The Gift of Dyslexia

Ronald D. Davis with Eldon M. Brain

3rd edition 2010, Souvenir Press

 

The genius of this book lies in the fact that it is not mainstream. 

I inhabit a world that seems focussed to the point of obsession with ‘evidence based’.  Evidence based medicine is a good thing it establishes and helps maintain standards.  But Archimedes, if the story is true, didn’t discover the principle of the density of metal by evidence base but when he was in the bath, and promptly celebrated by shouting eureka whilst running through the streets naked.  This book is based on a personal eureka moment – more about which later.

The refreshing aspect of this very honest book is that it has attitude.  It acknowledges the difficulties that dyslexia can cause and backs this up with some personal memories but it points out that the problem with this might lie with the education system rather than the dyslexic.  Take the following as an example:

Besides resolving confusion, dyslexics utilise the altered perceptions....for creative imagination.  When it is applied to solving a problem during non verbal conceptualisation, it might be called intuition, invention or inspiration.  When it is done for entertainment, it is called fantasising or daydreaming.’

Were you ever told off at school for daydreaming or lacking concentration?  It could be that the education system squashes the very thing it spends all its time claiming it fosters – creativity!

 

Key to Davis’s theory is that the imaginative talent of dyslexics, the ability to visualise, is a ‘mind’s eye’.  This ‘mind’s eye’ allows them to look at the world and problems from a multitude of perspectives that gives them a more holistic view.  The key to making the most of this talent is in controlling this mind’s eye.

 

 

Structure

Set out in a very spacious dyslexic friendly way the book consists of four parts:

• What dyslexia really is (interestingly beginning with a chapter entitled) ‘The Underlying Talent’.
• A developmental theory of dyslexia.  (The eureka moment)
• The Gift
• Doing something about it.

 

So what is Dyslexia?

According to Davis it is ‘the result of a perceptual talent.’  I know, bit of a mouthful that one.  Basically dyslexics just see the world differently but that makes for a difficult life if 90% of the population see it one way and the remaining 10% of dyslexics don’t.  It’s not so much speaking different languages but akin to someone who speaks BBC English (the 90%) meeting someone with a strong Glaswegian accent (the 10%).  (No offence to Glaswegians my family roots lie north of the border!)

 

Eureka

The turning point of the book, the ‘eureka’ moment, lies at the end of the second section just before Davis moves on to the gift.  In a blocked off personal testimony Davis recounts how as a result of trying to write a letter he eventually realised; ‘that if my dyslexia could be changed by something I was doing mentally, it could not possibly be a structural problem but must be a functional problem.’

This led Davis to postulate his theory of dyslexia being a gift of mastery, ‘the ability to master many skills faster than the average person could comprehend or understand them.’  The reason for this is that from an early age dyslexics have developed the ability to look at anything they come into contact with from a variety of angles and seek to understand it by fully comprehending it.  We might say owning it, making it part of them.

 

From this point onwards Davis develops a technique of meditatively and kinaesthetically encouraging dyslexics to learn to live in different worlds.  It is the ability to move from their dyslexic viewpoint to the more common viewpoint of the wider world.  This is known as the Davis technique.

The technique itself applies:

 

• Visualisation (which I found fascinating because I have practised and taught meditation for a number of years)

• Using plasticine to physically create memorable images for remembering what he calls trigger words.  A trigger word is a word that a dyslexic stumbles over reading because they cannot create a mental picture for it.  So, for example, ‘cat’ is easy. ‘The cat’ is not easy because what mental picture/visualisation can you create for ‘the’?  So you use the plasticine to create a unique image for you that moves into your subconscious and becomes part of you.  You ‘master ‘it.

• Physical exercises for improving co-ordination. 

In short, a great book and one of those reads that leaves you with the gut feeling that Davis himself has made a profound intuitive leap.

Where has it left me?  Watch out for blogs on mastery, visualisation (meditation) and plasticine!