There are two sides to every matter – including your brain.
While the popular notion of a person being a right-brained or left-brained thinker is now known to be an exaggeration, it is a fact that different functions are based in different portions of the brain. That is a key to understanding the neurological roots of dyslexia as well as the strengths and weaknesses of people with dyslexia and others with learning difficulties.
A brain divided
The understanding that certain portions of the brain control specialized functions has been known since the 18th century, when physicians noted the association of left-side brain damage with language deficits. But the left-brained/right-brained concept really took hold after Nobel Prize-winning psychobiologist Roger Sperry’s work in the 1960s.
By studying brain function in patients who had the connection between the two sides of their brain surgically severed to treat epilepsy, Sperry found that language is primarily located in the left brain, though the right brain plays a key role in understanding context and non-literal language, such as metaphors and irony. (If you pick up on a bit or sarcasm or laugh at a satirical show, that’s your right brain at work. Your left brain might not get the joke.)
In general, the left brain is dominant in functions involving language, logic, critical thinking, sequence, numbers, and reasoning. The right brain plays a bigger role in emotions, creativity, intuition, imagination, seeing the big picture. None of these functions are exclusive to one side or the other – for example, researchers have shown language and mathematics require activity in both sides. That’s why the idea of left-brained and right-brained people is an oversimplification. But clearly, personal differences mean that some individuals will have stronger right-brain functions and others will be stronger on the left side. When we talk about reading difficulty, school performance, and learning disabilities, these differences matter.
Visual thinkers
“Almost all of our students are right-brain thinkers,” says Lawrence Kloth, co-founder of Reading Success Plus. “They’re very creative, great problem solvers. They’re very visual and work better with images than words. They have trouble going step-by-step, following processes.”
Unfortunately for these students, schools tend to most value the skills that they lack. Classes are often in a lecture format, where the teacher is at the front of the room giving a lesson. Students are expected to learn by reading and show their knowledge by writing – essays, papers, quizzes. The curriculum is filled with flow charts, sequence-based lessons, and step-by-step processes. Such a system magnifies the weaknesses of our right-brain students and ignores their strengths.
” For example, our students are strong verbally.” Lawrence says. “Many of them are very good speakers who express themselves well orally. But their writing skills aren’t that good, and their grades are determined by how well they can write papers or complete essay tests. It’s going to be very difficult for them to succeed in school, which relies on papers and written words instead of oral presentations or speeches, which they are much better at.”
The traditional style of teaching works well for many students – but not all.
Different way of learning
“Our students are visual learners,” Lawrence says. “They aren’t the best with details. They think in pictures, not words. If they must do a lot of reading or write a paper, they will struggle with it. That doesn’t play into their strength. Their strength is learning visually, from images, audio, video. That’s the way their brain processes information the best.”
More of our students who struggle in school could succeed if they were taught in the way that they learn best.
“Our kids are bright, intelligent, fully capable of learning,” Lawrence says. “Yes, they have trouble reading and writing. That’s why Reading Success Plus exists, to close that gap. But they are great holistic thinkers – they can look at the big picture and quickly analyze a problem. They are intelligent. Having difficulty reading doesn’t make them ‘stupid.’ Yet too often in school, they can’t show what they know because they’re being evaluated in ways that don’t work with their brains.”
To allow these students to succeed, schools need to be more inclusive when it comes to learning styles.
“Include audio, video, images in your instruction,” Lawrence says. “Provide some hands-on, multisensory work. Make oral presentations part of the grade. Do more project-based learning – this allows right-brained learners to use their ability to see the big picture.
“None of these methods are unusual, and they don’t have to be used all the time. Traditional methods always will have their place. But if schools take a more balanced approach and consider the needs of our right-brain learners, you will be amazed at how well they do.”
Dyslexia and the brain
Because so many of our students have dyslexia, it’s worth taking a separate look at how scientists believe the dyslexic brain works.
Generally, when someone is reading and listening, most of the brain activity is on the left side. But when a dyslexic person reads, though the entire brain goes to work, the left side is unexpectedly quiet while an unusually high level of activity happens on the right side. Because that area typically isn’t used for reading, the process is inefficient and difficult.
The good news is that the brain apparently can be “rewired” to improve the reading process. If a person with dyslexia gets appropriate, intense instruction – evidence-based instruction such as what we offer at Reading Success Plus — the brain patterns change and more activity moves to the left side, where it belongs. For an easy-to-understand explanation and video, see this blog at Reading Success Plus. Also, this 2016 NPR report
gives a clear picture of what scientists think is going on.
Real-world proof
If you need evidence of what right-brained thinkers are capable of doing, look at the Wall of Fame in the Reading Success Plus office. It’s filled with photos of world-class achievers in politics, science, arts and entertainment, and other fields who have dyslexia or who otherwise struggled in school. Faces as diverse as Albert Einstein, Will Smith, Cher, and Franklin Roosevelt are among those who inspire our students.
“Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest moviemakers ever,” Lawrence says. “Thanks to his dyslexia, he has this incredible creativity that makes him better than almost anyone else in his field. Several presidents, including Woodrow Wilson, Dwight Eisenhower, and John Kennedy, are believed to be or were diagnosed as dyslexic. Presidents must be good at problem solving, which dyslexics tend to be. Richard Branson, a billionaire businessman, is another one who is a very good problem solver.”
For an impressive list of dyslexia success stories, check out this page on the University of Michigan’s Dyslexia Help website.
Finally, a bit more information about the capabilities of right-brain thinkers. A 2003 study by the Tulip Financial Group found that 40% of the 300 British millionaires who participated in the study had been diagnosed with dyslexia. Another study, by Julie Logan, professor of entrepreneurship at London’s Cass Business School, reported that 35% of business owners in the United States are dyslexic, as opposed to about 15 percent of the general population. (https://www.amanet.org/articles/new-research-reveals-many-entrepreneurs-are-dyslexic/)
Ali Bazley, of the British Dyslexia Association, suggests that dyslexics who struggle make up for it by being more creative and looking at the bigger picture. “People with dyslexia are often very good lateral and strategic thinkers.”
In other words, as we like to say, “dyslexia is your superpower.”