Creative, Quick and Not ‘Dumb’ at All: What It’s Like to Have Dyslexia

For Erica Stock Williams, dyslexia runs in the family. She has it, as does her father and her 16-year-old daughter.

“I went through a lot of my life feeling like I was stupid,” said Ms. Stock Williams, 45, who lives in Scotts Mills, Ore. “People didn’t understand what was actually happening in the brain — and that it wasn’t connected at all to your I.Q.”

Ms. Stock Williams said the condition, which can make it challenging to read and write quickly, made it difficult for her daughter to keep up in school and lowered her self-esteem. But with support, her teenager is now reading at the same pace as her peers and getting straight A’s in her advanced placement classes.

Even so, Ms. Stock Williams said, her daughter “felt like there was something wrong with her” for a long time.

Dyslexia, a learning disorder involving the brain networks responsible for language processing and reading, remains widely misunderstood. Over the past week, President Trump has repeatedly attacked Gavin Newsom, the California governor, for having dyslexia. His remarks have surfaced negative stereotypes and underscored the stigma surrounding the condition.

Mr. Trump said on Monday that Mr. Newsom, who is seen as a likely Democratic presidential candidate, was not fit for the role because he is dyslexic, calling him “a low-IQ person.”

“Honestly, I’m all for people with learning disabilities, but not for my president,” said Mr. Trump, who has a history of mocking people with impairments. “Everything about him is dumb.”

Although dyslexia is often depicted as words leaping off the page and getting mixed around, many people with the condition say reading takes more time and effort, as though every sentence has to be manually decoded rather than easily understood. The condition affects as many as 20 percent of people in the United States and is often diagnosed during childhood.

Early treatment can help re-pattern the brain and improve reading skills, said Dr. Jeffrey Brosco, a developmental pediatrician at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, although dyslexia is a lifelong condition.

Research has shown that dyslexia isn’t associated with lower intelligence, and many people with dyslexia are creative and quick thinkers, said Thomas Preston, director of neuropsychology at Stony Brook Medicine.

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Ben Powers, president of the Dyslexia Foundation, said in a statement that “the idea that it reflects low IQ or limits someone’s capacity to lead is simply not supported by science. Millions of people with dyslexia succeed at the highest levels across every field.”

Still, dyslexia can feel distressing and isolating, particularly when a child is struggling without understanding why. “I couldn’t read; I couldn’t spell; I couldn’t write,” Mr. Newsom wrote in his recent memoir about growing up with severe dyslexia. “I’d run out of the room screaming that I didn’t know what was wrong with my brain.”

For young children, dyslexia can be especially demoralizing.

Tessa Balderrama’s dyslexia sometimes came with a nagging sense of inadequacy, “like I feel like I should be smarter than this,” she said. In school, when she was randomly chosen to read aloud in class, she struggled to process the words on the page and pronounce them correctly. It was “the biggest nightmare ever,” Ms. Balderrama said.

Some children handle this distress by acting out and getting into trouble, Dr. Brosco said, while others internalize it, becoming sad, anxious or depressed. The isolation and lack of understanding “can propel a cycle of social, educational and ultimately vocational marginalization,” Dr. Preston added. But with the right accommodations and support, such as assistive technologies for reading, people with dyslexia can thrive in school and beyond.

Abby Van Metre, 27, a neuroscience specialist from Miami, was diagnosed with dyslexia in the first grade after struggling to read and do basic math. But she said her mother recognized her potential from the start and sought out support and accommodations for her, such as vision therapy and extended time for testing.

In turn, Ms. Van Metre learned to associate sounds, memories and colors with written words to better process them. Over time, she came to see her dyslexia as a source of pride and something that helps her think in nonlinear ways.

Today, Ms. Balderrama, 25, works in marketing in Austin, Texas, and she credits her dyslexia with helping her excel in her creative work, including graphic design. “You have to give grace for yourself that it’s going to take a little longer than anyone else to read this or understand it,” she added. But Ms. Balderrama feels this has also made her more empathetic and understanding.

Ms. Stock Williams never received the type of support that her daughter has had, such as private tutoring or an individualized education program at her school. Neither did her father, who wasn’t diagnosed with dyslexia until his 50s. He barely graduated from high school but eventually became a successful businessman.

Seeing how different things are for his granddaughter, she said, “brings him to tears.”

Simar Bajaj covers health and wellness for The Times.

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