Peter Leitch didn't realise he was dyslexic until he was in his early 20's. "School wasn't pleasant. I could read, but I didn't learn –I couldn't gain anything out of what I was reading."
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When you have dyslexia, it's always a lot harder. But I've never let that stop me.
I'm not academically smart, but I'm street smart. If I hadn't had dyslexia, I wouldn't
be where I am today.
Never give up – work twice as hard, and you'll get to the top of the
mountain if you want to. Don't be afraid to seek help. Help is out there.
There is no shame putting your hand up and asking for help – I have done it
many times in my life. If you don't put your hand up and ask for help, you only
make life harder for yourself and your loved ones.
Extract from The Dyslexia Foundation of New Zealand
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Lewis Hamilton has revealed he is dyslexic at the age of 30. "As a dyslexic, I struggled. I also missed a lot of lessons on Fridays because I was racing on the weekends. School was not a lot of fun for me."
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Lewis Hamilton World champion F1 driver has just revealed he is dyslexic 21 Dec 2015. He plans to build school for the poor once his F1 career is over.
"I like children so I would like to build schools for poor kids, where they can learn an instrument and get a good education, because I know for myself how hard that is."
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Winkler is best known for his role as "The Fonz”, a leather-clad greaser and auto mechanic in Happy Days.
After Happy Days, Winkler went on to producing and directing. Since 2003, he has written a series of children's book about a 4th grade boy, HankZipzer, who is dyslexic. Winkler had published 17 books about Zipzer, the "world's greatest underachiever”.
Winkler is also dyslexia, which was not diagnosed until he was 31.
In September 2011, he was given on OBE "for services to children with special educational needs and dylexia in the UK.”
John Britten, a famous Kiwi entrepreneur and inventor, was dyslexic. He struggled at school with his reading and writing. John's reading disability caused learning difficulties at school, his reports suggested he was destined for anything but greatness.
He attended night school for four years to gain his engineering qualifications, and with his picture thinking ability and creativity (gifts of dyslexia) he went on to become a technical and design genius.
In 1996 he was awarded the Entrepreneur Engineer Award for innovation, enterprise, entrepreneurial flair and services to the community.
His V1000 bike is on display at Te Papa and is one of the National Museum's most popular exhibits.
Albert Einstein was known to have a bad memory and constantly fail to memorise the simplest of things, which are symptoms of dyslexia. He could not remember the months of the year, but would succeed in solving some of the most complicated mathematical formulas without any trouble.
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His theory of relativity (energy equals mass times the velocity of light squared) became the foundation stone for the development of atomic energy. His scientific contributions are theories still have a major effect on all of today’s current knowledge of science.
He is famous for this quote: "Insanity is expecting something different in doing the same thing over and over.”
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Leonardo Da Vinci was a: scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer.
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He also had the gift of dyslexia. Leonardo constantly sketched his ideas for inventions, and most of the
time wrote his notes backwards. Writing
from right-to-left in mirror image. This
unusual trait is shared by many left-handed dyslexic people.
He
also started many projects that he never finished – a characteristic of ADD
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Tom Cruise is a famous American actor and now film producer. Starring in many movies; Top Gun, The Last Samurai and Mission Impossible to name a few.
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As a child he struggled with reading, he was diagnosed with dyslexia at age seven, at high school he could still barely read. As his love of acting grew he realised he would need to work hard or his inability to read would hold him back.
"I had to train myself to focus my attention. I became very visual and learned how to create mental images in order to comprehend what I read”
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Whoopi has dyslexia, but during her early years, she didn’t have a diagnosis, it’s hard to imagine that this successful woman once struggled in school, hearing words such as “dumb” and “stupid” directed at her. She didn’t know it then, but there was a reason for her feeling as if she wasn’t grasping anything taught in the classroom.
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She's an Academy Award-winning actress, comedian, radio host, and television personality. She is one of the only ten people to win an
Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award; and is the first woman to be honored with the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. In addition to her success on stage and screen, Whoopi has written three books, two of which are for children, and is a UNICEF International Goodwill Ambassador.
She is extraordinarily gifted, and it is her acting talent, and her dream of becoming an actress, that kept her from giving up during difficult years of drug use, divorce, and learning to raise a child on virtually no money—all before she turned 20.
The good news for Whoopi is that while those in school may have called her "dumb,” her mother always told her that she could be anything she wanted. "I knew I wasn't stupid, and I knew I wasn't dumb. My mother told me that,”
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Cher is one of the most famous entertainers alive today. She is well known for her talents in music, television and film.
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At
school, Cher was an undiagnosed dyslexic, unable to read in high school she
dropped out two weeks into her junior year.
By
the age of 30, she was famous and was finally diagnosed as dyslexic, when she
was looking for solutions to her own child's learning difficulties.
Because of her dyslexia, she had learned to
listen closely to what was being said, retaining information that most people
would not have noticed.
This skill enabled her to perfect her performances. Cher
has won many industry awards, including an Academy Award, Grammy Award,
Emmy
Award and three Golden Globe Awards.
"I am a
terrible reader, I don't write letters. Numbers and I have absolutely no relationship. I can dial a phone OK, as long as it's not
long-distance. I write the first letter
of the word, and my mind races to the last letter. I see words and jumble them together.
I see billboards, billboards no one has even
invented.” Cher said in 1985.
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English celebrity chef, restaurateur, and media personality
- Jamie has written over 20 Cook books, but did not read a book until he was 38. It was Catching Fire the sci-fi sequel to the Hunger Games. "I'm dyslexic and until recently I had never got through a book. But I read Catching Fire. l loved disappearing into the story."
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Professional services described as Davis™, Davis Dyslexia Correction®, Davis Symbol Mastery™, Davis Orientation Counselling™, Davis Math Mastery™, Davis Attention Mastery™, Dyslexia the Gift® and Gift of Dyslexia® may only be provided by persons who are employed by a licensed Davis Specialist, or who are trained and licensed as Davis Facilitators by Davis Dyslexia Association International.
