The Dyslexic Advantage

Table of Contents

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

 

First published by Hudson Street Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

 

First Printing, August 2011

Copyright © Brock L. Eide and Fernette F. Eide, 2011

All rights reserved

 

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

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PEESS

 

ISBN : 978-1-101-54349-8

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE

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This book is printed on acid-free paper.

We've been truly blessed during the writing of this book by the support and assistance of many remarkable people, whose help we are pleased to acknowledge.

First, we wish to thank our wonderful agent, Carol Mann, who in a very difficult market managed not only to get us a choice of great offers but also helped guide us to the publisher of our dreams. Thanks for watching out for us in so many ways.

And to our team of dreamworthy—but fortunately real—colleagues at Hudson Street Press/Penguin, words are not adequate to express our thanks for your input and support throughout this project. To editor in chief Caroline Sutton, we express our deepest thanks for sharing and supporting our vision, and for assembling such a fantastic team at Hudson Street. To Meghan Stevenson, whose equally astonishing talents as editor and motivational coach of the “tough love” school contributed immeasurably not only to the clarity and structure of the manuscript but also to our inordinate fear of missing deadlines (by too much . . . ), you're a true star of your profession, and it has been an honor to work with you. To Courtney Nobile, our lead publicist, and publicity director Liz Keenan, we feel enormously privileged to be backed up by publicists whose enthusiasm is equaled only by their expertise. To Jason Johnson and Eve Kirch, who were responsible for the wonderful design work on the outside and the inside of the book, respectively, thank you for your beautiful and creative contributions. And to John Fagan and Ashley Pattison in marketing, production editor Katie Hurley, copy editor Sheila Moody, and managing editor Susan Schwartz, our deepest thanks for all your work on our behalf. Also, we'd like to thank Bonnie Bader at Grosset & Dunlap at Penguin Young Readers for passing the book on to Henry Winkler so quickly.

 

We also wish to offer our profoundest thanks to the families and individuals who've come to our clinic and shared their stories and their lives with us. The real work was yours. All we did was listen.

To all those who agreed to be interviewed for this book, to share their stories and expertise, we offer our fullest thanks. The chance to talk to so many accomplished and creative people was one of our most enjoyable professional experiences ever.

Our special thanks to Tom (Thomas G.) West, who's worked harder and longer than anyone to promote the idea that dyslexia has advantages. Ever since we first met Tom he's been unstinting in his kindness and encouragement toward us. Without any question Tom is one of the most generous and selfless individuals we've ever been privileged to know, and the full extent of his impact is only just beginning to be felt.

And to all of our family and friends, old and new, who've become a part of Karina's support community: without your help—emotional, spiritual, professional, and financial—this book could have never been written. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

I would now like to turn to . . .
the advantages of the predisposition to dyslexia
. . . . [To] the apparently paradoxical notion that the very same anomalies . . . of the brain that have led to the disability of dyslexia in certain literate societies also determine superiority in the same brains. We can, thus, speak of a “pathology of superiority” without fear of being contradictory.

Norman Geschwind, M.D., “Why Orton Was Right”

I
n 2004, a top business school in England sent out a press release with the headline: “Entrepreneurs five times more likely to suffer from dyslexia.” Its subheading went on to ask, “What makes Sir Richard Branson, Sir Alan Sugar, and Sir Norman Foster special?”
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