Enjoy the read, but don't fret. I'm sure road kill is on the way.

Excerpt from The Power of Dyslexic Thinking:

The first time I met Charles Schwab, he shook my hand and said, "I go by Chuck." Encouraging a stranger to use his nickname is a great way to put people at ease, and it's a great example of the kind of people skills that he's developed. But his success came from more than just a natural-or even acquired-ability to think creatively and work with people. His attitude and philosophy got him there as well. As Chuck explained to the kids at the Neighborhood School, it's important to think more about your strengths than your weaknesses. Compensatory abilities alone in people with learning disabilities are not always enough to protect them from a weakening self-confidence and sense of failure. It is important that kids with learning disabilities see themselves positively, and that they are provided with the tools to succeed. Chuck Schwab understood this, and his foundation created Schwab Learning as a result. However, he was not the only one to realize the need for these tools.

The Six Success Attributes

It was through my work with Chuck's foundation that I met Dr. Marshall Raskind, a researcher who, at that time, worked for the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation. Marshall did a twenty-year study with the Frostig Center in Pasadena, California, that followed people with learning disabilities in order to identify factors that fostered success. The study uncovered six attributes that could predict success, and, based on these findings, Marshall and his colleagues created a practical guide for parents of children with learning disabilities. I have summarized the six success attributes below:
• Self-Awareness. Self-aware people with learning disabilities know the types of problems they have and how they impact their lives, as well as their strengths and talents. While they recognize their limitations, they're not defined by them. It is my belief that this attribute can help anyone find a career that fits their skills and interests, just as it helped Chuck.
• Proactivity. Being engaged in the world around them, participating in activities, taking on leadership roles, and actively making decisions is important for children with learning disabilities. In my opinion, being proactive helps these children to promote themselves and make connections; they must be able to seek out solutions for problems, and often need social connections and people skills in order to do so.
• Perseverance. Successful people with learning disabilities often possess the ability to learn from mistakes and pursue goals despite difficulties, as well as the flexibility to find alternate pathways to a goal or modify that goal as needed.
• Goal-setting. Successful people know how to form goals the right way. Achievable goals must be realistic, specific, adjustable, and must include a strategy to get there. Self-aware people with learning disabilities know how to tailor their goals to their strengths and weaknesses.
• Presence and use of effective support systems. It's important to have a support network, and people with learning disabilities must be able to take initiative and ask for help when it's needed. But as these children move into adulthood, reducing this dependency on others is linked to success.
• Emotional coping strategies. Having a learning disability inevitably causes some stress, but successful individuals learn methods to reduce it. It is important to be aware of what causes stressful feelings, to recognize when frustration is building, and to develop ways to manage the situations that cause stress.

My first thought when I read these attributes was that this was common sense. I couldn't believe it had been necessary to conduct a twenty-year study to identify these points. In fact, I was already teaching some of these, especially the one about asking for help, in my school assembly programs. These attributes are things that just came naturally to me because of the way my mind works. I believe that the same is probably true for Chuck and the other successful dyslexics in this book. As is clear from the interviews he's done, Chuck knew what his problems were, and he knew what his strengths were. Then he learned to change the rules of the game so that they fit his needs. Instead of trying to be a generalist who was good at everything in school, he learned early on that he liked numbers and focused on that as his career goal. He took the initiative to learn everything he could about business and investments, and persevered in reading despite his substantial problems with it. Chuck didn't have this list, or anyone to tell him what they themselves had done, so as an adult he took it upon himself to help others.

For more information on the 6 Success Attributes go to: http://www.ldsuccess.org/

Talk again soon,

Rob