Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Asking for help the Central lesson of Dyslexia

Perhaps the key gift of being dyslexic is that the bedrock reality of learning disabilities is an inability to practice that central story of human experience… denial… denial of my inability to organize without assistance – denial of my systematic mis-spellings and denial of my incomplete memory. I can’t afford any of these denials – I can’t afford to pretend that I can organize, spell or remember with out assitance, because I can’t.

Must people can pretend that they are able to do these things – experts in brain research talk about how the brain is an effective tool for creativity but that organization and memory are not reliable uses for the brain with out using a written system in place. Now I know that many of my readers will disagree with this premise. Think about what I am saying the brain is not an effective tool for memory and organization. Here is the question that got me – what tool are you using to judge your ability to remember and organize things? Don’t believe my word – Read David Allen books.

I would suggest that your brain is not an accurate tool for judging your memory or organizational ability. Try a simple test – write down right now everything you did to day – put it in a envelope and date it one month from today. A month from now right down everything you wrote in the letter and then open the envelope. Make sure you include in your letter every single food or drink that you consumed today – every place you have gone and every person you have spoken too.

I know the what the results of your study will be… and I hope you do as well.

Dyslexic people learn a little bit earlier the value in writing things down and in asking for assitance from others in completing our daily task list. We are just lucky like that… I guess.

No comments: