The Daily Riff - BE SMARTER. ABOUT EDUCATION.

James Redford, director of "The D Word - Understanding Dyslexia" documentary, shares his personal journey as the father of a dyslexic child, which led him to this film presented by the The Seedlings Foundation and Shadow Creek Films.  An excerpt from Redford's Director's Statement:

By conservative estimates, one in five people are dyslexic.  Although very bright and often highly creative, they have a difficult time making sense of written language.  I know a little about this.  My son, Dylan, is dyslexic.

Like many dyslexics, Dylan is intelligent, thoughtful and intellectually curious - a "big picture" think.  But at the age of ten, he was barely able to read and write.  To say that school was difficult for him is beyond understatement.  Now that he is grown and thriving, there are many things that I wish I had known about dyslexia at that time - things that would have helped me understand that his struggle in lower and middle school was not the final verdict on his academic or intellectual ability or ambition.  When I was given the extraordinary opportunity to make a film about understanding dyslexia, the mission was simple:  make the movie I wish my family could have seen when Dylan was functionally illiterate in 4th grade.

This film reveals that dyslexia is a neurological issue, not a character flaw.  It explains that the struggle with the written word is not an indication of one's ability to think, to create, or to solve problems - all valuable skills in he world outside the classroom.  This film also reveals that some of our greatest leaders in Business, Law, Politics and Medicine are dyslexics who succeeded in spite of their learning challenges.

The film also share some of the more practical - and occasionally humorous  - tips on how to deal with dyslexia on a daily basis.  Hopefully, this film will help dyslexics and their families realize that the challenges of early education will be behind them one day, and that the future can - and should - be brighter for dyslexics.