Organizational skills
  • Good organizational behaviors require many attentional controls, especially previewing, pacing, and self-monitoring
  • They also demand memory for sequences, for procedures, and for other matters
  • For example, organizing materials for school in part recalls recalling where things are
  • Mel Levine states, "Children can often be taught how to get organized.  However, there is considerable variation in the degree to which they can actually generate or apply organizational skills in everyday life situations.  All individuals show signs of disorganization under certain circumstances, but for some children such disorganization is widespread and perpetual." (Educational Care , page 159) 
  • He describes material-management disorganization, time-management disorganization, transitional disorganization, prospective retrieval disorganization, and integrative disorganization.  He also presents (on pages 162-169) suggestions for managing these issues at home and at school
Memory skills
  • Rote memorization and rapid word retrieval are particularly difficult for dyslexics
  • On the other hand, dyslexics appear to be disproportionately represented in the upper echelons of creativity and in people who have broken through a boundary and have made a real difference to society
  • I believe that this is because a dyslexic cannot simply memorize or do things by rote; she must get far underneath the concept and understand it at a fundamental level
  • This often leads to a deeper understanding and a perspective that is different from what is achieved by some for whom things come easier because they just can memorize and repeat -- without ever having to deeply and thoroughly understand

Sally Shaywitz, Overcoming Dyslexia, page 57-58