Question: My 11-year-old dyslexic son asked me if he can become a doctor like other “normal” people can. How do I answer him?
Answer:
Tell him, “Yes!”
He can become a medical doctor.
When children with dyslexia are in elementary school, they experience their greatest challenges. This is because the educational system places such great focus on reading, writing, and spelling, but they teach these skills differently from how these children learn.
As they go through middle and high school, once their weak foundational skills are addressed and improved, their difficulties lessen.
By the time they get to college and medical school, they have figured how they learn best, how to advocate for accommodations they need and can compensate for relative difficulties.
In addition, advances in technology today provide significant help with print reading, writing, and spelling.
Children with dyslexia possess some unique gifts, which are often overlooked.
Keeping this in mind, here are 5 reasons to highlight to show your son why medicine can be his chosen career:
- It requires the ability to see the big picture.
- Surgeons, radiologists, and cardiologists need to have good spatial reasoning.
- Dermatology, epidemiology, and immunology require interdisciplinary thinking.
- Writing clinical histories uses narrative reasoning.
- Sports medicine, rehabilitation, and preventative health use dynamic reasoning.
With his powerful gift for imaginative problem-solving, helpful technology, and perseverance through the magnitude of required reading, he can succeed in medical school and become an exceptional doctor.
Have him watch Connor Dibblin, a senior medical student at King’s College in London, England, talk about his experience as a dyslexic medical student.
Dr. Marc Rowe, a dyslexic pioneering pediatric surgeon, humorously talks about his experience here. It will give your son the chance to see and hear an exception doctor who is dyslexic.
Nothing is impossible for your child with dyslexia unless his mind tells him it is.
What a wonderful, uplifting, positive outlook & post! It’s heartening to read it and know that learning gets easier as dyslexic children get older, and that the careers they choose will require some of their unique gifts.
Florence, more hope for the dyslexic! Fantastic! Thank you.