Treated vs Untreated Dyslexia John Graner Depending on how it presents and is treated, dyslexia can be a superpower or kryptonite. Although dyslexia affects 20% of the US population, approximately 40% of successful entrepreneurs in the United States are dyslexic. On the other end of the spectrum, a staggering 48% of the prison population has dyslexia. Individuals with dyslexia tend to be outstanding strategic thinkers and problem-solvers due to the differences in how their brains work. It has also been proven that having a deficiency in one area, such as reading, can heighten or improve others areas, such as creative thinking. Although this heightened creative and strategic thinking can be a great advantage for dyslexic people in the entrepreneurial field, due to the lack of educational funding in the United States, diagnosing dyslexia requires tremendous time, effort, and, most importantly, money that many families do not have. When dyslexia goes undiagnosed or untreated in a child, which is extremely common in the US, the child most likely does very poorly in school, leading to incredibly low self-esteem and the idea that they are simply “dumb” becuase of their bad grades. These bad grades and low self-esteem commonly lead to students dropping out of high school or not continuing their education into college. Lack of a high school diploma or higher education beyond high school is more uncommon now than ever, making getting and holding a stable job near impossible for these undiagnosed and underqualified dyslexic teenagers. Feeling dumb, helpless, and unable to hold a stable job, these undiagnosed dyslexic teens may turn to crime to get by, potentially leading to incarceration. More money is spent on these undiagnosed dyslexic teens in jail than in school to diagnose their dyslexia, which is the whole reason they are incarcerated in the first place. While successfully diagnosed and treated dyslexia can lead to great success in the entrepreneurial world as an adult because of creative differences in the brain, undiagnosed and untreated dyslexia can lead to incredibly low academic self-esteem and crime or incarceration.
15 | Reading and the Brain | Volume 4 | Spring 2022
