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22/5/2016

Dyslexia & Permaculture: A Match Made in Heaven?

18 Comments

Read Now
 
It's a well known fact that dyslexics are over-represented in the fields of art and design. But could dyslexics be particularly well suited to permaculture design?

Background
I recently heard a radio programme about dyslexic students at the Royal College of Art. I was surprised to hear that while 5 - 10% of the general population are dyslexic, around 28% of UK art college students are.

This caught my interest for a couple of reasons: firstly I was screened for dyslexia as a child and found to be borderline/positive. Secondly, I've heard anecdotal evidence from fellow permaculture teachers reporting a lot of dyslexics on their courses.

So I wondered if dyslexics are similarly over-represented in permaculture, and if so, why that might be.

I was fascinated to hear that many dyslexics not only struggle with reading and writing, but with drawing as well. While many dyslexics struggle with reducing complex, inter-related thoughts and ideas into a linear, sequential language (and even more so with written representation of language), some also struggle to reduce complex 3d objects in their mind's eye to 2d representations of them.

Digging deeper
I did a little more research and found an excellent film by Feargal Ó Lideadha called Left from Write. The film explores what dyslexia is, the things dyslexics struggle with, and most interestingly, some of the advantages that dyslexia can bring, such as an apparently innate ability to see the big picture, strong visual and spatial skills etc.

Advantages of dyslexia
In the film, John Stein, professor of Neuroscience at Oxford University Medical School and Chairman of the Dyslexia Research Trust explains that dyslexics are often better at "holistic kinds of processing".

He goes on "and that's why they make good architects, artists and even entrepreneurs... very often dyslexics are highly creative"

In the interview below - The Gift of Dyslexia - Stein explains that there are not only more artists, but also more architects, entrepreneurs and engineers than in the general population.

He notes that in these disciplines "you have to have a holistic outlook on life rather than being good at sequential things" and that artists, for example "need to see a whole scene and how all the bits fit together, and dyslexics are much better at that than sequential things"
.

He goes on to challenge the argument that dyslexics must be forced into disciplines like art because it requires less reading, and says that the balance of evidence suggests that they are actually more talented in these disciplines.

Later on, Stein also describes cases of famous dyslexics (including Albert Einstein) who were much better at seeing patterns than non-dyslexics.

In the next interview - creativity and dyslexia - Stein sets out the theory of why dyslexics tend to be exceptionally good at what he calls "holistic visuospatial processing".

Although there is currently insufficient evidence to support it, the theory predicts that during childhood the left hemisphere of most people's brains develops to become specialised at linear sequencing. A side-effect of this is that the left hemisphere's capacity for visuospatial processing is reduced in most people.

However, in dyslexics this specialisation doesn't happen, and so both sides of their brains are excellent at the more holistic forms of processing.

Dyslexia and permaculture
So why might this make dyslexics potentially talented permaculture designers?

Well, one of permaculture's axioms is the need to move away from linear thinking and towards more holistic perspectives. As Chris Smaje notes in his article Of Holism and Reductionism: Permaculture and the Science of Hunches:

"Permaculture emphasizes holism. It addresses problems through wider relationships and patterns scaled at different system levels, avoiding the reductionism that isolates a problem within a specific sub-system of the wider whole and tries to solve it narrowly at that level only. The science from which it draws most inspiration is ecology, the biological discipline par excellence of relationships, systems, and levels."

And of course, permaculture designers are often working in the real world, designing places and spaces, so visuospatial processing is important here, to help designers visualise how a design will fit into a space. And as I have written elsewhere, permaculture makes extensive use of patterns as a design tool.

So, if permaculture emphasises holistic thinking, requires visuospatial skills and pattern recognition and application, then surely all dyslexics will be naturally good at it, right?

Sadly it isn't that simple. Permaculture design also has sequencing aspects. Designers need to consider the phasing of implementation plans, and design maintenance schedules.

A fairly regular criticism of permaculture is that much of the technical information about it lives in densely written "bibles" like Bill Mollison's Designer's Manual, implying lots of reading for anyone wanting to learn permaculture.

And I've heard some dyslexics bemoan the academic langauge used to describe permaculture's design principles: "apply self-regulation and accept feedback"; Integrate rather than segregate"...

And then there are all those latin plant names which, according to botanical convention, should be italicized or underlined, which many dyslexics find harder to read.


Designing with living - or otherwise evolving - systems requires the designer to think about how the system will change over time as, for example, trees & plants grow, wild nature interacts with our systems and so on.

It requires, if you will, visuospatial-temporal processing. And It is less clear whether there's been any research into this.


Also measuring & surveying, estimating quantities, calculating rainwater storage capacity etc. can be extremely challenging for people with dyscalculia, which often co-presents with dyslexia.

So while superficially, permaculture might seem like a perfect fit for dyslexics, challenges remain for the dyslexic permaculture designer.

But perhaps most importantly, dyslexia is diverse: each individual has a unique blend of strengths and weaknesses. While there may be general trends - more dyslexics end up in art, architecture etc. - it by no means follows that every dyslexic person will have the particular strengths and weaknesses to be a great permaculture designer.

And yet, with around 35% of my permaculture diploma apprentices identifying as dyslexic, it certainly seems like there's something going on. There is clearly a need for more research.

Next Steps
I'm interested to see what existing dyslexic permaculture designers think about the relationship between their dyslexia and their ability as designers - if there is a link.

And as both a teacher and the Learning Coordinator for the Permaculture Association, I'm keen to explore the implications for permaculture teaching practice. 

So, I've set up a simple survey to explore these questions.

If you're dyslexic and practicing permaculture, or if you're a professional who works with dyslexics, I'd love to hear from you. Please visit my survey here. It only takes a few minutes.

The first results of this survey will be the subject of my next blog post.


Learn More
Dyslexic learners in the UK generally report very positive experiences of permaculture design courses. However, I'm designing and running an explicitly
Dyslexia Friendly Permaculture Course in September, with the aim of supporting these learners even more.

It will be based on the findings from the survey and other research I've been conducting into dyslexia and learning. And the feedback from learners on that course will be fed back to the UK permaculture teaching community to inform practice.

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18 Comments
GreenHearted link
3/6/2016 18:07:42

Hi there,
I'm a teacher (left-brained, linear, sequential "thinker") who struggled for many years to understand her right-brained, holistic, "doer" students. Then I attended a workshop called If My Son is So Bright, Why Can't He Spell? The presenter (I wish I could remember her name) explained what some new brain research has found: that each of us has a quadrant of the brain in which our synapses fire much more rapidly and therefore more efficiently -- and that's the quadrant in which our personalities and learning styles develop. (Makes sense ... animals usually tend toward what is most efficient.)

A lightbulb went on for me during that workshop, not just about my own way of being in the world (I'm a square, a left basal: an organizer, a writer, an editor -- an orientation to detail is my gift), but for my students with dyslexia (or what I call eugraphia -- not bad with words but good with pictures).

These squiggles (the right frontals, the creatives, the artists, the designers, those in construction and who work with their hands, etc.) see the world in three dimensions. That is *their* gift -- and their curse in a school system that focuses on arbitrary, two-dimensional language and number systems. (For example, some people with dyslexia do poorly in math but LOVE calculus -- the study of how things change, or move, across time and space.)

When I started taking permaculture courses, I soon discovered that I had to leave my belief in the value of standardized spelling at the door. (Indeed, I've offered my services as a permaculture editor!)

But I also soon discovered that permaculture design does not come naturally or easily to me. I struggle to "see" the three dimensional landscape. I had to watch Geoff Lawton's video about keypoints a dozen times and then go walk the land several times in order to grasp the concept. But I'm sure there were a great many permaculture students with dyslexia in the same course who "got it" the first time they watched it!

While I have an appreciation for the gifts I've developed, with the way things are going in the world I can honestly say that I'm envying the three-dimensional design gifts that permaculturalists (usually those with dyslexia) bring to the table, er, landscape!

p.s. There are approximately 40 ways that dyslexia can manifest, so there's no way to generalize (as I've sort of just done ;-). It's definitely about more than reversing letters and finding reading and writing difficult. Picture (ha!) the difference between thinking in ticker tape fashion (me) versus thinking in pictures (my students with dyslexia).

p.p.s. Not to leave anyone out ... the left frontals are the triangles, the controllers, the CEOs who get (other people to) get things done. And the right basals are the circles, the harmonizers, those who keep the peace in the world.

Reply
Joe
9/6/2016 22:45:48

Fascinating, thanks! As you say, there are loads of ways in which dyslexia can manifest, so it's important not to be tempted to group them all together and assume that they're all good at X and bad at Y.

And I suppose the same could be said for the quadrant thing - putting all of humanity's incredible diversity into 4 neat boxes will always be an over-simplification, but it may give us a language to be able to explore our differences in a less confrontational way.

Reply
Dr Peter Heffernan link
3/6/2016 18:37:04

In my clinical experience Dyslexia is usually embedded in the syndrome of Attention Deficit and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders, a readily identifiable, eminently treatable, common and serious neurobiological mental disorder.

Because Permaculture is a design system which aims to account for and systematically work with and harness complexity, Permaculture helpfully lends itself to those whose neurobiological limitations in the field of organisation, planning and impulse control require a systematic planning tool that facilitates creativity, personal autonomy and a capacity for interdependence.

Reply
Tom-Scott Gordon link
4/6/2016 01:35:25

Logically, doctors like to compartmentalize things according to case studies and empirical evidence. We dyslexic readers see things differently, as noted above.

After suffering third degree burns as a small child I was unaware for many years about the medical damage the doctors had done in their earnest attempt to treat me with unnecessary chemical regents.

Thirty years later, I was back in the hospital for sever chemical poisoning, and the guys from Kodak determined that I was the very most aluminum and selenium poisoned individual they had ever tested. We made a deal, if I would agree not to enter another darkroom, they would pay for my treatment needs, -carte blanche.

Compound toxic cocktails probably stand at the root of 3/5ths of these so-called ADHD cases. Those "fidgety-flighty" kids they diagnose probably never sat at a desk for 5 hours a day 'till they finished their damn math. I know I couldn't.

I will however, be glad to contribute to this study, assuming I can get 1/2 hr credit toward my PDC, -deal?

Reply
Joe
9/6/2016 22:59:50

Thanks Tom. Who's teaching your PDC? I'll see if I can have a word ;)

Joe
9/6/2016 22:57:42

Thanks Peter.

I'm guessing you're using a specific psychological definition of the term 'embedded' above?

If so are you seeing a correlation or do you suspect a causal relationship between dyslexia and AD/ADHD?

Thanks

Reply
Dr Peter Heffernan link
10/6/2016 13:23:19

Dyslexia is often a facet of the Attention Deficit Disorder, and the dyslexia is often dramatically improved when treatment of the underlying ADD is implemented, as are social skills, a capacity for interpersonal Intersubjectivity, organisation, planning. The Permaculture design system actually strikes me as an excellent supplementary 'method for living' program for those with ADD, with a real resonance with the customary Cognitive Therapy approach to ADD and ADHD. Perhaps one day we will have a Permaculture Design Course melding with a Mental Health Program for those with ADD and ADHD.....

Peter Tomkinson
4/6/2016 00:41:48

Not specifically a response to Dr Heffernan though directed at some of his argument and the issues raised. Studies in Psychology have shown, convincingly I think, that labels in behavioural science can be extremely limiting and indeed harmful. Labels as a conceptual tool can be seriously misleading while being a handy tool for discussion. All too often the more you dig into something the more you realise the label does not fit the reality. The label becomes a conceptual handicap in fact.
ADHD may be a convenient term that self perpetuates a cycle of diagnosis by definition which is intrinsically linked to treatment by design. Problem solved? I do not think so.
The whole discussion about Dyslexia illustrates the disaster that is happening daily when we allow our convenient concepts, a thinking tool, and labelling, simple shorthand thinking, to define the world we see and react to. Permaculture for me is anything but this.
Dyslexia, a concept and a label does not mean someone has a neurobiological limitation in anything. The issues simplified to a label is a process that is the problem and there is far more complexity behind the concept if you are able to see the bigger picture and go beyond simplistic definitions.

Reply
Dr Peter Heffernan
10/6/2016 13:46:09

ADD and ADHD are two of the most thoroughly studied, examined and appraised Mental Disorders known in Psychiatry, accessible to identification (diagnosis) in Clinical Psychiatry, a highly heritable pedigree in family studies, with high prevalence of other Mental Disorders such as Alcoholism and methamphetamine and cannabis dependence, with replicable evidence of high rates of motor vehicle accidents, and serious psychosocial impairment, with replicable physiological identifiers on EEG and fMRI, and replicable responses to treatments validated over forty years. Organisations throughout the world have been established throughout the world to address this Mental Dirorder, the British National Health Service (not known for its financial irresponsibility) has established a network of centres for the assessment and treatment of Adult ADHD and ADD, each with waiting lists of up to 18 months.......'Permaculture' is a concept, hopefully a most useful one.....David Holmgren's farm is a transformative application of a concept-my ADHD patients find an expert in the Clinical application of the concept of ADD and ADHD in assessment and management of this serious Mental Disorder quite transformative.

Reply
Tom-Scott Gordon
10/6/2016 18:29:46

Without further need for discussing all of that, let me say, in closing, that I cannot buy the AMA-directed discourse that labels either Alzheimer's or Autism a damn "disease." These are "conditions," meaning they are preventable, and they are entirely wrought upon the human species through the improper use of excitotoxins, caustic chemicals and compound $$$ industrial quackery.

When a permie steps foot in the garden, their entire persona earns clarity over witchcraft posing as fact.

Steve
9/6/2016 12:06:58

It's funny to me that this article seems to think dyslexia is an advantage for artists, architects, and other "creative" professions, but if taken to the next logical step would imply that people without dyslexia are somehow at a disadvantage in these pursuits. I think mainstream thoughts perfectly explain why people with this disorder end up in those fields. They are less rigorous and allow them to hide their disability better. I would find it difficult to believe a person with true dyslexia would be able to function as an architect or physicist which requires very strict attention to detail and doesn't allow for mistakes involving the inversion of letters, numbers, and symbols. As an architect it could have disastrous consequences. If Einstein was working on the Manhattan Project, we may not be here today.

Reply
GreenHearted
9/6/2016 16:52:23

If detail for safety's sake is an issue, the "next logical step" is to have engineers (who tend to be non-dyslexic and are famous for their skills over than creativity ;-) check the creative work of the right-brained designers.

Reply
Joe
9/6/2016 23:40:54

I'm simply repeating what John Stein from the Dyslexia Research Trust says they're finding: that dyslexics are stronger at certain types of mental processing than other people. And if that's true, then yes, it follows that non-dyslexics are at a disadvantage relative to them when it comes to certain things.

I think the use of the terms 'disorder' and 'disability' are interesting. But the more I've learned about dyslexia, the more I'm starting to see it more as a neurological difference that brings some disadvantages and some advantages.

The British Dyslexia Association's code of practice for employers describes it like this:

“Dyslexia is a combination of abilities and difficulties that affect the learning process in one or more of reading, spelling and writing. It is a persistent condition.

Accompanying weaknesses may be identified in areas of speed of processing, short-term memory, organisation, sequencing, spoken language and motor skills. There may be difficulties with auditory and /or visual perception. It is particularly related to mastering and using written language, which may include alphabetic, numeric and musical notation.

Dyslexia can occur despite normal intellectual ability and teaching. It is constitutional in origin, part of one’s make-up and independent of socio-economic or language background.

Some learners have very well developed creative skills and/or interpersonal skills, others have strong oral skills. Some have no outstanding talents. All have strengths.”

And, of course, no discussion of dyslexia is complete without a list of high achieving dyslexics from a number of different fields: http://www.dyslexia.com/famous.htm

Reply
Tom-Scott Gordon
9/6/2016 15:37:08

..and another thing. I awoke this morning to recall/recognize, that both of the $1m+ homes I wired back in 2002-2005 in Chenal Downs were built upon natural springs. Both foundations have been deteriorating, both invited black mold. Why is it I see these things in a dream, when the stupid 'architects' completely ignored the need for due diligence?

No wonder all the exterior metallic tiles are decoupling from Frank Gehry's stupid Barcelona museum. Lesson learned? No. OK, on a more positive note, someone in Italy did come up with self-cleaning concrete, a few years ago, so I guess the future of architecture ain't all that bleak!

Reply
Tom-Scott Gordon
10/6/2016 09:16:47

After re-reading both of my above comments, readers are possibly wondering, is this guy being pernicious, obstinate, or is his thinking simply that oblique? All I know is that I see things in plan view and in past and future tense. Which is probably not as ideally suited for the task of writing, as say, drawing pretty little contours and placing fruit trees in handy staggered rows somewhere down the edges.

I might see the flow of water in a Memphis, or Brisbane rainstorm and be obsessed with all sorts of possible permutations one, two even ten years out. Major features, close-up and distant begin flickering in my memory, even now. This is both a gift and a plague, and can be uniquely applicable to the issues 'certifiable' permies address, day in and day out.

Mollison's book is and was instructional to say the least.

Reply
Mariah link
23/12/2020 15:54:51

Hi thanks forr sharing this

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fire engineer brisbane link
7/11/2022 04:40:21

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Jared Williams link
10/11/2022 10:57:13

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  • Resources
    • PDC Resources >
      • Learning & Thinking skills
      • 1. Context
      • 2. Ethics
      • 3. Principles
      • 4. Design >
        • 4.1 Design Process
        • 4.2 Planning Tools: Zones
        • 4.2 Planning Tools: Sectors
        • 4.2 Planning Tools: Climate & Microclimate
        • 4.2 Planning Tools: Patterns
      • 5. Themes >
        • 5.1 Soil
        • 5.2 Water
        • 5.3 Plants
        • 5.4 Built Environment
        • 5.5 Social & Economic
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      • Week 1: Introduction
      • Week 2: Energy Basics
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      • Week 5: Refurbishment
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      • Week 7: Regulations & Finance
    • Talks
  • Portfolio
    • Diploma Criteria
    • Designs >
      • 1. A Productive Garden
      • 2. Church Fenton Garden
      • 3. LILAC Landscaping
      • 4. LILAC Landscape Team
      • 5. LILAC Design Workshop
      • 6. LILAC Tree Plan
      • 7. Headingley Garden
      • 8. EPT Partnership
      • 9. EPT UK Meeting
      • 10. Permahaus
    • Additional Activities >
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      • Permaculture Association >
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      • Teaching
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