LD Expert Podcast with Jill Stowell
Is Dyslexia a Limitation? Or Are We Asking the Wrong Question?
Jill Stowell
Jill Stowell: There’s a conversation happening right now that’s bringing up some uncomfortable questions about dyslexia.
Questions about ability, intelligence, and even long-term potential.
So let’s talk about it—because the real issue isn’t so much the answer… it’s the questions we’re asking in the first place.
Welcome to the LD Expert Podcast, your place for answers and solutions for dyslexia, learning and attention challenges.
I’m your host, Jill Stowell, founder of Stowell Learning Centers. And today we’re going to unpack what dyslexia really means, and why so many people are getting it wrong.
I so clearly remember the day my 10-year old student bounced into his session and he spotted a broken pencil sharpener in the trash. He plucked it out, and said, “I can fix this!” and he did! Not by reading instructions or with help from Chat GPT. He just took it all apart and in his mind could see exactly where the problem was and how the pieces fit back together.
Why could he do that and I couldn’t?
And why could I read easily and he couldn’t?
Did that mean that one of us wasn’t smart or was less capable?
That question right there is actually at the center of a much bigger conversation that’s happening right now.
A conversation that’s essentially asking:
If someone struggles with reading, what does that mean about what they’re capable of?
And even though people don’t always say it this directly, does dyslexia make someone less qualified to fully participate or lead or succeed in the world?
Part of the confusion starts with the word we use: “disability.”
When people hear that word, they often picture something very concrete. A physical limitation. A handicapped parking spot.
But that’s not actually the right picture when we’re talking about learning differences.
When we say “learning disability,” we’re not talking about overall intelligence or potential.
We’re talking about a specific set of underlying skills that the brain hasn’t developed efficiently yet.
Skills like processing the sounds in words, visual discrimination and tracking, memory, timing, attention.
The things the brain uses to take in, organize, and use information.
And this is why the idea of “waiting to see if they grow out of it” doesn’t really hold up.
Kids don’t grow out of skills they haven’t developed yet.
You wouldn’t expect someone to grow out of having weak biceps without ever having done exercises to strengthen them.
The same is true here. The brain needs the right kind of input and practice to build those skills.
And when we don’t understand this, when we mistake a specific skill gap for overall ability, the impact on a student can be devastating.
I can’t tell you how many times over the years distraught moms have shared that their son or daughter has come home from school saying, “I’m the dumbest kid in the class.”
Why would a bright child say that?
Dyslexia is not a disease and it’s not a function of intelligence. Dyslexia is a different thinking style, a different way of processing information.
And because of how their brains process information, dyslexic learners often show strengths in areas that don’t always get recognized in a traditional classroom.
Children and adults with dyslexia often have a strong visual-spatial thinking style - a more 3-dimensional thinking style - that lends itself to visual awareness and quickness that supports fast action. A thinking style that could greatly support first responders and playing sports.
Many of our dyslexic students over the years have had wonderful talents in creative and performing arts. Many have had social intuition that allows them to be highly empathetic, or problem solving abilities that allow them to find solutions to problems that no one has even thought of.
And yet, a child like this can dread school and feel embarrassed and dumb.
Why?
Because they spend six to eight hours a day in an environment where they are consistently asked to do something that is genuinely hard for them.
Reading. Writing. Spelling. Organizing their thoughts on paper.
And when you spend that many hours a day working hard at something that isn’t coming together, it starts to shape how you feel about yourself.
Instead of seeing themselves as a leader or a problem-solver, or an innovator, many dyslexic students begin to see themselves as lazy, unmotivated, not focused, the class clown, a bad kid…you get the picture.
And why does that happen?
Two reasons: One is that these kids are smart and perceptive. They can look around and see that they are not able to do things that their peers can do easily.
And second, because that’s the feedback they’re getting.
Because the adults in their lives often don’t fully understand what’s going on.
They see a bright child who isn’t completing reading or writing assignments. A child whose spelling is, as many parents have told me, “atrocious,” whose papers are messy, who may be distracted—or distracting to everybody else.
In a classroom that is largely built around reading and writing, those struggles become the measure of the child.
They don’t meet the expectation of school and the classroom generally is not set up to showcase their strengths.
So when people ask, “Is dyslexia a limitation?”
The more accurate answer is: It can be a very real hurdle in specific skill areas—if those skills aren’t developed.
But it is not a measure of intelligence, potential, or what someone is ultimately capable of.
Dyslexia has been our focus at Stowell Learning Centers for the last 40 years and I can tell you that in that amount of time, we’ve seen what our students are really capable of.
When the roadblocks to learning are removed - when the underlying skills that support reading and academics are developed, kids’ whole experience with school transforms. They didn’t hate school. They hated how they felt at school.
With the right skills in place, students who were failing, graduated with honors, went to college, got graduate degrees.
Among our former struggling students, we have pilots and doctors, a pharmacist, a meteorologist, a geologic engineer, a university professor, lawyers, teachers, and good solid adults and parents.
The potential was always there. Re-building the inefficient underlying processing skills opened the door so they could realize it.
There are many highly successful and influential adults with dyslexia, people we’ve all heard of: actors, athletes, politicians, entrepreneurs.
In interviews, well-known dyslexic individuals will often say something like, “I wouldn’t be where I am today without my dyslexia.”
They’ll talk about the perseverance it built. The resilience. The way it shaped how they think and approach challenges.
You hear leaders like Richard Branson talk about dyslexic thinking as a strength—something that’s contributes to innovation, creativity, and big-picture problem solving.
Organizations like Made By Dyslexia are even helping define “dyslexic thinking” as a valuable skill set—something you can now add in your LinkedIn’s Skills section (just like “Leadership” or “Project Management”).
And I believe there’s real truth in all of that.
There’s another side to this that doesn’t get talked about as much.
Because dyslexia tends to have a hereditary factor in it, we have seen many, many times over the years, that in spite of managing or being successful, adults who have experienced dyslexia in school and now have children of their own who are struggling, do not want their children to go through what they did.
They don’t want their child to experience the frustration.
The self-doubt.
The feeling of working so hard and still not getting it.
And they don’t have to.
Because what we understand today about the brain is very different than what we understood even 30 or 40 years ago.
There’s now a tremendous amount of research out there that shows that the brain can change.
It can reorganize.
It can build new, more efficient neuropathways through targeted, specific training.
The underlying skills that support reading—auditory and visual processing, memory, attention, timing—those can be developed.
And when those skills are strengthened, things that once felt hard, start to feel easier.
There are real strengths associated with a dyslexic thinking style. These should be fostered and celebrated.
And there can be great value in the perseverance that comes from working through challenges.
But struggle itself is not the goal.
And dyslexia does not have to mean a lifetime of things being harder than they need to be.
When we understand what’s really going on—and we address the underlying skills—
we can preserve the strengths, and reduce the struggle.
At Stowell Learning Centers, we help children and adults move beyond learning and attention challenges -including dyslexia- by strengthening the underlying skills that make learning easier.
When those skills get stronger, everything changes — reading, writing, focus, confidence, even the stress around school and homework.
If you’re listening and thinking, this sounds like my child, you can learn more, explore free resources, or connect with one of our learning specialists at stowellcenter.com.
You can also follow us on social media. We’re @StowellCenter on all platforms.
Heading into summer is a really good time to begin this kind of work. With fewer academic demands, students have the space to focus on building these underlying skills in a more relaxed, less stressful way—and that can make a real difference in the next school year.
So if what we talked about today is sounding familiar, this is exactly where you can take the next step. You can learn more about our summer programs at stowellcenter.com/summer.
If this episode encouraged you, please share it with another parent or educator who needs to know that real change is possible.
