I was informed that my four-grade daughter was not going to make it to the fifth grade. The teacher said, "She may not be1 what we're trying to accomplish." He was actually saying she didn't have the2 . I got mad because I knew she was smart, just as my father had known I was smart when I was3 in school. We had her tested and found that the trouble she was having was dyslexia-difficulty in reading, which was4 what I had had. By then I was a successful television writer, and had5 an Emmy Award for "The Rockford Files."
Writing and writing, I worked so hard in my late 20s and early 30s, 6 to hear people praise me, because I did badly in all my courses. Eventually, I did become successful, and people now say to me, "So you've7 dyslexia."
No. I don't overcome it, but just switch to something within my8 . Some easy things are very hard for me. Most people who go through college9 twice as fast as I do. I avoid10 a phone if I can, because I sometimes have to try three times to get the number right.
Despite my weaknesses I view dyslexia as a11 , not a misfortune. Many dyslexics are12 at right-brain, abstract thought, and that's what my kind of creative writing is. And I can write quickly, and can get up to 15 pages a day. Writing is my13 .
The real fear I have for dyslexic children is not that they14 in school, but that they will quit on themselves before they get out of school. Parents have to create15 for them, whether it's in music, sports or art. You can make your dyslexic child able to say, "Yeah, reading is hard. But I have other things I can do."