Reading expert points out dyslexics often more creative and intelligent

Link: Dyslexia

There's a scene in the first “Harry Potter” movie where the hero tries to steal a restricted magic book from the library, and the book sprouts a face and screams at him.

That's kind of how Cy Burchenal felt about his school library. The 9-year-old boy who brims with his own stories couldn't make the books share their stories with him.

“My brain hated me,” Cy said. “It wouldn't let me do it. My teachers tried to make me think that every letter made that same sound, and it's just not true. I would daydream about reading all those books. But when I'd look at them, they were just scribbles on paper.”

Cy has no problem talking about his thoughts. He said he's currently at work on a story “about a kid who annihilated a bunch of pirates and stole their gold - about half a decade's savings piled up at 5,000 pounds a minute.” But getting those ideas onto paper and getting paper ideas into his head is a challenge.

Unlike many children with similar reading problems, Cy has a clinical diagnosis of dyslexia. His mother, Anne Burchenal, took him to medical professionals in Cincinnati after a kindergarten teacher noticed Cy's difficulties with words.