It’s agreed that most dyslexics have above average visual/spatial intelligence, which can lead to common problems with letter-flipping. Confusion of the letters b/d/p/q is especially common, as these letters are essentially the same shape rotated in space.
Some dyslexics are able to perform 3-D manipulation of objects in their mind’s eye, which is especially helpful for engineers and artists (two vocations that are flooded with dyslexics!).
There is actually an art of letter-flipping of sorts through the creation of ‘ambigrams’. A dyslexic would be especially talented at creating ambigrams. An ambigram is a word or image that looks the same even when it is flipped, usually upside down. Check out these:
Can you see it? If you have a dyslexic in the family, let us know what they think!
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Sarah Forrest is a System Coach for the Easyread System, an online phonics course that provides support for spelling and reading problems for children with dyslexia, auditory processing disorder, highly visual-spatial learning styles and more. It uses a radical new approach to helping dyslexics get on the right path to literacy through Guided Phonetic Reading. Find out more at www.morganlearning.com
