The Face of Learning Disabilities
PPT Created by Angie DeMarco
LDAS Education Coordinator
Angie DeMarco
Angie develops and delivers experiential workshops for
The Learning Disabilities Association of Sudbury
Angie also has a learning disability.
Contained within her presentations is the message that
with a strength based approach,
the 3 S’s can address difficulties with the 3 R’s.
Strengths, Strategies & Supports = Success
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Prospector
Peter Ferderber
Val d’Or, Quebec, Canada
In 2011 Peter sold the largest known iron ore deposit in North America
to mining companies: Oceanic, Kingsview and Labrador Iron (currently in production).
Peter also has a learning disability.
“School was not where I had much success but thanks to my abilities in sports
I had an early sense of confidence and accomplishment.
I left school in grade 10 to prospect for gold in Quebec and in 1955 I formed my own
exploration company, Prospecting Geophysics Limited.
I conduct all my written business in print because no one can read my writing.
I’ve learned that believing in yourself is what makes the difference.”
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Author
Robert Munsch
Robert Munsch has sold 30 million volumes of his children’s books.
Robert also has a learning disability.
“I almost failed 1st grade and also the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, & 5th .
I never learned how to spell.
I graduated from 8th grade counting on my fingers to do simple addition,
and in general, I was not a resounding academic success.”
“I hope that everyone will talk to their kids honestly, listen to them,
and help them do their best with their own challenges.”
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Philosopher/Author
Dr. John DeMartini
John lectures, teaches and consults internationally with a mission to inspire wisdom,
fulfillment, leadership and healing in individuals who desire to achieve their full potential.
Ben also has a learning disability.
At the age of seven, John was told he had a learning disability
and would never read, write or communicate normally.
At fourteen, he dropped out of school.
The prediction was absolutely incorrect as today John DeMartini
is a highly influential speaker, author, coach and master in the study of human potential.
He repeats one simple affirmation, daily:
“I am a genius and I apply my wisdom.”
The Face of Learning Disabilities
CEO McCaw Cellular
Craig McCaw
Billionaire Craig McCaw pioneered the cellular industry.
Craig also has a learning disability.
“My learning disability forced me to be quite conceptual,
because I'm not very good at details," he said at his
1997 induction into the Academy of Achievement.
“I tend to be rather spatial in my thinking,
oriented to things in general terms rather than the specific.
I’m blessed to be able to step back and take in the big picture.”
McCaw sold McCaw Cellular to AT&T in 1994 and then started Teledesic,
a broadband internet-in-the-sky satellite communications network.
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Globe and Mail Journalist
Tabatha Sourthey
Focus section columnist Tabatha has been nominated for
8 National Magazine Awards for humour.
Tabatha also has a learning disability.
I'd begun school by repeating kindergarten. I didn't read until Grade 4 but my letters and numbers were
wrong when I wrote them down. It's difficult to explain what it's like.
The mechanism I needed to express my thoughts didn't work .
I left school after Grade 9. I worked as a nanny and in retail and in restaurants.
At 21, I bought a Macintosh computer.
It was like giving someone with terrible eyesight her first pair of glasses.
In may ways the field was leveled. Thank you Steve Jobs!
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Entrepreneur
Ben Way
Ben Way was one of the first ‘dot.com millionaires’,
starting his first online company at the age of 15.
Ben also has a learning disability.
“Dad managed to get me a laptop to help with my written work.
The computer allowed me to take pride in my work for the first time
and I got really good at computers quickly.”
Ben won the New Business Millennium Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2000
and went on to advise both the White House and the UK government on technology.
Ben currently runs Rainmakers, started in 2004, an innovation and incubation company,
which includes online mentoring company, Horses Mouth.
“It’s social networking for grown-ups. We call it the wisdom-ocracy.”
www.horsesmouth.co.uk
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Broadcaster / Author
Nelson Lauver
Nelson Lauver, known as the Rockwell of Radio in his roll of host for:
American Story Teller - Stories of Struggle and Triumph.
Nelson also has a learning disability.
At age 29, with the help of a very special educator, Nelson Lauver was diagnosed with dyslexia
and made it his goal to finally learn to read and write.
In the 18 months that followed, intense struggle, burning desire and a never-give-up attitude
enabled him to achieve his goal, and change his life.
His message, delivery and example have made him an in-demand speaker for educators,
associations, government agencies, corporate audiences and disability groups.
The Face of Learning Disabilities
CEO Cisco
John Chambers
Chambers is CEO of Cisco.
John also has a learning disability.
Chambers kept his learning disability a secret until one day at a Cisco's Bring Your Children to
Work Day he was forced to divulge in public. He had asked a staff’s daughter a question in
front of a group. She struggled to answer but then tearfully said, "I have a learning disability."
“I knew that pain so I threw her a lifeline and blurted out…I have a learning disability too.
You've just got to learn your way through it because there are some things you can do that
others cannot, and there are some things others can do you're just not going to be able to do."
"This is very painful to talk about, even today," says Chambers.
"The only reason I am talking about it is 100% for the kids and their parents."
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Architect
Richard Rogers
Richard Rogers is a world renowned architect.
Richard also has a learning disability.
“In my youth I was called stupid. I couldn’t read or memorize my school work.
With the support of my parents I learned that have a good sense of space
and I am good at solving problems. Learning by rote is impossible for me as I need to
understand and absorb the problem I am dealing with. ”
“It is most important to build the child’s confidence and tell him that it doesn’t matter if he
doesn’t read until a certain age. I’ve seen it in my 5 boys.
They’ve faced up to their difficulties and have become successful as a result.
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Lawyer
David Boies
Boies is a celebrated trial attorney, best known as the guy who beat Microsoft.
David also has a learning disability.
David Boies turned his deficits into advantages.
Because of his difficulty reading from a script, he makes an outline of his basic points
and commits it to memory. Then, unlike trial lawyers who work from a script,
he is free to improvise and be more dramatic and flexible.
Boies wishes that society allowed more room and more time for people who learn differently.
"In our current school system you get 10 year olds who think they are masters of the universe
because they find school easy and there are children who think they are failures.
They're both wrong, and neither is well served by that misconception."
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Constitutional Law Professor
Sylvia Law
Sylvia Law is a New York University Law Professor
and the 1st lawyer selected for the MacArthur “Genius” Prize.
She is one of the nation’s leaders in the fields of health law & women’s right.
Sylvia also has a learning disability.
“I grew up thinking of myself as a slow learner.
Unless I concentrated fiercely, I would misspell familiar words.
Adding numbers was equally daunting as I couldn't seem to take
an accurate picture of them with my mind's eye and yet, I was a math whiz.”
As a junior in public high school, she was tested and learned she wasn’t dumb.
That opened up doors that have never closed for her.
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Inventor
Reyn Guyer
Reyn Guyer created “Twister” the “Nerf Ball”.
Reyn also has a learning disability.
Reyns’ father owned a design company and so he was often in the presence of
professional artists, watching their techniques and developing theories of his own.
His whole family have learning disabilities and it was his children's tutor
that inspired him to combine his abilities with his disability
and come up with www.winsorlearning,com .
“Winsor Learning is now remediating kids across the country
who are behind in their reading skills.”
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Film Producer
George Lucas
George is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucas Film.
George also has a learning disability.
Lucas was called an uninterested slacker in high school.
“If I continued to listen to that negative voice in my head
I never would have made Star Wars after it was rejected by studios a dozen times.”
George Lucas is a huge supporter of communication media
as an engagement tool for students to stimulate innovative thinking.
His Education Foundation shares information for teachers at: www.eductopia.ort
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Entrepreneur
Bill Samuels Jr.
Bill Samuels Jr., President of Maker's Mark, 7th generation bourbon distiller.
He studied rocket science at UC Berkley & law at Vanderbilt University.
Bill also has a learning disability
"I can't write but I can organize old information into a different pattern easily.
The old pattern was to advertise to the trade.
The new way is to bypass both the trade and Madison Avenue with ads to consumers.”
"Many times in business, different is better
and those of us who learn and think differently
can then, do differently, without blinking an eye.”
The Face of Learning Disabilities
CEO Kinko’s
Paul Orfalea
Paul Orfalea, nicknamed "Kinko“, because of his curly red hair,
founded the world’s leading business services chain.
Paul also has a learning disability.
Paul failed second grade and spent part of third in a class of mentally challenged children.
He could not learn to read, despite the best efforts of parents who took him to;
testers, tutors, therapists, special reading groups, and eye doctors.
“I never showed anybody my handwriting until I was in my 40s.
I avoided the written word and the corporate office. Instead I went from Kinko's to Kinko's,
observing, talking to customers, making changes. I wasn't goofing off,
I was vacuuming up information in my own way – a multi-sensory approach.
Now, I cannot operate even one of the copy machines in my stores.”
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Haymarket Publishing
Michael Heseltine
Heseltine is head of a publishing empire in England.
Michael also has a learning disability.
Heseltine maintains that he still doesn’t like reading but has been successful
because of his entrepreneurial spirit.
“At the age of thirteen, when all these very energetic fellows spent the afternoon
exhausting themselves on the soccer playing fields of Shrewsbury,
I used to carry lemonade up the hill and sell it at a significant mark-up."
His business sense also provided him with opportunities to serve Britain as;
Defense Secretary, Energy Secretary, President of the Board of Trade
& Deputy Prime Minister of England.
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Economist
Barbara Corcoran
Barbara took a $1000 loan to start The Corcoran Group.
She parlayed that loan into a five-billion-dollar real estate business.
Barbara also has a learning disability.
Barbara Corcoran’s credentials include straight D’s in high school and college
and twenty jobs by the time she turned twenty-three.
It’s her common sense to business that fueled her success.
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Orthopedic Surgeon
Dr. Tyler Lucas
Dr. Tyler Lucas is a member of the Alpha Omega Honor Society,
an honor he received as a 4th year medical student.
Tyler also has a learning disability.
"I've never been able to just read with my eyes and have those words in my brain.
I have to almost mouth out the words to myself for me to hear them.
That slows somebody down.“
A social studies teachers in high school laughed when he shared
that he wanted to be a physician. Not deterred, now, many times over,
he gives his patients their lives back, by restoring
their freedom to move as they had before their injuries.
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Scientist
Dr Simon Clemmet
At the age of 28, at Stanford University in California, this British Scientist
analyzed the carbon compound found in the meteorite from Mars.
Simon also has a learning disability.
He was labeled as a slow learner at school until identified at the age of 11.
He was awarded a C Grade for science in a school report,
which also stated that he showed room for improvement in mathematics.
Even now, he says he cannot write a letter
without the help of his computer spellchecker.
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Artist
Cassandria Blackmore
Cassandria Blackmore is a world renowned artist.
Cassandria also has a learning disability.
Her creations transform her disability into a tool,
developing a style all her own in which she essentially paints backwards.
Even her signature is backwards.
Her distinct use of glass as canvas
that is shattered and then pieced back together,
is a testimony to her ability to think differently.
“We all have periods in our lives when we are shattered.
Our ability to put the pieces back together makes us more beautiful and interesting. ”
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Environmentalist
James Lovelock
Lovelock was one of the 1st scientists to warn the world
of the impacts of global warming.
James also has a learning disability.
The kids at school called him “The Mad Scientist” but little Jimmy Lovelock cared more about
spending time with his father than he did about being with them anyway.
“I learnt from him a respect for living things. He had the mind of an ecologist and recognized
the interconnection between the plants and insects.”
James Lovelocks central theory is that the planet behaves as a living organism,
- a heady concept for someone who in high school failed all math exams.
“I am hopeless at arithmetic but nowadays, I love math,
as computers do all the hard arithmetic chores.”
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Banker
Donald Winkler
Donald Winkler, Chief Financial Services Executive of Ford Credit
the largest automotive finance company in the world.
Don also has a learning disability.
Don was always in the slowest reading group in school, and some adults thought he was just
trying to get attention. He remembers the humiliation. He remembers coming home from
school, bloodied by fights he’s had with kids who called him dumb. He was not identified until
he was 19 yeas old. “Most of my life I felt like a dummy. “
Chambers, who reads right to left and up and down the page, says his parents, both doctors,
claim they never once doubted his abilities, even though he say, "I absolutely did."
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Paleontologist
John Horner
Dr. John R. Horner is the Montana State University Regents' Professor of Paleontology.
Jack also has a learning disability.
“I struggled through school being considered lazy, dumb, and perhaps even retarded.
I flunked out of college seven times.
I read really slowly but I like to find things that nobody else has found,
like a dinosaur egg that has an embryo inside.
There are 36 in the world and I have found 35 of them.”
The Face of Learning Disabilities
CEO Citicorp & Citibank
John Reed
John Reed is the former Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange.
John also has a learning disability.
Reed is known for banking innovations, such as promoting
the national marketing of credit cards, making ATMs omnipresent worldwide.
He is currently on the board of directors at Altria Group and is also the
Chairman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
My parents were a strong and positive influence on my life, especially during difficult times.
I have always agreed with them that our objective in life
isn’t to become wealthy, it’s to do good.
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Novelist
Todd Goldberg
Author of a series of books entitled Burn Notice and a spy series named, Fake, Liar, Cheat.
Todd also has a learning disability.
“It wasn’t until high school that I was actually able to write.”
As a child he had all sorts of stories in his head although spelling and grammar
made it difficult to get them down on paper.
Todd's role playing with Dungeons and Dragons, Star Wars Figures and Army Men
gave him joy and allowed him to escape into his mind and room.
It was the foundation for his novel story lines
that now give him personal and financial rewards.
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Actor
Orlando Bloom
Orlando Bloom is an accomplished actor who has stared
in such blockbuster epics as Lord of the Rings & Pirates of the Caribbean.
Orlando also has a learning disability.
"I had to work three times as hard to get two-thirds of the way.
"I was frustrated with my learning disability. It made me feel stupid."
A great relief came for the actor at age seven,
when he was tested and diagnosed with a learning disability.
He was told then about his high IQ score.
“It was a blessing to get that diagnoses”, he said. “I then knew I wasn't dumb.”
The Face of Learning Disabilities
ROCKET SCIENTIST
Dr. Maggie Aderin PhD
Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Maggie Aderin is a rocket scientist and science educator.
Maggie also has a learning disability.
Maggie had a teacher tell her that with her learning disability she probably would
not do very well academically but her father told her that if she worked for it
…the skies the limit.
Maggie often speaks to students telling them that if they have a passion
for something or an interest in something,
then that is the criteria and that’s what can drive you on."
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Entrepreneur
James Middelton
James Middleton, brother to Kate Middleton
started his own business, Cake Kit Company, at the age of 19.
James also has a learning disability.
Reading is a struggle for James Middleton and so at last summers Royal wedding ceremony
he chose to memorize a long bible scripture rather than read it out loud.
“I knew that if I looked down at the words on the page they would be of scant help.
With my learning disability I would probably just jumble up the words.”
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Author
Debbie Macombre
Debbie Macombe, is a New York Times bestselling author
who has written more than 100 books and sold more than 60 million worldwide.
Debbie also has a learning disability.
Debbie couldn't read until she was 11 years old.
“In school I was considered a slow learner. I was the only girl in the slow reading group”
My teacher said, ‘Debbie is a nice girl but she will never do well at school'.
Debbie, had a dream. She loved telling stories.
She focused on becoming a writer – a very successful writer.
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Entrepreneur
Richard Branson
Billionaire Branson developed one of Britain's top brands with
Virgin Records and Virgin Atlantic Airways.
Richard also has a learning disability.
Richard never made it through high school.
“I have a wickedly unreliable memory;
because my mind goes blank at the most inopportune times.
I write important things--like names--in black ink on the back of my hand.
I can’t use a computer and I’m terrible at math.”
Branson approaches business in a completely differently way from most.
"I never, ever thought of myself as a businessman.
I was interested in creating things I would be proud of."
The Face of Learning Disabilities
CEO Schwab Financial
Charles Schwab
Schwab virtually created the discount brokerage business.
Charles also has a learning disability.
Charles Schwab was very strong in math, science, and sports (especially golf), which helped
him get into Stanford University but he says, “Anything involving English was a disconnect.
I couldn't write quickly enough to capture my thoughts.
I couldn't listen to a lecture and take legible notes. I couldn't memorize four words in a row.
I don’t think I ever read a novel all the way through in high school.”
“My ability to see a solution to something and synthesize things
differently and quicker than other people really annoys sequential thinkers
because it shortcuts their "rigorous step-by-step process."
www.greatschools.org
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Economist
Diane Swonk
Diane Swonk named one of the top forecasters in the country by The Wall Street Journal
and one of the most influential women in business by the Chicago Sun-Times.
Diane also has a learning disability.
Although Diane has worked in the same building for 16 years,
she still has a hard time figuring out which track her commuter train is on
and which way to turn when she leaves the office.
“I can't dial telephone numbers. I have a hard time with arithmetic,
reversing and transposing numbers
and I rechecks my calculations five times.”
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Novelist
John Irving
John Irving has been honored by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller
Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation for his work in literature.
John also has a learning disability.
John suffered in elementary and high school.
“Bad spelling like mine was considered a psychological problem by the language therapist who
evaluated my mysterious case. When the repeated courses of language therapy were judged
to have had no discernible influence on me, I was turned over to the school psychiatrist.”
While he struggled with reading and writing his thoughts,
he still had lots of creative ideas just waiting to be put on paper.
His determination to find his own voice is a shining example for young struggling writers.
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Actor
Henry Winkler
Henry Winkler is an actor, director, producer and author of children’s books.
Henry also has a learning disability.
Winkler was ridiculed for his learning disability as a child.
Even his parents called him Dumb Dog.
He has taken his experiences and become an activist for others with learning disabilities.
He has published a series of chapter books for young readers
about a 10-year-old boy with dyslexia named Hank Zipzer.
The books have sold more than 20 million copies.
“You never get over a learning disability, you learn to negotiate it.
I thought I couldn’t learn. I learned I just do it differently.”
Awarded the Order of the British Empire for his work with learning disabilities. 09.14.11
The Face of Learning Disabilities
Super-Model
Jerry Hall
Jerry Hall is a model, actress and an author.
Jerry also has a learning disability.
Texan supermodel Jerry Hall and her four children,
by Rolling Stones front man, Mick Jagger
all have a learning disability.
It was once her children were identified that she decided to go public about their challenges.
“They all take after me. We all have difficulty with reading and writing
but we also think of it as being a gift,
because it makes us think differently about just about everything in our lives.