Selects: How Dyslexia Works | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

hey there everybody Chuck here uh. picking out a Saturday episode a classic. stuff you should know curated and. handpicked by me to you A Valentine if. you will and this one is from March 2019. and it's about dyslexia and this one. hits close to home for me now and uh I. enjoyed going back and Rel listening to. it so I could relearn myself so I hope. you do as well and it's called how. dyslexia. works.

welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. [Music]. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh Clark there's Charles W Chuck Brian. over there and there's Jerry and this is. stuff you should know about. dyslexia how are you doing good good how. are you I'm doing pretty good man just. uh you know hanging out over here yeah. ready to wrap.

I thought this is pretty cool I I'm. surprised that we had not discussed this. yet cuz it's right up our alley totally. very stuff you should know type show. yeah um and I think it's an interesting. uh you know I guess it's labeled a. learning disorder most most definitely. it's a specific learning disorder. according to the US government yeah. always just have a hard time what you. know knowing whether or not to like I. almost said Affliction then I'm like is. that an Affliction I don't even know.

I think it's I think anybody with. dyslexia and anybody any expert in the. field would say it's a learning. disability it's a specific learning. disability that um that we're not. entirely certain what causes it but most. people would tell you that typically. it's considered a neurobiological. condition they think that there's a. basis to the brain that leads to this. situation where otherwise um bright and.

um capable yep and intelligent students. have what they call unexpected. difficulty learning to read and that it. afflicts them their entire life yeah but. there's a lot of questions that surround. that definition and one of the problems. with dyslexia research is that that's. that that's not the official definition. there's about as many definitions as. there are studies of Dyslexia yeah this. one from Yale Center for dyslexia and. creativity made sense to me though as.

far as just sort of a simple way to say. it uh an unexpected difficulty in. Reading in an individual who has the. intelligence to be a much better reader. right so in other words like this isn't. adding up all all the tools are there um. and you should be a better reader than. you are right but you're not so why what. gives yeah so there's um there's there's. a lot to that though right like there's. this idea. that if if we know enough about the.

brain and we have things like MRIs and. stuff like that so you would think that. by now since maybe the 90s or whatever. we would have positively identified what. it is but there's a confounding problem. that they've run into in dyslexic re. dyslexia research and we'll get into it. more later but they haven't figured out. if what they're looking at is the. changes that would come from not reading. as much um right or if the the brain.

structure they're seeing is actually. dyslexia right so they're having trouble. with it I'll explain it better later no. but I know what you mean well good as. long as you do but it also counts if. like the million or so people listening. to this also. do uh Hey everybody dyslexia is. very um studying it and understanding it. and um learning how to teach uh children. with dyslexia is very important. because up until semi- recently I'm just. going to go say recently right if you.

were uh had dyslexia and you were a. student um you might have been called. stupid or dumb and you might have. teacher yeah you might have been put at. uh a separate table and said well you go. over here because we you can't keep up. um this one guy man this one really hit. home yeah or not hit home but um hit you. in the Bread Basket in the Bread Basket. which is like home sure um pullet pullit. Sur Prize winner philli Schultz uh was.

diagnosed later in life and he said. growing up in the. 1950s he he said basically he was placed. in what he called the dummy class uh. three children in his class were. separated put at a table in the corner. the teacher didn't talk to them much and. essentially uh one day like the. principal was coming around and she said. here are these books uh pretend to read. them right the principal's coming yeah. man that is just tough but there's. something really significant about that. that that was a column written by a guy.

named Philip Schultz who is a piter. prize winner yeah so that really kind of. reveals the fact that what they figured. out through decades and Decades of. research is that people with dyslexia. aren't stupid they specifically have. trouble learning to read and spell and. write yeah and more and more research. has kind of gotten to the root of their. the problems with dyslexia but we have. found that with patience and practice.

people with dyslexia can learn to read. you have dyslexia your entire life. there's no cure for it right but you can. learn to read and you can learn to uh. navigate and cope with dyslexia as a. child and into adulthood yeah and I. don't want to I certainly don't want to. sound like I'm bagging on teachers. because you know both of my parents were. teachers and uh even back in the day. when you know let me just say this uh. teachers back then didn't have the same. tools that they have today and they they.

didn't have an understanding of Dyslexia. so right if they had students that. weren't keeping up and uh would force. the class to maybe lag behind they may. not have made the best decisions but. they didn't have all the tools at their. disposal to make better decisions right. the presence of a kid with dyslexia in a. class creates a conundrum do you slow. the class down to that kid's speed and. um as far as like reading and spelling. and writing lessons go right um.

potentially risking like slowing down. the rest of the class who are learning. at a normal clip or do you take this guy. with dyslexia this girl with dyslexia. and put them in a special needs class. right that may address their reading and. writing but they're going to get so far. behind their classmates and every other. um subject that they're normally. proficient at right it's a problem and. they had no idea how to how to Grapple. with it for almost all of the 20th. century and multiple generations of kids.

with dyslexia suffered as a result yeah. it it's really sad um there are a lot of. symptoms uh for dyslexia key symptoms uh. and these are very important because. there is no blood test there is no. there's no even I mean there are a lot. of testing they can do but that there's. no standardized specific tests that will. really nail it down right so so keep. that in mind there's no spe there's no. official definition of Dyslexia yeah and. there's no specific test to sus out.

dyslexia right two big problems yeah so. you got to look at this collection of. symptoms um the first obvious one is. slow reading inaccurate reading uh. difficulty sounding Out words um. difficulty pronouncing longer words with. multiple syllables which we'll get to. that in a bit. um inability to read or speak madeup. nonsense words which I thought was. interesting uh poor short-term memory. for verbal information whether it's. written or spoke uh spoken uh poor.

spelling like really poor spelling to. where you sometimes can't even tell what. the words they're trying to spell are. right not not just like a you know like. using a f instead of a pH or something. like that yeah and we should also point. out too that is it's very much an. incorrect notion that if you have. dyslexia you just transpose letters or. spell things backwards that's what I. thought for most of my life that. dyslexia was people they they spelled. things backwards and that was that and. that they also read backwards and that. they could train themselves to read.

things backwards right totally made up. it's not totally made up but it's so. such a such a just a one component of. Dyslexia that it might as well just be. an urban legend yeah totally um and then. what this can lead to it's not just like. oh I have trouble reading like that that. spills out into all aspects of life. whether it's your self-esteem or you. might have problem uh with with. directions uh directionally you might. have issue with your budgets or money.

items or you might not can tell time uh. very well frustrated anger difficulty. planning things right it's not just. limited to reading issues and then in. real life you um you might read. something and have very little. recollection of what you just read um. you uh you will probably have problems. giving presentations finding the right. word recalling words that kind of thing. yeah um when you do read and when you.

learn to read you will be reading slower. than anybody else even reading at your. reading level um you just do it more. slowly yeah and then as an adult a lot. of people are like oh good God I'm done. with school let me just go off and find. a job that doesn't require any reading. or any writing and I will be fine I will. go to restaurants and order the same. thing at every restaurant and um if this. routine that I've developed to mask my. dyslexia is ever interrupted will flip.

out and try to keep it under control but. I will seem a little awkward socially. right during instances like this there's. ways you can carve out a life for. yourself but you don't have to because. now we understand dyslexia way more than. we did before and we understand the. treatment of it too yeah and as far as. how many people have it it's it's tough. to get um because of all these reasons. we're talking about tough to get a good. number that's reliable but anywhere. between five and 15 to 17% it looks like.

um which is sort of no that's not the. biggest range in the world but they. don't really know no they have they have. no idea because there's a couple of. problems one there's a lot of people out. there who don't realize they have. dyslexia um and then there's a lot of. people who do know they have dyslexia. and are either ashamed of it or have. just set up their life to where they. don't have time or room to go be. diagnosed and then go learn right to. overcome it they're just like whatever I. I have this thing this issue or I'm. slower at reading than other people um.

so yeah it's probably very much under. reported and underestimated how many. people in the population have it yeah. and we're talking mainly about uh almost. exclusively about developmental. dyslexia uh which is you know the kind. we mostly think about we're not talking. about acquired dyslexia which is can. happen as a result of an injury right um. so just want to point that out well. let's take a break and then we'll we'll. come back and talk about the history. that actually features both of those. okay yes sir all.

[Music]. [Applause]. [Music]. [Applause]. [Music]. [Applause]. [Music]. right so Chuck the first time time the. word dyslexia was used was in.

1872 by an opthalmologist named Rudolph. Berlin who coined the term dyslexia but. the case that he was describing was a. case of acquired dyslexia right where. you can you can develop the symptoms of. Dyslexia trouble reading trouble writing. trouble um sounding Out words from a. head injury or say a lesion on your. brain something like that yeah and that. told them a lot right it really.

initially they thought maybe it was just. a sign of low intelligence maybe it was. a problem with vision or something like. that but the fact that you could acquire. dyslexia told um neurologists and. opthalmologists working in the 19th. century No this is a this is a there's a. neurobiological basis to this yeah and. they called it early on um in the 19th. century and I guess even in the early. 20th century well actually they called. it that up until the the 60s yeah the. 60s um word blindness. and they there was a German who uh who.

coined that term and they called it vort. blind height can you say that that's. good okay you you would do it way better. than me well I would put on some dumb. voice but that's perfect pronunciation. okay you said that it's a w right yeah. and you said it is a v yeah perfect okay. I didn't click my heels together when I. said it it checks out Dorothy um so they. called it like you said up until the 60s. congenital word blind.

uh there were a lot of people in the. late 1800 or not a lot but a handful of. people studying this stuff yeah. henselwood and Morgan were the two big. ones yeah and they were uh. opthalmologist and a doctor um hinwood. was the opthalmologist and they and then. there were also neurologist a man named. Samuel Orton and uh they they it's. interesting to look back. because they were sort of on the right. track with how they what they thought. was wrong yeah word blindness also is a. is not that not that far off I mean it.

really does a good job describing the. thing because they're saying like. there's some condition that these people. have specifically because they're. otherwise totally intelligent they're. just they have a problem with words with. seeing words and recognizing them like. everybody else can yeah and it was. obviously since the dawn of time uh. people have had this condition but it. didn't obviously if you think about it. there are a lot of things that came. along that really brought it into the. Forefront like Printing World widespread.

literacy yeah newspapers and books and. street signs and exactly menus like you. were saying in a restaurant yeah and. like everywhere there's the printed word. and all of this as all of this started. to emerge in like the second half of the. 19th century at least in the United. States and in the West in Europe um all. of a sudden people who had. dyslexia suddenly became a parent MH. whereas before this it wouldn't have. been apparent because there was no way.

for dyslexia to manifest itself right. people didn't walk around reading you. weren't expected to learn to read and. write as a kid you had to be like. basically a monk to to learn to read and. write or part of like the aristocracy. now it became democratized and public. schooling became widespread and so as a. result dyslexia became a thing for the. very first time it's a actually a. relatively new condition that was born. out of the modern era yeah or if you. were a kid back then and you they were. trying to teach you to read and you.

couldn't you you were just they were. like all right well I guess he's not a. reader right so get out to the factory. of the field right and don't worry about. it but the uh that that was what Morgan. like w Pringle Morgan and James hinchel. Wood were doing was they were the first. ones to say wait wait wait get that kid. out of the field because he seems. otherwise bright to me he just is having. trouble reading this might just be a. thing yeah so they were the first ones. to say no this is its own thing this. isn't just being being generally slow. this is a specific learning disability.

right uh Samuel Orton the neurologist I. mentioned he created uh the Orton. Society in. 1949 um they were researchers and. teachers uh trying to figure out like. all right we know this is a problem now. how do we go about teaching kids like. this and that eventually led to the. international dyslexia. Association um but it really took until. the like the. 1970s uh there was a book written by. McDonald critchley called the dyslexic.

child M and that's when things really. started to come to the Forefront more. yeah they started to realize oh wait you. can teach uh kids with dyslexia how to. read so maybe we should start doing that. right and here are here are the symptoms. and the signs of dyslexia and let's. let's take it seriously in the general. education system yeah and one of the. interesting things that they learned uh. they have learned over the years is part. of the problem at least in the case of. English is it's a really tough language.

to learn extraordinarily tough and it. matters if you have dyslexia when. compared to Italian it says English has. over a thousand ways to spell it's basic. set of 40 uh phonological sounds Italian. has 25 speech sounds speech sounds and. only 33 ways to spell them so incidences. of Dyslexia while they may be the same. technically in Italy kids don't have as. much of a problem in Italy yeah like. think about this so the the short e.

sound e you can spell it AI as in said. EO is in leopard U is in Berry IE is in. friend yeah okay English is so tough it. is tough but what you're doing is when. you're when you're spelling those things. you're you're encoding a sound a phon is. what it's called right and like you said. in English we have 40 phones and when. you spell when you read you're encoding. and decoding a phon and we have attached.

phones onto specific things out in real. life leopard right if you can spell. leopard you can write down that word and. you can create a leopard in somebody. else's Mind's Eye by reading it right. okay this is all spectacular that we can. do this but it's a totally human. construct if you have dyslexia your the. ground problem that that is the basis of. your condition is you have trouble. sorting through phones you have trouble.

um with what's called phological. awareness where you hear and part has. two. separate distinct sounds that you can. learn to spell and learn to write you. you can't sort them sometimes they they. run together it's a it's a problem on. the very basis of Reading Writing. spelling the phology you have trouble. your brain has trouble processing it and. sorting it that's the basis of Dyslexia.

so if you are a a kid with dyslexia in. in learning English with as difficult as. it is where there's all these different. rules for the same phon it's going to be. way harder than it is in something like. Italian like you were saying yeah and as. a result as you would imagine uh. learning a second language if you have. dyslexia is really tough uh but they. have found that Italian is is can almost. be like a therapy a training like. training camp for learning really. interesting yeah because you learn oh.

there's rules for certain things but. these are really basic rules and they. make sense so maybe now I can learn. English um a little more easily with the. expectation that the rules are. structurally the same but they're just. different for English than they are for. Italian in Nuance But ultimately they're. getting across the same stuff yeah the. the whole concept of language and um and. symbols uh e letters m and words right. it's just fascinating to me endlessly.

fascinating yeah because again I don't. want the hum's like creating this and. saying that thing over there if you draw. these symbols in this order that's what. that is see that leopard like that's and. then the word leopard like yeah it's. just all fascinating to me it is because. you're encapsulating knowledge that can. be shared later on can be unlocked later. on by anyone who understands how to. decode it in in the same way yeah what's. the the science uh what What's it called. when you study that Linguistics is it.

just Linguistics I'm pretty sure I could. have been a linguist oh yeah if I had. only known what it was called. yeah I just realized how I through that. would have dumb Dum I like what's that. thing called yeah I could have been good. at that yeah yeah I couldn't it was on. the tip of my tongue so um I guess we. can talk about the the fmri and the MRI. obviously the Wonder machine figures in. pretty big when it comes to this kind of. thing yeah and in the mid 990s is about.

when the fmri came on the scene with uh. dyslexia and studies with dyslexia uh. once they one of the problems was uh. little kids they're like oh we can't. throw them in there that thing will. explode their brain and then they're. like oh no the fmri machine is fine for. kids we tested it out on some bad kids. and they were fine and so they started. putting children in there um because you. you could obviously do this at any age. but it's important for schoolage. children um to like figure out what's. going on in their brains well that's one.

of the reasons why that's the sample. population is because it takes years for. dyslexia to be prominent right every kid. has problems learning reading and. writing at first sure but then as other. kids progress and this one kid doesn't. but they're otherwise bright same. socioeconomic opportunities and all that. stuff um that's when it becomes possible. that they have dyslexia but by that time. a couple more years have gone by right.

right yeah so you're not you're not. testing for dyslexia on babies right you. have to wait until it basically. manifests itself yeah and of course with. the fmri they I think there was some. hope that it could like you mentioned. earlier just be like well there it is. yeah but you know it wasn't it wasn't as. they you know different regions of the. brain would light up or not light up but. they they didn't get any hard like. pinpointing conclusions no they they. have kind of focused in on a few spots.

like different Studies have said this is. what we found and it actually correlates. with other studies too there's um left. hemisphere areas the ventolo temporal. region the temporo parietal region and. the inferior frontal cortices which have. to do with language processing but also. visual processing of language too yeah. so again they think that the basis of. all of this is that when you are hearing. sounds when somebody's holding up a.

piece of bread that has been dried. through heat and says. toast you're hearing. toast yeah and you can learn to write t. o a a little confounding and then St. over time maybe the first few times you. write t o e St it doesn't matter you're. going to learn to write t o a s t and. you can write it down and then someone. else can read it and they think of toast. right with dyslexia you're not hearing.

toast you're you're you and you. certainly can't extrapolate something. that you're not hearing correctly into. words and letters yeah yeah okay that's. a good way to put it the toast analogy. there you go uh there is a genetic. component um you are likely if you have. dyslexia to also have other family. members who have it and they have. isolated some genes associated with it. but again they haven't been like here's. the cause let's just figure out how to. switch this gen off or on right and it's.

I think it's just correlated it's not. necessarily the cause it's it's like. people who who have been shown to have. dyslexia have these this this set of. genes that are doing this yeah but what. like I said earlier what's interesting. is those early doctors weren't super far. off yeah uh it does have to do with. visual processing of this uh linguistic. information and they were on the right. track even way back then so not bad and. then even still though with this new. understanding of like okay this brain.

region looks like this this brain region. looks like that this is the sign of a a. the a dyslexic. brain there's still the question is this. the result of going years and years. without reading right um or is that the. structure of a brain with dyslexia right. because we know that your brain changes. when you read when you learn to read. they they've done studies in the MRI. with um illiterate adults who have. learned to read so they do a scan of.

them while while they uh cannot read and. then they scan them again while they can. read and then look for differences in. the brain and there are structural. differences that take place in the brain. right which makes sense because it makes. you think so an illiterate adult is that. the normal structure of the brain and an. adult that can read is that an abnormal. structure because think about it we've. only been doing that for 100 150 years. that's a new construct so it makes sense. that the brain would be neuroplastic.

like that in that because that's a new. thing we've all started to try to do to. alter our brains yeah and that's where. the practice part comes in which we'll. get to more but it's interesting that. and it sounds simple but the better if. you have dyslexia the better you get at. reading and writing the better you will. get at reading and writing exactly. you're you're just um you're. strengthening you're creating new neural. connections and then strengthening those. Pathways and the fact that it all comes. down to apparently patience and practice.

and that like it's saying like these. kids with dyslexia are going through the. same thing that every kid does with with. learning to read and write and spell it. just takes them way longer yeah the fact. that generations of kids with dyslexia. were just abandoned by the school system. because of a lack of patience is really. what it comes down to is beyond sad to. me patience and resources I think and. that's part of it sure yeah I just don't. want to it sound like we're saying like.

teachers just were impatient about it. all right it's like uh it was complex. and still very sad yes the fact that. that teachers have to buy their own. school supplies still gets to me every. year yeah the fact that we're like. living with this as a country like. that's just become normal to us right is. it's embarrassing yeah it's just a a. mark of Shame on our country if you ask. me all right let's take a break no I'm. going to go. I'm going to give you your cat of ninet.

tales so we can fog each other I realize. I'm I sound really forceful in this. episode do I feel like I'm sounding. forceful do I sound forceful no I think. you're great do I well that did okay all. right we'll be right back. [Music]. [Applause]. [Music]. [Applause]. everyone.

[Music]. all right so like you said earlier there. is no uh cure for dyslexia there is uh. treatment and they've even put that in. quotes um but it you shouldn't think of. it as a disease cure type of thing no no. uh it's uh in patience you have it for. life yeah and those are the two.

strategies that we we'll say it one more. time for the 10th time patience and. practice uh it's you have to have that. patience there as a parent as a teacher. as someone with. dyslexia um I know it's frustrating but. uh the more patient you are give. yourself time teachers can and there are. programs now where students can get. extra time to take tests right and. things like that and oh yeah I think. even officially like with the SAT and.

stuff like that oh yeah um there are. programs where you are not to put it to. disadvantage there's um the individuals. with disabilities education Improvement. Act of 2004 the idea act or idea um it. it specifies uh dyslexia as a specific. learning disorder and when you have a. diagnosis of Dyslexia the whole world. opens up to you you all of a sudden have. your own personal teachers assistant. working with you um you have all sorts.

of resources that just weren't available. to you before that are being funneled. directly toward helping you learn to. read faster yeah I wonder if that's. across the. board um yeah I think that schools. probably have specific funding for idea. stuff I mean like when when Congress. comes up with an act like that they fund. it and then they fund it out of it like. those huge Omnibus budgets have funding. for that right that goes to the school. and school's supposedly not allowed to.

spend it on anything but that stuff so. yeah probably if you get a diagnosis of. Dyslexia it's pretty sweet um and a huge. relief right because all of a sudden. it's just like a a brand new world. you're taking away from the dumb kids. table like Howard Schultz was right um. and all of a sudden you have your own. your own oneon-one um reading and and. and spelling lessons that you just. didn't have before for yeah uh the other. like we said is.

practice uh and over time you know you. can learn to read um and you make those. new neural Pathways and and it just it's. it's heartening to know that if you have. this patience and you put in the time it. is something that can be overcome if. everyone like works together right and. and if you can learn to read even as an. adult you're not going to learn to read. necessarily proficiently I think you can. if you really really practice if you. your mind to it it's going to be very. slow but it's not like you'll never read.

a book or something like that but I saw. one woman describing her condition as an. adult and she said she was very proud to. be at like a seventh grade reading level. now as as an adult which is like you can. navigate through life as with a seventh. grade at a seventh grade reading level. pretty easy right um the problem comes. when you don't ever you've never gotten. any help and you are basically an. illiterate adult um because of. dyslexia yeah they have uh technology. now can help out they're uh what they.

call assistive listening devices cuz. sometimes if you have someone in your. ear reading something out loud while. you're reading along um sort of like a. teacher in an app um like that. one-on-one experience that can really. really help um seeing a transcription. sometimes yeah of what someone's saying. can a realtime transcription yeah yeah. so all these apps and devices are really. helping things along these oh it's it's. like a brand new world for kids with. dyslexia compared to like last century.

oh yeah or even a few decades ago you. know yeah the one thing I didn't quite. get was this thing that you sent from. Sir Jim Rose I didn't fully get what. this guy was saying he was part of it so. he's not saying this he's he's uh he's. definitely all into dyslexia um but. there is a a thread um that of of. experts in childhood education. psychology um childh cognition who who.

suspect that there's no such thing as. dyslexia really that those earliest. neurologists and opthalmologists and. doctors who who named it and made it a. thing were wrong and that really an. inability to read. transcends any level of intelligence. it's disconnected from intelligence that. no matter whether you are of high. intelligence or low intelligence you can. suffer from an inability to learn to. read right and so if you have dyslexia. and you are of high intelligence the kid.

next to you who has low intelligence and. can't read also has dyslexia or there's. or else no one has dyslexia and it's. just an inability to learn to read most. experts say dyslexia is a thing sure. which means then the debate is okay does. it have anything to do with intelligence. right and if it doesn't have anything to. do with intelligence then all of these. resources that are being diverted to. these kids who are of high intelligence. but are having trouble learning to read.

is really doing a disservice to the kids. of low intelligence and I'm making air. quotes here everybody yeah um who are. having trouble learning to read got but. why differentiate they're both having. trouble learning to read right start. attacking the problem with both of them. and there was this one Australian um. expert who basically said like yes. dyslexia is a thing it is his own thing. it has a neurobiological basis it's not. made up it's not a myth. but let's treat first and then diagnose.

later if you see an um an inability to. learn to read go after that don't say. well is it dyslexia Let's test the kids. intelligence doesn't matter focus on. learning how on teaching them how to. read and apparently interventions. there's this guy named uh Julian. Professor Julian um what's his name. Chuck. linen Sans yes Jan Sands in Boxing. Helena he makes he has a big Soliloquy.

about whether or not dyslexia is a myth. I can't remember the guy's last name but. um I get the impression that parents of. children with dyslexia are not a big fan. of this guy right but he's he's. basically said um we're diverting a lot. of funding away from kids who know how. to who don't know how to read just. because they don't they supposedly don't. have a high IQ right um let's treat all. the kids so that's the idea of whether. it's a myth not that dyslexia doesn't. exist.

it's just intelligent upper middle class. kids who have dyslexia right it's it. just an inability to read for the same. reason interesting That's the basis of. it it's still up in the air and it's a. really touchy subject very touchy. subject um and rightfully so I mean like. I I can imagine you feel lost in the. woods if there's no official diagnosis. there's no official test of it there. there's no official definition of it but.

your kid has it and you know your kid. has it I can't imagine what it must feel. like to have some expert going like. there's no such thing as dyslexia right. you know yeah yeah thanks a lot it is. very touchy and rightfully so uh well. finally there's this whole notion that. um if you have dyslexia then you may. excel in other areas um you may be more. creative or you may be more prone to be. like um an entrepreneur perhaps yeah. because you think outside of the box.

yeah I mean there's a long list of. people uh like you know famous creative. types that have dyslexia Agatha Christie. did you know that one I didn't but I. didn't either that you know I didn't. just make it up I learned that it's a. long list but just recently part of this. bugs me though I don't know I just hate. it when they're like well look what. celebrities have this thing I mean I get. it maybe that it. might I don't know I just don't see the. value in that well it's saying like look. at this guy this guy this lady made it. maybe I guess so she's not a street.

sweeper you don't have to spend you. don't have to look forward to a life of. shoveling horse manure because you have. dyslexia you can't achieve just stick to. it kid no I get all that and that's. valid oh you're questioning the cult of. celebrity yeah that's what I was that. just sort of bugs me but no there is. benefits I'm sure if some kid was like. Tom Cruz has dyslexia right and look at. him me I have had some questions about. Xanax and its value. myself oh goodness. uh there have been some studies though.

over the years that may or may not. support this like um supposedly if you. have dyslexia you may be um quicker to. find um something in your peripheral. vision maybe you can like mcer style. drawings or the impossible images hidden. images you might see those quicker or. more easily find patterns in in noise. sure like you could be a great data. analyst perhaps and they think like and. this makes total sense but the problem.

is it's anecdotal at this point right. but it makes total sense that yes you're. the the same senses that you were using. to read and write if you don't know how. to read and write your brain's going to. compensate with other things is going to. possibly excel at other stuff right just. because it's structured different if. your brain is structured differently. which we know that's the case if you um. do not read or write uh you would expect. that it would manifest itself in real. world behaviors and traits well yeah and.

the first thing I thought is like yeah. totally like if your vision impaired you. you hear things better well supposedly. that's a myth well I looked it up um. there are studies where if you are. vision impaired you are better at. pinpointing like location of sound and. certain sounds but it's not as you can't. hear something two miles away yeah it's. not as cut and dry it's just like hear. better cuz like your ears develop better. you know you remember that guy who can. echolocate he's visually impaired and. he's. he uses clicks or something like that. like a bat he basically taught himself.

to echolocate really amazing the first. thing I thought about was the guy with. the ear in his arm what was his name. Stellar Stellar I what's great oh man I. love that you and I like go back and. forth on remembering the guy's name last. time we brought him up I didn't remember. his name and you rattled it right off. Stellar between us Stellar is going to. live forever like the transhumanist to. you uh but then that last thing about. being uh entrepreneurial or um maybe a. corporate executive they did do a study.

in 2009 that found there was a anecdotal. evidence of Oprah representation in. those fields but then that's a thing too. where they're like maybe they were just. better at overcoming adversity oh right. and that stayed on through their whole. life to where it wasn't just dyslexia. but like and nothing would keep them. down so they excelled right they learned. how to how to try harder than their. peers yeah so yeah even if that is the. case great sure but the point is is it's. still anecdotal so you have to be.

careful with saying like oh yeah people. with dyslexia are way better at this. right or they're they're more likely to. be entrepreneurs it's just the it's it. hasn't been settled yet yeah um but I. think the overall point of this episode. is if you are if you do have dyslexia um. there is plenty of Hope sure do not give. up hope whether that your kid has. dyslexia or you have dyslexia you can. learn to read and write and spell and. you can become a pitz or priz winning. columnist or Agatha Christie yep or John.

Irving I saw his dyslexia John Irving. yeah Richard Branson that was really. good Aussie Osborne for God's sakes look. at that guy sure fumbling around the. house he's successful yeah despite. himself uhhuh um if you want to know. more about dyslexia you can learn all. about it on the internet and since I. said that it's time for listener. mail uh I'm going to call this Sid Marty. Croft email this guy wrot WR in to email. us about a personal connection he had to. the Schoolhouse Rock episode I'm not.

going to read that half of the letter. cuz I don't want to further embarrass uh. the family but his he's has a relation. to the person that we kind of called out. as the the guy who ruined Schoolhouse. Rock oh okay wasn't he an exec yeah yeah. yeah but the second half of this is uh. uh speaking of unbelievable stories guys. I thought you'd be jealous to know that. I grew up hanging out on the sets of all. the Sid Marty Croft shows because my mom. was on a bunch of them he used to have. lunch with the SLE stacks and throw.

around big foam Boulders from Land of. the Lost she was uh Nashville on the. captain cool and the Kong show which. wrapped around the Saturday morning. cartoons I remember that mhm uh they. also that also led to the music group. The Bay City Rollers showing up to my. birthday party what when I was like five. it caused such a big mob scene the. police had to come that's the S8 u r d a. y n you know how they got their name.

they threw a dart at a map and it landed. on Bay City Michigan yeah cuz they're. like Scottish aren't they I think so I. think they are I remember my sister uh. we had a babysitter and then my sister. and the babysitter I don't know why my. sister wasn't just my babysitter she was. 6 years older there was another girl who. babysat that was like a my sister's age. and they would sit around this is my big. memory of the Bay City Rollers they. would there was one of their albums that. had each of their pictures sort of in a. dartboard like fashion in a circle and.

they would spin the record around and. close their eyes and stop it with their. finger and like they had to make out. with that picture yeah they had to like. kiss that picture or. whatever oh I hope your sister doesn't. listen to this no it's great the 70s man. so innocent I love the 70s so uh B City. Rollers came to his birthday party they. called the cops uh she went on my mom. went on to do a ton of cool stuff that. I'm sure you guys would know bunch of. episodes a plastic man wow all the. women's voices on Celebrity Deathmatch.

cool hosting a game show called Rodeo. Drive playing Joan Rivers on Family Guy. wow being in the cat skills on Broadway. for two years too much more to mention. guys except also she went on the road. with Tim Conway and Harvey Corman for a. number of years posing is Carol Bernett. and my little brother ended up engaged. to Harvey corman's daughter wow but it. didn't work out wow anyway love the show. guys if I can ever be a resource let me. know that from Keith Orel Keith that was. amazing you remember Celebrity Death.

Match Yeah man so great big shout out to. your mom too yeah and up to your mom's. Keith yeah uh well if you want to brag. on your mom cuz she's done some awesome. stuff we love hearing about that moms. always have great um welcomeness here at. stuff you should know that's right. that's going to end up being a crummy. t-shirt uh if you want to get in touch. with this you can hang out on stepy. know.com and check out our Social Links. there and you can get in touch with me. Chuck and Jerry and everybody else here. at stuff you should know by sending an.

email to stuff podcast howstuffworks.com. stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart radio for more podcasts iHeart. Radio visit the iHeart Radio app Apple. podcasts or wherever you listen to your. favorite. [Music]. shows.