Although traditionally classified as a learning disability, dyslexia can also lead to advantages in thinking and behaving that enhance creativity.
Did you know that actress Keira Knightley struggled with dyslexia earlier in her life? She told the Los Angeles Times that she found that her dyslexia provided both challenges and advantages in her creative life. It probably affected her choice of movie roles and facility with dialogue.
“There were a lot of benefits to being dyslexic for me…I think I came into an appreciation of all those qualities of language…” Novelist Richard Ford.
Richard Ford has explained how it was a benefit to his creativity as a writer: “When I finally did reconcile myself to how slow I was going to have to do it, then I think I came into an appreciation of all those qualities of language and of sentences that are not just the cognitive aspects.
“The syncopations, the sounds of words, what words look like, where paragraphs break, where lines break, all the poetical aspects of language…”
Whoopi Goldberg, Henry Winkler, Steven J. Cannell are all examples of famous artists who have claimed to have benefited from having dyslexia.
