Drawing a New Picture: Children with Developmental Dyslexia Exhibit Superior Nonverbal Creativity.
Kids with dyslexia show a real strength in nonverbal creativity—use visual-spatial tasks to boost engagement during reading sessions.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Lam et al. (2021) asked kids with dyslexia to draw. They compared the drawings to kids who read fine.
The team scored the pictures for non-verbal and figural creativity. They also checked if creativity scores tracked with reading skill or IQ.
What they found
Kids with dyslexia beat the control group on non-verbal creativity. Both groups tied on figural creativity.
Creativity scores did not link to reading level or IQ. The strength stood on its own.
How this fits with other research
Liu et al. (2023) and Tang et al. (2023) both meta-analyzed visual attention in dyslexia. They found deficits, not strengths. The tasks were quick symbol-spotting tests, not open drawing. Speed drills and art prompts measure different visual skills.
Pring et al. (2012) tested savant artists with autism using the same drawing scales. Those kids only won on tiny details, not overall creativity. Yan’s dyslexic group shows a clearer, broader creative edge.
Gosse et al. (2020) saw dyslexic kids slow down when letter shapes get fancy. Yan’s study says the same hands can still invent rich pictures. Handwriting speed and creative drawing tap separate circuits.
Why it matters
Start your next reading session with a two-minute doodle warm-up. Let the child sketch the story scene before decoding the text. The drawing primes their visual strength and can ease frustration when words get tough. Build a bank of these sketches and use them as review cards. Pair each picture with the target word or phoneme. You turn a known talent into a teaching tool.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Creativity and literacy are essential skills that today's children are expected to develop. However, the question of whether children with developmental dyslexia, a severe difficulty in reading and writing, exhibit any intact creativity strengths remains controversial. This study examined creativity strengths across verbal, figural, and nonverbal modalities, and the relations among creativity, nonverbal intelligence, and literacy skills, in younger and older Chinese children with and without developmental dyslexia. METHODS: Two age groups of Chinese children with developmental dyslexia (Grade 2: N = 62; Grades 4-5: N = 62) and their age matched controls (Grade 2: N = 61; Grades 4-5: N = 61) were assessed on fluency and originality of verbal, figural, and nonverbal creativity, as well as on nonverbal intelligence, vocabulary, working memory, Chinese word reading accuracy and fluency, and word dictation. RESULTS: Multifactorial analysis of variance demonstrated that regardless of grade level, children with developmental dyslexia exhibited higher nonverbal creativity than, and comparable figural creativity to, their typically developing peers. Moreover, the partial correlation analysis revealed creativity was not significantly correlated with nonverbal intelligence and literacy skills. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that children with dyslexia possess strengths and even advantages in nonverbal creativity and that the relationship between intelligence and/or literacy and creativity is negligible.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2021 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2021.104036