Disability History & Awareness Month: Steven Spielberg, a Hollywood director with dyslexia, wins his first Academy Award in 1994

Disability History & Awareness Month:  Steven Spielberg, a Hollywood director with dyslexia, wins his first Academy Award in 1994

As many as 15 percent of the world's population exhibits some of the symptoms of dyslexia, according to the International Dyslexia Association, and not surprisingly, a great number of them are famous. Steven Spielberg is the latest celebrity to come forward with his struggle with the learning disability.

"It's extremely inspiring for youngsters who struggle with dyslexia to see people like Steven Spielberg, who not only succeed but succeed well," Dr. Stefani Hines, an expert in the disorder at Beaumont Hospitals in Royal Oaks, Mich.  Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability that makes it difficult to turn printed words into sound, Hines said. It primarily shows up in reading, and includes slow or inaccurate reading as well as trouble with pronunciation and comprehension.  It has nothing to do with intelligence, however. A lot of (people with dyslexia, like Apple founder Steve Jobs, are highly intelligent, even gifted.   "We're learning that individuals with dyslexia tend to have strengths in other areas, in creativity and imagination. They think outside the box," Hines said.  Spielberg dealt with his dyslexia, which he says was not diagnosed until five years ago, by making movies.

"Making movies was my great escape, it was how I could get away from all that," he says in a video for the website Friends of Quinn. "Movies really helped me, kind of saved me from shame, from guilt, from putting it on myself...when it wasn't my burden."

Spielberg, who grew up in the 1950s before dyslexia was even a diagnosis, was mislabeled by teachers as "lazy." As a child growing up in the 1950s, he was a slow reader, which resulted in his being bullied by other kids to the point where he dreaded going to school. "In my case I was unable to read for at least two years. I was two years behind the rest of my class," Spielberg recalled. "I was embarrassed to stand up in front of the class and read." Not surprisingly, the bullying and the friendships in junior high he formed with other outcasts whom he called the "Goon Squad" inspired 1985's The Goonies, for which he came up with the story and executive produced.  The Oscar winner added that his dyslexia still affects him. For instance, it takes him longer to read a script that most people can read rather quickly.

But no one could tell either him or his parents what the problem was, as very little research on dyslexia had been done at the time. So the E.T. mastermind said he "dealt with it by making movies."  Today, there's more awareness and more help for people with dyslexia, including oral readers, books on CD and voice recognition software, to help people manage the lifelong condition more effectively. He is also one of the co-founders of DreamWorks movie studio.

Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director for Schindler's List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). Three of Spielberg's films—Jaws (1975), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Jurassic Park (1993)—achieved box office records, each becoming the highest-grossing film made at the time. To date, the unadjusted gross of all Spielberg-directed films exceeds $8.5 billion worldwide.

Footnotes:

• Luchina Fisher, Stephen Spielberg Escaped his Dyslexia through Filmaking, Sept. 28m 2012, ABC News
• E-online, Sept. 26, 2012, Steven Spielberg Opens Up about Dyslexia Battle, Josh Grossberg
• Stephen Spielberg Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Spielberg  

October is Persons with Disabilities History and Awareness Month in Texas.  Each workday in October 2012 , the Governor’ Committee on People with Disabilities will post a daily Disability History Fact highlighting the accomplishments of people with disabilities or important dates and events related to the history of people with disabilities. These daily history facts will be presented to celebrate “Persons with Disabilities History and Awareness Month” in Texas.