Famous people with dyslexia

Before talking about what famous people have been diagnosed, let’s firstly look at what is dyslexia and how someone is diagnosed with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Is dyslexia?

 

So, let’s begin by looking at what dyslexia is. Dyslexia is best described as an unexpected difficulty with being able to read. Children that have dyslexia may encounter problems when it comes to the recognition and manipulation of sounds with language. Decoding words is something that children with dyslexia will have great difficulty with, which essentially means breaking down these words or phonemes and then sounding out novel words. Dyslexia makes it hard for the child to recognize words, read and write properly, and even spell properly. It’s important to note that a child who has dyslexia does not necessarily lack intelligence. A child with dyslexia may not even be that far behind their other peers in school due to the hard effort they may be putting in to be at the same level as everyone else in their class. However, it must be noted that this is only sustainable for a child with dyslexia for so long. As they start to get older in school they will struggle to keep up with their fellow classmates as the reading, writing and spelling will of course become harder as they grow older.

Signs of dyslexia and how it is diagnosed

If you are worried that your child may have dyslexia there may be certain signs or a combination of these signs that will indicate the possibility that the child has dyslexia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of these may be:

–          Being speech delayed

–          Struggling to stay concentrated and flowing directions

–          Being unable to differentiate left from right

–          Having problems with small words, i.e. leaving words like if, and, or but, out of sentences

–          Being unable to learn straightforward simple rhymes which kids their age are expected to be able to learn

 

It’s also worth pointing out what children in school that may have dyslexia are likely to do

–          Unable to write down notes from the board and be able to read these notes in a timely manner.

–          Inability to read in fluency, as they will continue to read in a slow manner so that they are taking everything they can in while others speed ahead.

–          They constantly reverse letters and numbers when reading and writing, whereas usually kids will stop this habit by the age of 8 years old.

 

Again, there is no single test that can diagnose someone with dyslexia, however, there are factors that can go a long way to determining whether your child may have it, these being

 

–          Child’s development and educational issues will be assessed as doctor’s will want to know whether dyslexia is something that has run in the family or not.

–          Vision and hearing tests may be done in order to find out whether another disorder may be having an effect on your child’s ability to read and write.

–          Psychological testing can be advised by a doctor in order to assess the child’s mental health. Psychological testing can figure out whether things like depression, anxiety and so on, maybe having a detrimental effect on the child’s ability.

 

Famous people with dyslexia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below is a list of famous people from across the world who have dyslexia:

• Jane McGrath, Irish actress
• Tom Cruise, American actor
• Tom Holland, English actor
• Jennifer Anniston, American actress
• Brendan O’Carroll, Irish comedian
• Noel Gallagher, Musician.
• Róisín Murphy, Irish singer.
• Tommy Hilfiger, American fashion designer.
• Magic Johnson, Basketball player.
• Paul Merson, Football player.
• Muhammed Ali, Boxer.
• Kieran Donaghy, Gaelic footballer.
• Henry Ford, Ford motor cars.
• Richard Branson, Virgin.
• Jamie Oliver, Chef.
• Albert Einstein, Scientist.
• B. Yeats, Poet.
• Steve Jobs, Apple.
• Pablo Picasso, a Spanish artist.
• Steve McQueen, English film director.

So why is it so important to show a list of famous people who have dyslexia, you ask? Well, what this does is it really puts it into perspective that dyslexia, even though it may cause setbacks to your child and their development with being able to learn, there is no reason that they cannot be as successful or even more successful than their class peers. The younger the child is diagnosed with dyslexia the better it is to take action and look at ways to overcome this learning disorder. Your child learning how to cope with this will then be able to live a perfectly normal life just like everyone else once appropriate measures are taken.

Treatments that can be taken to help your child are as follows:

–          Be able to recognise small sounds that makeup words. These is known as phonemes.

–          Have the child be able to understand what they are reading.

–          Get the child to read out loud, which will help improve reading accuracy, speed and expression.

–          Try to build a vocabulary of words that the child will understand and recognise.

–          Have the child pulled out of class more than once a week, which will help with the intensity of intervention. The more one on one time a child has the greater benefit it will be to them overcoming this disorder.

–          Drilling sight words.

–          A quiet space for the child to work at home so they can focus on what they’re learning.

–          Teaching phonological skills.

 

By applying these treatments it will greatly enhance the chances for your child to be able to overcome this learning disorder, the key is of course to treat dyslexia as early as possible, and in the right manner to see maximum benefits for your child.