DYSLEXIA & EVOLUTION - UNITE SPLD 2022

Presentation by Dr Helen Taylor l.ead.me/UNITE2022

Creator of ‘The Evolution of Complementary Cognition’ – a new scientific theory that explains how our species adapt and evolve.

Helen’s research explores individuals with dyslexia and their “differently wired brains” as an essential function in human adaption. Most research into dyslexia looks at the educational challenges and deficits. However, individuals with dyslexia are also proposed to have strengths, such as creativity, discovery, and invention. These strengths play an essential role in human evolution highlighting those individuals with dyslexia have a tendency towards strategies that specialise in exploration and innovation. Our evolutionary history is established because humans have adapted to change and that individual specialisations are necessary to make that change. Indeed, dyslexia is a necessary trait for human evolution. Individuals with dyslexia and their different way of thinking are essential to exploring the unknown, identifying where change needs to happen, and making world-changing possibilities a reality. This research emphasises the urgency of changing educational practices and nurturing the strengths of dyslexia, valuing their way of thinking, and moving towards a more sustainable society. The dyslexia brain is what humanity needs in the challenges it now faces.