Episode #160 - Dyslexia & Diverse Learning with Prof. Maryanne Wolf

In this episode we're joined by Professor Maryanne Wolf to discuss Dyslexia. Prof. Wolf is the Director of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, and the author of a number of books, including Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain (published HarperCollins), and Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World (also published by HarperCollins). In our conversation, Prof. Wolf explains to us that reading is an invention, and that the human brain was never intended to read. We have to build a circuit in the brain in order to read; we don’t enter the world equipped to do so. People with Dyslexia, though, have a differently organized brain, with patterns of organization that pre-date our invention of literacy and numeracy. As Prof. Wolf emphasizes, there are advantages that come with these differently organized brains, such as creativity, entrepreneurship, and non-linear thinking. Thus, Dyslexia is something to be understood, rather than overcome. Team members on the episode from The Two Cities include: Dr. Amber Bowen, Dr. John Anthony Dunne, Stephanie Kate Judd, Rev. Daniel Parham, Dr. Madison Pierce. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.