Dyslexia is a learning disability that affects the reading and writing ability of the person with this disorder. This means that people with dyslexia find it difficult to read and write, which is not due to low intelligence or lack of intelligence. In an interesting twist of things, people with dyslexia turn out to be some of the most gifted or gifted. Several famous people with dyslexia have changed the world.
This disorder manifests in varying degrees of averages, where some people have difficulty reading words, some have trouble spelling correctly, writing words rather quickly or on a strange line. The common denominator of this disorder is the struggle with words. Dyslexia affects people’s educational development and is usually first discovered in educational institutions. However, some people have lived most of their lives without knowing that they have this dyslexia. There is no single known cause for the disorder, which has been attributed to factors that stem from the immediate environment or the affected person’s gene pool.
Lines of connection have been drawn between dyslexia and people who suffer from another disorder called; Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Since there is no known cause for this disorder, as it can begin in childhood or sometimes in adulthood, it is difficult to diagnose dyslexia, but certain tests can identify it. There is no definitive solution to the problem, but people have found ways to train their brains to learn how to handle words properly.
As mentioned earlier, dyslexia is not a result of low or no intelligence as some of the world’s greatest minds have proven. Here is a list of people who had dyslexia but found a way to change the world.
1. Alexander Graham Bell
The man to whom we owe gratitude for the ease of communication suffered from dyslexia. Alexander Bell was a scientist born on March 3, 1847 and died at the age of 75 on August 2, 1922; He is remembered for his invention of the telephone. However, his work was not limited to the telephone. Graham Bell contributed to the creation of hydrofoils and to the science of aeronautics.
His fascination with sound and the process of speech production, which led to the creation of the telephone, stemmed from a deaf mother and the marriage of a deaf wife. Ironically, he viewed the phone as a distraction from a scientist’s work and refrained from keeping one in his reading quarter.
2. Henry Ford – Famous people with dyslexia
When you hear about Ford motors, the thought of dyslexia doesn’t cross your mind, but Ford Motors owner Henry Ford had this disorder. Henry is not responsible for the creation of the automobile, he is known for having revolutionized the accessibility of cars. The automobile magnate, born on July 30, 1863, was the first to manufacture affordable cars for the middle class. Prior to his creation of the Model T in 1908, car ownership was a luxury the wealthy could not afford, but after 1908 it became easy to buy automobiles. His dyslexia allowed him to create an automotive empire for his family and himself, overcoming all his reading difficulties and learning about words until they were easier to understand.
3. Dear – Famous people with dyslexia
This multi-award-winning actress and singer is a lesson in the issues that can arise when dyslexia is misdiagnosed; Cher suffered from learning in school and constantly had grades ranging from C, D to F. Her teachers blamed her for not studying enough, it was not until three decades later when she took tests , she discovered his condition. The Cher effect in music is the use of auto-tune for recording songs as she is the first female musician to use it, which was her way of re-entering the music industry. affected her talent as a musician or actress.
4.Albert Einstein
Modern physics is what it is today thanks to the genius of Albert Einstein. This American-Jewish scientist was born in 1879 and proposed the theory of relativity which promoted the development of quantum mechanics. In 1921, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics, in honor of his work on the theoretical aspect of physics. Right from his childhood and early days in education, there were some signs that he suffered from dyslexia, but nonetheless, he is a force in the world of science.
5.Steve Jobs
The phone as it functions today, in the form of a microcomputer, is due to the genius of Steve Jobs who, in 1976, co-founded the Apple company with a friend – Steve Wozniak. For his contribution to modern telecommunications, he bears the title of grandfather of the microcomputer. Steve Jobs was born in 1955 in San Francisco. His university studies at Reed College were interrupted by his academic difficulties.
There is no substantial evidence of his dyslexia, but as the disorder is the most common cause of educational difficulties and his intellectual abilities are not in question, it is highly likely that he had the disorder. The iconic innovator died of pancreatic cancer in 2011, but before his passing, the Apple company had created a line of laptops – MacBooks and a line of phones – iPhones; Other inventions include the iMac, iPod and iPad. He was also one of the owners of the production company Pixar and the creator of the software company NeXT.
6. Lewis Carroll – Famous people with dyslexia
Dyslexia is a disorder that affects the understanding of words, but there are writers who, in a strange twist of irony, have had this disorder, one of whom is Lewis Carroll. The writer of the popular children’s books Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass and a number of essays suffered from dyslexia. It’s amazing how he conquered dyslexia and created timeless literature.
7. Leonardo da Vinci
Dyslexia is not a modern disorder; he existed in the history of mankind and the great Leonardo da Vinci was one of the many famous people with dyslexia who changed the world. Born in 1452, Da Vinci is particularly appreciated for his painting, his innovations in architecture, his brilliant sculpture and his contribution to science and the arts. This man had a wide range of interests in which he most often excelled; historians have been able to figure out his dyslexia from the notes he wrote which were written upside down, which is common among dyslexics. The Mona Lisa currently exhibited at the Louvre is his most famous work.
8.Thomas Edison – Famous people with dyslexia
Every light bulb you saw is the brainchild of Thomas Alva Edison. This American scientist, born in 1922, is considered the greatest scientist ever created in America. A bout of scarlet fever as a child left him deaf; he also struggled with schoolwork and had to be pulled out of school at an early age. He is the first scientist to set up a research laboratory and is considered the first scientist to implement the mass production technique of the industrial era. Thomas Edison, as you might expect, has a plethora of inventions to his name. It goes without saying that his place on our list of famous people with dyslexia is well deserved.
9. Whoopi Goldberg
One of the greatest achievements in the life of an entertainer is to achieve the coveted EGOT, which is a collection of four awards. They are – Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. Among the 15 who have achieved this feat, singer and actress Whoopi Goldberg is one of them. She was born on November 13, 1955, and as a child she struggled in school because of this disorder and was constantly scolded by her teachers. However, like most extraordinarily gifted dyslexics, Whoopi’s was devoted to acting. Due to this disorder, she had a difficult childhood and struggled through her teenage years, but in the end, her EGOT is the greatest proof of her extraordinaryness.
10. Michael Faraday – Famous people with dyslexia
Last but not least on our list of famous people Another scientist, Michael Faraday, born September 22, 1791, has dyslexia. Growing up, he received no school education, but nevertheless continued to contribute to the development of electromagnetism and the study of electrochemistry. As a child, he struggled with speech and couldn’t understand symbols in math, which changed when, at age 14, he was working with a bookbinder as an apprentice. there he learned to experiment a lot of things and learned chemistry. His first contact with electromagnetism was to spin a magnet using an electric field.
For Michael Faraday, and everyone on this list, dyslexia opened up their world to a wide range of limitless possibilities, where they used this disorder to make themselves heard, make names for themselves in their various fields while making the world a better place.