Black Sheep or Gifted Dyslexic?

"'What will become of Fred?' That's the question that echoed through my home when I was a child. I was the son of two accomplished professionals, and my older brother was a good student who seemed destined to follow in my father's footsteps as doctor. Meanwhile, I was in second grade and still hadn't learned to read." - Fred Epstein, M.D. pioneering pediatric neurosurgeon, NYU Medical Center

Dr. Epstein's story is all too familiar - one child from an academically-talented family seems to have so much trouble in school, and parents and teachers begin worry and possibilities fly about- mild retardation? immature? slow? Parents worry that they're just expecting too much from this child, and teachers may worry that over-achieving parents assume too much from their children. But what everyone needs to ask more is: Could he or she be a Gifted Dyslexic? Undiagnosed dyslexia is surprisingly common among the Davidson families that we see - at times it's the sibling who didn't make the cut-off for the program, while other times it's a Davidson child who doesn't seem to be performing to potential (mainly due to written output) given their high IQ scores.

More of Dr. Epstein's story: "The letters just never seemed to line up in a comprehensible pattern. I couldn't spell either. One of my earliest and most painful classroom memories is of standing at the blackboard, writing out the spelling words for the week. Behind me I heard my classmates snickering into their hands, then laughing out loud. When I finished writing I couldn't get up the nerve to turn around and face my tormentors. Finally, my teacher blurted out, "Fred, all your e's are backward!"

Aunt Lottie...was endlessly patient and encouraging. It didn't happen overnight, but gradually the alphabet stopped looking like a foreign language. Then my fifth-grade teacher, Mr. Murphy, tried to figure out why I was failing every written test. He discovered that I could get A's if he tested me orally. For the first time, I felt a glimmer of self-confidence in the classroom."

Tom West (In the Mind's Eye) has talked about the saying "Never trust a surgeon who can spell..." It may be that what makes the best surgeons so talented is their ability to see in 3-D. Reversals in dyslexia are not random...the letters that get confused (for instance, b & d, p & q) are the same letters in 3 dimensions. Being able to think and manipulate images in 3 dimensions is of course essential for all surgical work.

More from Dr. Epstein: "If you tell children that their future is limitless, and you give them enough love and encouragement, they'll believe you. And they'll believe in themselves. They'll form an inner vision of themselves that they can grow into."

To watch a video of Dr. Epstein, visit our Video library at: http://dyslexicadvantage.ning.com There is a brief sign-up (prevents spammers), but it's all free!

If I Get to Five
Biography Dr. Fred Epstein

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