Inside the Dyslexic Mind: A resource for parents, teachers and dyslexics themselves

by Laughton King

Laughton King shares his understanding of the dyslexic mind from his own lived experience as a dyslexic child, an angry adolescent, a therapist and eventually an author. When describing what it is like to be dyslexic, he is includes himself. ‘We think in pictures, we chase words around the pages of books, and we have trouble finding any sensible connection between squiggles on paper and real things they are meant to refer to. And this all happens in perpetual reverse gear. You guessed it, for us, school is not cool, and for most of us this makes life tough.’   At the heart of this book is a ground-breaking concept — the diesel/petrol analogy. As Laughton describes it, a dyslexic person is like a diesel vehicle. They run perfectly if you give them the right fuel, but if you put petrol in the tank (i.e. expect them to learn like every ’normal’ child in our current education system) they break down. This book helps dyslexic (diesel) thinkers make sense of their lives, and provides valuable guidance for parents and teachers.   There is nothing wrong with the dyslexic child’s brain. They do not need medication and do not need to be ‘rewired’ nor ‘recalibrated’. Laughton’s message to parents and educators is that once they accept this processing difference and understand the dyslexic style of thinking they can readily work with these children and help them achieve their own success.

256 pages, Paperback

Published July 11, 2023

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the way dyslexia was framed and described incredibly powerful and useful to understand a lot of observed behaviour in my (many) dyslexic relatives.

I found the book focused on what shouldn’t be done, isn’t being done correctly, and isn’t being done at all with little focus on what to do instead, which I found slightly ironic since the most-repeated tip was “don’t use the word don’t.”

I also felt that, while the book gave a powerful message regarding what needs to be done to empower dyslexic people and help them learn most effectively, it was missing the balance of how to give dyslexic people the tools to work with linguistic thinkers. I feel this is especially important given these will be commonly required in the adult world and while I agree dyslexia is not something wrong to be fixed, you are doing dyslexic people a disservice to fight for acceptance while not giving them tools to navigate the other half of the world they live in.

It is unfair to neurotypical children to lose their fair share of teachers’ time and focus simply because their learning style matches the teaching style, just as it’s unfair to neurodiverse people to expect them to learn in a style they don’t understand. As a neurotypical person with a linguistic thinking style I can see both sides of the coin and think that is lacking in this book.