I hope you can help me.

Here are two sites you can check out.
www.beach.huensd.k12.ca.us/pages/hbsldfamous.html
www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/disorders/famous.shtml.

The Los Angeles branch of the International Dyslexic Association has calendars that feature successful dyslexics (a form of Learning Disability, I prefer Learning Difference because different instruction is needed). Some celebreties that have been featured are Whoopie Goldberg (TV’s Hollywood Squares and “Sister Act” movies) Cher, (former major league pitcher) Nolan Ryan, (former astronaut) Pete Conrad, (the real) Erin Brockovich, (former NFL defensive end) Neil Smith, James Edward Almos (movie “Stand And Deliver”), Nelson Rockefeller (former governor of New York, and Vice President of U.S.) Henry Winkler (the Fonz on Happy Days), not featured but also dyslexic Tom Cruise (“Mission Impossible”), Danny Glover (“Lethal Weapon” movies), Winston Churchill (former prime minster of England), and many more. Obviously, these people are not stupid or dumb. It might help to get some of the movies mentioned.

Hope this helps,

L. Starr

Actually, kids who really are low average IQ (“dumb” or “stupid” as his peers put it) would never qualify for help under a LD category. They have to test at least average IQ or better to be classified as learning disabled. Would a counselor at school be able to explain to your son just exactly why he is classified LD?

I know this doesn’t really answer your question, but it might help your son if he understood more about how people are classified LD - it’s generally a difference between performance and ability.

Thanks so much for the names you have given me. I also love the idea of calling it Learning Difference - that makes much more sense and it doesn’t give that dumb/stupid label associated with LD. I appreciate your help. :)

This is another great idea - about the IQ level. I hadn’t thought of that at all either. I’m so glad you mentioned that. Thanks! :)

Thanks, Allison! I did try to get to both of those sites but couldn’t get into either one. I don’t know if I was doing something wrong or not. I do appreciate your attempt to help me, tho. :)

Try searching. I used famous people with learning disabilities. Hope this helps.

Thanks, Allison. I’ll try that.

Check out that page ;)

FABULOUS!! What a wonderful site. I found a nice long list of famous people including Presidents Roosevelt and Washington and Walt Disney - along with the ones that I had already received and a whole lot more. :)

I do appreciate all your help. I am going to look around more on the ldteens website and I’ve also bookmarked this website so I can visit regularily. You’ve all been so quick to respond to my request for help. It’s nice to be made to feel so welcome. Thanks again. :)

Check out the book “Attention Deficit Disorder: A Different Perception” by Thom Hartmann. It’s been updated and is now two volumes, the second titled “Healing ADD”.
I was gratified to read in ” U.S. News & World Report” (sometime during the year 2000) that the human brain not only is able to re-rout neurotransmitters up to the age of about twenty through behavioral therapy, but the brain also grows new synapses with stimulation long after middle age.
In other words, if you continue to learn new stuff EVERY DAY, your brain will accomodate you.

Here is the link that I have. It may be the same list as others here, but just in case it is a different list.

http://www0.delphi.com/disable/famous.html

Billie,

Checking out all the sites mentioned, and others, you will find that there is much information out there; much more than there used to be prior to the www.

I’m pushing 42, and in the “old days” there was the “normal” or “fast” class and then the “slow” class. Not for all subjects, but many of us always seemd to fall into that one (the 2nd mentioned one). It’s hard for kids not to become self conscious or sensitive as all kids mix it up in some claseses, at lunch and pe type activities.

Your son needs to become aware of both strengths and weaknesses and address both. All people have them, with or without the learning differences. If you help point out areas of strength for him and show him where he excels (beyond most of his peers and possibly adults), he can adjust his thinking to know that he is “human”.

Having ld is not always a deficit. Many of us learn to function in the real world, after school, and can use the ld to our advantage. The toughest time is in school and surviving that system with ego somewhat still in tact. The problem is the education system is built for the majority to learn, and those who learn differently tend to get bruised and battered. The proverbial square peg being shoved through the round hole syndrome. It hurts, sometimes it doesn’t work, and ususally one feels dumb/stupid for not learning like the rest.

If he can get a grasp on his strengths, learn to work with coping skills and adapt, once he enters the “real world” outside of the basic education system up through 12th grade, he will find there is much out there to be positive about.

Besides all the famous people out there with ld, as you have found, there are millions of us who learn to cope, adapt and even succeed at life. Many of the non-lders cannot do what we are capable of doing, and the playing field becomes much more level once you get out of the cock-eyed system that is somewhat archaic in it’s mentality about those who simply learn differently than the approach that is used.

As was also mentioned in other posts, most ld kids/adults are brighter than the “average” and it takes a certain inner strength to succeed beyond the “odds”. However, once one’s metal is tested, one tends to be stronger, more self sufficient and more creative as well.

By the way, our ld son is 19 now and attending Junior College and working. After excruciating years battling with our school district(s), we are basking in the glow of watching him kick at the twigs around the edge of the nest, testing his wings for flight (oh my God, it’s almost time!).
Yes, he still has many of the ld issues of childhood, but also, he’s doing great and he’s gonna make it, God willing.
And yes, it is an easy transition (still) for me to slide back to teen years and be a stubborn, bullheaded teen as well (lest we forget that I am ld too). Thank goodness for my wife/ his mother, who can somehow keep sense amongst the confusion :)

Anyway, knowledge is power and the key to understanding.

Good luck.

Andy

Thanks so much, Andy, for the pep talk. I’m always glad to get them. I’m glad to hear your son is doing so well. That definitely is a concern I have had for years - of how my child will do after 12th grade. It’s wonderful to know one of my biggest fears may have been in vane. :) Thanks for sharing your experience with me.

Wow - another huge list of names and so much more. Thanks so much!

How interesting! I had no idea of this. Thanks! :)

Hi Billie,

It’s sad that the other teenagers in your son’s class aren’t fortunate enough to have a parent like you.

My neice’s IQ is 92 and she has had a struggle. She has had a myriad of LD obsticals in her path, yet she will graduate from a top university with a teaching/MA degree in 2004. She openly shares with students, her struggles, in hopes it will motivate just one to overcome any adversity life may have given.

She often thanks me for a little computer program I shared with her……she continues to use it in classes that she interns in and students that are having feelings of low self worth. It is available for downloading until 6/15/2001 at
key2wealth.com/foru/brain.exe

Enjoy,

Michael T

From the book “The Gift of Dyslexia” By Ronald D. Davis, an incredibly wonderful and helpful book. Some talented Dyslexics:
Inventors/Engineers/Scientists:
Albert Einstein
Thomas Edison
Alexander Graham Bell
Artists:
Leonardo da Vinci
Walt Disney
Milatary/Political Strategists:
General George Patton
Winston Churchill
Woodrow Wilson
Performers: Cher, Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover
Athletes: Greg Louganis, Bruce Jenner, Jackie Stewart(race car driver)