About Dyslexia

About Dyslexia

DePaul was started by parents (with the help of experts) who wanted to build a school that teaches the way that children with dyslexia learn.

Dyslexia is a genetic learning difference that affects 1 in 5 people, and it’s based on neurological wiring.

Dyslexia varies in severity from person to person. One student with mild dyslexia may struggle to learn accurate spelling, while another student with profound dyslexia may require years of instruction to attain literacy.

Influential People Who Have Dyslexia

Albert Einstein

Physicist

Einstein (1879 – 1955) was a German-born physicist, developed the theory of relativity. His work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science. He is best known to the general public for his formula E = mc2, which has been dubbed “the world’s most famous equation”. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize “for his services to theoretical physics.”

Steve Jobs

Inventor

Steven Paul Jobs (1955 – 2011) was the chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), and co-founder of Apple Inc., the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar, a member of The Walt Disney Company’s board of directors following its acquisition of Pixar, and the founder, chairman, and CEO of NeXT.

Jennifer Aniston

Actress, Philanthropist, and Businesswoman

(1969) Jennifer rose to fame portraying Rachel Green on the sitcom Friends (1994–2004), for which she earned Primetime Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild awards, and became one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood. She revealed her dyslexia diagnosis in 2015, saying, “I thought I wasn’t smart. I just couldn’t retain anything. Now I had this great discovery. I felt like all of my childhood trauma-dies, tragedies, dramas were explained.”

Aniston has advocated for and financially supported numerous charities, including St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, the EIF Women’s Cancer Research Fund, Clothes Off Our Back, Feeding America, EB Medical Research Foundation, Project A.L.S., OmniPeace, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network., and Doctors Without Borders. 

Bella Thorne

Actress/Philanthropist

(1997) Bella is known for her role as CeCe Jones on the Disney Channel series Shake It Up. Thorne was diagnosed with dyslexia in first grade. She was home-schooled after previously attending a public school, where she had been bullied. She improved in her learning after attending a learning center and began reading and writing a grade ahead. Thorne supports the Humane Society, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and The Nomad Organization, which provides education, food and medical supplies to children in Africa. 

Agatha Christie

Author

(1890) Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time. She is best known for 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, as well as the world’s longest-running play – The Mousetrap. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English and a billion in translation. Agatha began writing detective stories during the first world war, partly to relieve the monotony of working in a hospital dispensary. 

J.K. Rowling

Author, The Harry Potter Series

(1965) Jo wanted to be a writer from an early age. She wrote her first book at age six – a story called ‘Rabbit’. At eleven, she wrote her first novel. She conceived the idea of Harry Potter in 1990 while on a delayed train. It took five years to map out all seven books of the series. She wrote mostly in longhand and gradually built up a mass of notes, many of which were scribbled on odd scraps of paper.

The first Harry Potter book was published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books in 1997. Six titles followed in the Harry Potter series, each achieving record-breaking success.

Rowling supports a number of causes, mainly through her charitable trust. She is also the founder and president of the international children’s charity Lumos.

Muhammed Ali

Athlete/Boxer

(1942-2016) Born Cassius Clay, he made history by saying the words “I am the greatest” and proving it. He was undefeated when he first fought Sonny Liston in the boxing ring. He won six Kentucky Golden Glove titles, two National Golden Gloves, two Amateur Athletic Union championships, a Gold Medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Rome Olympic games, and the world professional heavyweight championship three times.