Childhood Dyslexia and Med school apps

[dancelyfe4ever]

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Hi everyone!

In my secondary essays asking about a challenge that I've faced and how I resolved it, I wanted to talk about the mild form of dyslexia I had as a kid. I struggled to read and write and mixed letters up all the time. But I eventually overcame it (around middle school) with just a lot of practice and studying . I wanted to talk about this in my essay, but I am concerned that writing about this will negatively impact my application. I have read that talking about disabilities is never really a good thing?

I have completely overcome this problem and have never required special accommodations or gotten any official treatment. But I definitely struggled way more than the average kid when it came to school. So basically, I want to know what people think of talking about this in my apps. Thanks in advance!

 

[ak-aka-dak]

There is no such thing as “childhood dyslexia.” True dyslexia does not go away, especially if you never received systematic, consistent research-based interventions. Some kids struggle because they aren’t on a “one size fits all” time clock for learning to read. Eventually things start to click. True dyslexia exists throughout one’s life where you might always have to read slower, or wonder if the letter you just read or wrote is a “b” “or a “d.” With the proper help of research-based instruction and tools like spell-checkers and text-to-speech apps, people with Dyslexia can lead very successful lives. Be careful how you frame this in an essay because the way you explained it sounds like your reading was just delayed a few years but eventually you caught on.