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Famous People with the Dyslexia From Dyslexia My Life

Famous Adults with Learning Disabilities

  Nelson Rockefeller - As a lad of nine, he did not know the letters of the alphabet. He was thought of as dull and backward. He entered Davidson College but his grades were mediocre. 

  Cher - This famous entertainer has achieved success in tow major fields of entertainment. But because of a math learning disability, she has a challenge with remembering phone numbers and balancing a checkbook. 

  Thomas Edison - His teacher though him to be mentally ill. His mother withdrew the child from school and taught him herself. 

  F.W. Woolworth - As a child he was labeled as slow. 

  George Patton - When he was twelve years old, he could not read yet and he remained deficient in reading all his life. However, he could memorize entire lectures, which was how he got through school. 

  Walt Disney - Fired from the Kansas City new paper for not being creative, he was also labeled as slow as a child. 

Winston Churchill - This statesman could be called academically disadvantage. He failed grade eight, did terrible in math and generally hated school. 

  Woodrow Wilson - He had great difficulty in reading: in fact, throughout his life, he was unable to read well. Despite this, he was extremely successful in politics.

  Albert Einstein - He could not talk until the age of four. He did not learn to read until he was nine. His teachers considered him slow, unsociable and a dreamer. He failed the entrance examinations to college but finally passed the after an additional year of preparation. He lost three teaching positions and then became a paten clerk. 

Hans Christian Anderson - Had difficulty in reading and writing but for years people have cherished his wonderful stories. 

  Tom Cruise - Despite being a success in his chosen field, this entertainer can learn lines only by listening to a tape. 

  Agatha Christie - Had a learning disability called dysgraphia, which prevented an understood or legible written work. As a result, all material had to be dictated to a typist/transcriptionist.

16-year-old boy writing

"We set out early with Intent to Run round the sd. Land but being taken in a Rain &it Increasing very fast obliged us to return. It clearning about one o'Clock & our time being too Precious to Loose we a second time ventured out & Worked hard till Night & then returned to pEnningtons we got our Suppoers & was Lighted in to a Room & I not being so good a Woodsman as the rest of my Company striped my slef very orderly & went in to the Bed as they call'd it when to my Surprize I found it to be northing but a Little Straw-matted together without Sheets or any thing else but only on Thread Bear blanket with double its Weight of Vermin such as Lice Feas & c. Had we not have been very Tired, Ia, sure we should not have slep'd much that night. I made a Promise not to Sleep so from that time forward chusing rather to sleep in the open Air before a fire as will Appear hereafter."

It is interesting to note that his is an example from the writing of the first president of the United States, George Washington who professionals believe was dyslexic.


Here are the names of some of the many individuals who are dyslexic, or had symptoms of dyslexia or related learning problems: