Can dyslexia make a person stronger?

We all know the famous proverb: “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger”. So, can dyslexia, when tackled correctly, actually help your child in the long run?

On average, a person spends about 21,000 hours in school in a lifetime. And we all know, those hours are difficult enough without having to battle dyslexia. But coping with dyslexia can have positive effects. Or at least Richard Branson seems to think so.

Branson said in an interview, dyslexia helped him grow his business. Because of dyslexia, he had to learn to simplify a lot of things and delegate many others. That lead to Virgin always having very clear messaging, which helped people to identify with the brand. Delegating helped as well, as Branson always gave a certain job he couldn’t do to a specialist in his field, and never tried to do everything himself (which some of you may know, it’s a number one mistake when running own business).

So can a child use the same techniques to successfully finish school and cope with dyslexia throughout the 21,000 hours?

He certainly can. Sure, you cannot simply delegate homework to your peers, but there is a much greater awareness about dyslexia today than when Branson was in school. Some educational institutions may already have special programs for dyslexic children. There are several useful methods for coping with dyslexia and technology can help you as well.

All of these can be used to build a strong support system for the child. To show him or her that he/she can do this. No child is the same, so you will need to try different things out to find the methods and tools that work with your child. Patience is key. But at the end of the day, parents are the support the child needs on his way of becoming his own man or her own woman. For everything else:

Where there is a will, there is a way.