Sailing and Dyslexic Processors

I am the parent of a dyslexic processor, our only child, and the current manager of the PSST team. Our family is very open about our son’s dyslexia from the beginning. We have never seen it as a disability but rather a big advantage and a huge gift. It took him a bit longer, but he now realizes how lucky he is. He has had his struggles and there were years that were far from easy. We were fortunate to have an early diagnosis and to have had the time and resources to support him. Today, the three of us are on a mission to help other dyslexic processors and their families realize how fortunate they actually are.

Dyslexics and sailing

I am neither an expert sailor nor a psychologist. My conclusions come from close observation, lots of reading, and experiments our son and I have done together. There are no formal studies or papers on the relationship between sports and dyslexia. At least, none that I have been able to find. However, I have been collecting my own statistics that I will share with you. Again, not scientific, all purely empirical. Keep in mind that in the Seattle area, we over-index the nation in dyslexic processors (2x the national average or 15%). Lots of theories, but likely related to the large number of people working in STEM, a popular field for dyslexics. At MIT dyslexia is known as the MIT disease 😀 - need more proof? read on and some more. Now, back to the statistics.

• 5 out of 10 best youth sailors in our area are dyslexics (50% vs. 15% national and 30% in Seattle)
• 3 out of 5 of the opti coaches we worked with this year are also dyslexics (60% vs. 15% international)
• Many of the best sailors to ever live are also severely dyslexic (Paul Elvstrom, Jassica Watson) - still researching this one.

Within the PSST team, we are seeing a significantly accelerated rate of progression with our dyslexic processors. They seem to be covering 2+ years of progression in a year as long as they remain challenged. My personal involvement with PSST comes from a need to keep our sailors challenged and sailing. As the journey continues, we are starting to notice that keeping the trajectory requires not just great coaches, but a fleet of amazing sailors.

The dyslexic strengths

So, if you buy into the idea then the next question is to understand why. For that one, I will refer you to a fantastic book that every dyslexic and their families should read, The Dyslexic Advantage. It was written by Brock and Fernette Eide, both psychologists who have spent most of their careers understanding and teaching dyslexic children - they also live here in the Puget Sound. The work of Drs. Eide has led to identifying 5 areas where dyslexics tend to excel where two are usually dominant.

1. Spatial/Mechanical Reasoning (STEM). Ability to reason about the 3-D and 2-D world. A strong visual thinker, who tends to think in images and visual patterns (e.g. analysis, design, solve)
2. Interconnected Reasoning (Innovator). Ability to detect relationships between phenomena, like objects, ideas, and events. (e.g. synthesis, see opportunity.)
3. Narrative Reasoning (Storyteller). The ability to connect a series of mental scenes from fragments of personal experience to create, simulate, or recall (e.g. create, describe.)
4. Dynamic Reasoning (Improv). Strengths that create the ability to accurately predict past or future states using episodic simulation. (e.g. predict, fill-in-the blanks.)

In my experience, those youth dyslexic sailors I mentioned above, tend to also be really good at math and other STEM tasks. They are the type of child who engage in building projects, like to tinker and are really good at figuring things out ‘on-the-fly’. They excel at reading their audience (or the situation) and dynamically adjusting their plans and behavior. They have a very acute sense of awareness (they don’t miss anything) and can easily find correlations between events to predict outcomes - they display the #1, #2 and #4 dyslexic strengths in various forms. They are really good at processing a ridiculous amount of inputs quickly (e.g. wind, current, course, boat direction, other boats, puffs and shifts, sail setup) and taking an appropriate action or predicting a future outcome - the essence of a good sailor.

In conclusion

If you have a dyslexic processor, get your kid sailing. If your experience was anything like ours, dyslexic children need activities they can be really good at to balance the challenges of overcoming their literacy challenges. This is particularly true in Elementary, where 80% of school is about reading and writing and the other 20% is not accessible without reading. Sailing will be an activity that helps them develop their strengths instead of shoring-up their reading skills. A place where they can learn to embrace their dyslexic strengths. 

Feel free to reach out to us and we will help you find a local club for your sailor.  

Other resources

1. ‍Embracing the Complexity of the Dyslexic Mind (Video). Brock Eide M.D., M.A. & Fenette Eide M.D., Speaker Series at Hamlin Robinson School.
2. ‍The Dyslexic Advantage. Brock Eide M.D., M.A. & Fenette Eide M.D, February 2023, Plume.