manage to mess-up? Thanks!

In my last blog post I struck the claim to challenge myself to look for bigger and better ways to reach out in helping others in understanding dyslexia. So I decided to go to the source of it all, at least the source of it all for me ... I'm talking about the days of my youth, when I was the tender age of five years old.

<-- p="">Right here. Here's where my career as a dyslexic wan-a-be artist began. Of course I lived there many years ago back in 19?? ah, its been a while. It was different from today's map.

Let me explain.

When we first moved to Morris, Illinois, to our little neighborhood, only a few houses dotted the landscape. The area labeled 'clay pond' would probably been considered a marsh. Giant cattails and native plants surrounded the shallow water. I loved trudging through the grasses that shot up past my head; a bit swampy, it was, but I only remember pure heaven-ness in there.  Under my feet lie what really interested me, though.

Clay.

In that swampy-marsh one spring day I discovered a layer of clay soil just waiting for me. I was so inspired by the clay that I soon began molding bowls and ash trays and anything I could think of. (Neither of my parents ever smoked but those large, colored ash-trays were the rage back then.)

Clay.

It brought out the best in me. Before long I was holding class in the swamp gathering up the neighborhood kids for ash-tray-making instruction. We quickly formed and shaped our clay projects, not wanting to dawdle. The spring sunshine wouldn't last forever so I marched them quickly out to find drying spots while the sunshine was still bright and warm.

I must apologize to at least two of my neighbors, who remain Facebook friends today, because I've managed to draw right on top of your childhood homes.  Sorry! But I thank you for letting me lead you through those hours of clay-class we held back then.

This was a beginning for me in using my dyslexic talents in a visualization way of creation; even if it was only an old ash-tray that was never used for smoking! In fact, I'd long ago forgotten about this time in the swamp and it makes me a bit sad thinking that all of that creativeness didn't continue in my life in ways that I would have hoped for.

Okay, now that I've told you about one of my early formed 'talents'! what does that mean for the rest of you? Because if we want to help others understand more about dyslexia we have to talk about things that relate to people today. And not many of you are clay ash-tray makers, I'd venture to say.

So what about acknowledging the number of dyslexics in our present day workforce? I found this quote below, that outlines the extent of illiterate Americans:

*"Government statistics show 25,000,000 Americans--one in ten--are functionally illiterate. The primary cause is dyslexia or one of its many variations, such as ADD or dysgraphia.

So how do we translate these young childhood 'skills' and interests into ways that truly help the dyslexic population?

Any ideas?


*http://www.dyslexia.com/library/adultdys.htm