St.

Angela’s College, Sligo

Postgraduate Diploma in Arts in Special Education 2022-2023

Module 5: Assignment
Literature Review

Assignment Title:

Do individuals with developmental dyslexia exhibit particular

strengths in creativity?

Student Name:
Deirdre Judge

Module Leader:
Ms. Aoife Munroe

Submission Date:
20th January 2023

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 Postgraduate Diploma in Arts in Special Education

2022-2023

Course Work Declaration Sheet

This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not being
concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree.

This work is the result of my independent work / investigation, except where otherwise
stated. Other sources are acknowledged giving explicit references.

A Reference List is appended.

The word count for this assignment is ……3339

This does not include Reference List or appendices.

Signed: …………… ……(student)

Date: …………………20/01/23……………………………...

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Introduction

The purpose of this literature review is to examine available research and information over
the last decade on Developmental Dyslexia (DD), with particular attention to the perception
that dyslexics are naturally creative. The link between dyslexia and creativity has been the
topic of many theoretical speculations, however, there has been little agreement amongst
theorists it seems. It is often referred to that people who have provided original contributions
in different fields e.g. Christian Anderson in literature; Walt Disney in visual; Thomas A.
Edison and Albert Einstein in scientific and technology, may have had DD (Ehardt, 2009).

On examination of my research on the topic it was evident that reading and learning
disabilities (LD) researchers are in agreement about dyslexia as an impairment related mostly
to verbal deficits, such as problems in phonological awareness and word decoding. However,
there is less agreement when discussing dyslexia in the context of cognitive abilities, one
such cognitive area being creativity. (Erbeli, F., Peng, P., & Rice, M. (2021)

Some literature would suggest that individuals with LD have a creative potential, which is
expressed especially in the form of visual and intuitive thinking. Other research reports that
their findings have provided limited support for the idea that individuals with dyslexia are
more creative. As the theoretical and empirical evidence for such claims is indeed mixed and
has produced conflicting findings, the propensity of people with DD to creative thinking
remains controversial. It raises the interesting question whether this propensity concerns
some specific aspect of creativity or an overall attitude.

Research Method

A literature search was conducted to identify the relevant literature for review that explored
the relationship between dyslexia and creativity. The aim of my literature search was to
include varied and up-to-date information. Primary research of articles from peer reviewed
journals and secondary research e.g. critique, response to articles from peer-reviewed journals
using a step-by-step process was carried out. It was necessary to consult current peer-
reviewed scholarly work such as journal articles, using electronic research engines such as
the college online library access, Google Scholar, the Teaching Council online library access

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and online databases such as the Education Resources Information Centre (ERIC) and Elton
B. Stephens Company (EBSCO).

I identified the key terms associated with my area of interest and used the Boolean method to
find the most appropriate material. The key terms associated with my area of interest were,
dyslexia, creativity, learning disabilities and visual spatial awareness. I ran a number of
different searches with variations of my key terms: ‘Dyslexia’ AND ‘Strengths’ OR
‘Creativity’, ‘Learning Disabilities’ OR ‘Dyslexia’ AND ‘Creativity links’, ‘Spatial
awareness’ AND ‘Dyslexia’, ‘Dyslexia’ AND ‘Benefits’. There were no restrictions on the
year of publications and all searches were conducted from 8th Nov ’22 to 16th Nov ’22.

Snowballing is another useful method I applied, whereby I used the reference list of an article
I read to find similar items of interest. The Creative Continuum, Dyslexia the gift blog.
(Butler, H., 2020) made reference to ‘The Alleged Link Between Creativity and Dyslexia:
Identifying the Specific Process in which Dyslexic students excel’ Cancer, A Manzoli, S &
Antonietti A. (2016), where I found further interesting studies on the topic. When reviewing
a research article from Open Access, Cancer, A., (2016), this led me to further referenced
studies from Alexander-Passe N., (2010) Creativity and Dyslexia: An Investigative Study.

Key Terms

It is deemed necessary to define the terms dyslexia, learning disabilities, creativity and spatial
awareness/ability, these being the terms that are referred to throughout this literature review.

Dyslexia

The concept of learning disabilities historically began with dyslexia – a term that has existed
since 1930s to describe individuals who had significant difficulty learning to read – and
minimal brain injury, a medical term for brain injuries of unknown origin that affected
learning (Danforth, 2009).

In 2009 the British Dyslexia Association (BDA) acknowledges

“that dyslexic readers can show a combination of abilities and difficulties that affect
the learning process. Some also have strengths in other areas, such as design,
problem solving, creative skills, interactive skills and oral skills.’

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; American Psychological
Association) defines dyslexia as an

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 “alternative term used to refer to a pattern of learning difficulties characterized by
problems with accurate or fluent word recognition, poor decoding and poor spelling abilities”
(p.67, 2013)

Creativity

The word creative is an overarching term, that can take on many meanings. Artistic,
inventive, imaginative, identifying hidden patterns and ‘thinking outside the box’ are many
attributes that may come to mind when one considers creativity.

“It is easy to focus merely on stereotypical ‘art based’ activities, such as traditional
painting on a canvas. Designing, drawing, building, photography, cooking/baking,
music and song writing, performing, organising and both journalistic and academic
writing are all activities and occupations that require creative thinking”.
(Butcher, H., The Creativity Continuum, Dyslexia the Gift Blog,2020)

Bezerra, R.L.M., Alves, R.J.R. & Azoni, C.A.S. (2022) recognise that creativity is considered
a fundamental skill nowadays as an alternative means of success, quality of life and mental
health, especially after the global pandemic of COVID 19. Taylor (1988) suggests there are
more than 60 definitions of creativity, with some understanding the concept of creativity as
the production of work that is both novel and useful and others associating creativity with art
and literature, where originality alone is sufficient to be considered creative.

Creativity can be defined as:

“the ability to produce work that is both original (new, unusual, novel, unexpected)
and valuable (useful, good, adaptive, appropriate)” (Dietrich, 2004; Sternberg & Lubart,
1999)
Torrance 1993 p.6 defines creativity as:

“a multifaceted process that involves being aware of problems and gaps in

knowledge, identifying omissions in information, making assumptions about these
gaps, analysing and testing these hypotheses, retesting and revising them again, and,
finally, communicating their results and promoting changes in the environment.”
“Dyslexia, spatial awareness and creativity in adolescent boys”, Martinelli, V. & Schembri, J.
(2013) claim that this definition is very relevant to their study because the measure used to
assess creativity was the Torrance Tests of Creativity (TTCT). In the authors’ opinion this
test sets the ‘gold standard’ for assessing creativity and that no other test of creativity has
been as widely used as the TTCT.

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Neil Alexander-Passe (2010) in “Dyslexia and Creativity Investigations for differing
Perspectives”, states that it was important to investigate what creativity actually is and how it
should be measured. Interestingly, he also recognised that visual-spatial awareness does not
feature among mainstream creativity research and poses the interesting question whether
visual-spatial was ever a viable creative skill to begin with? According to the author:

“as there is no single authoritative definition of creativity, there is no single

standardized means to measure it, as most measures are dependent on the personal judgement
of the tester.”

Learning Disabilities
Historically the concept of learning disabilities, is this idea of ‘unexpected failure’, a student
who is struggling with learning without any intellectual or sensory disabilities, having
received a sufficient education. According to Sleeter, 1986, learning disabilities have been
described as a socio-political construction designed to separate white, middle-class children
from other categories of special education by creating a new category with less stigma than
intellectual disabilities.

Learning disabilities are defined within a particular subject area: reading, writing, and/or
mathematics. In the law that initially codified it (PL 94-142) a learning disability was
described as a

“disorder in one or more basic psychological processes involved in understanding or

in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to
listen, think, read, spell or do mathematical calculations.”

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 2004 and the DSM-5 include
dyslexia as part of the learning disabilities definition.

Spatial Awareness

Spatial ability according to Lohman, (1996, p112) is defined as

“the ability to generate, retain, retrieve and transform well-structured visual images”.

Linn and Petersen’s (1985) recognise three components of spatial awareness, namely spatial
visualisation, mental rotation and spatial perception. According to Winner et al. (1991) art
and design related disciplines that use visual-spatial abilities attract a higher proportion of
students with dyslexia. Butler, H. (2020) Dyslexia the Gift blog, aims to uncover and explore
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this ‘creative potential’ amongst dyslexics and states that dyslexics are excellent visual and or
spatial thinkers. The author explains how dyslexics often, learn, process information and
work best using pictures, images and demonstrations compared to reading and memorising
large amounts of written text.

Body of Literature Review

In the article “My Dyslexia is Like a Bubble”: “How Insiders with Learning Disabilities
Describe Their Differences, Strengths, and Challenges” (Aguilar, K. et al., 2019), examines
narratives about school from published memoirs and interviews with 30 individuals with
learning disabilities or dyslexia. A key finding was a resistance to rote instruction based on
memorization of both mathematics and spelling, however, cognitive strengths were
identified, which some referred to as ‘gifts’. Two themes in relation to gifts were identified:
creativity /conceptual thinking and multi-modal thinking. Some individuals described their
abilities to be creative and solve complex problems. The second theme that emerged was.
Multi-Modal thinking, both visual thinking and a kind of deep, multi-sensory engagement.
Individuals described seeing connections between ideas visually, using visualization as a
comprehension strategy both in reading and math. In his memoir ‘High School Dropout to
Harvard: A Dyslexic Success Story”, John Rodrigues described thinking visually.

“On the spectrum of formal education, the beginning and upper levels are very similar
in principle. In both places you’re able to explore, think creatively, and carve out a path in
whatever direction it takes you. Visual thinkers like myself thrive in this environment. I
found the school system leading up to college so regimented that it allowed little room for
curiosity. That system also judges everyone based on a narrow linear system, which doesn’t
take into account different types of intelligence.” (Rodrigues, 2013, p7)

Echoing these strengths and abilities some real-life research has been conducted in the article
“The Alleged Link Between Creativity and Dyslexia: Identifying the Specific Process in
which Dyslexic students excel” Cancer, A., et al., (2016). The aim of the study was to
investigate the relationship between DD and creativity in the Italian context. Study 1 the
Widening, connecting and reorganising Creativity test (WCR) was administered to 52 junior
high school students, 19 of whom diagnosed with developmental dyslexia (DD). Results

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showed that students DD performed significantly better in the connecting task, which
consisted in carrying unusual combination of ideas out.

Study 2 involved a small sample of junior high school students with DD, where a negative
correlation between connecting abilities and reading skills emerged. This confirmed that the
ability to connect different elements is related with the level of reading impairment. General
intellectual level does not appear to support the relationships in question and neither do
attention and working memory abilities.

Similar to the findings in “My Dyslexia is like a Bubble”, Aguilar, K. et al., 2019, the results
suggest that people with DD use creative thinking especially when the situation requires to
establish relationships between different of opposite elements, and finding alternative
solutions. The study can surmise that individuals with DD are induced to face reading related
tasks in a manner which is different than that most persons follow and this leads them to
apply original strategies.

The small sample size and the presence of cases of comorbidity are the main limitations of
this study. The fact that all participants attended the same school on the one hand ensures
homogeneity of sociocultural and educational variables, but on the other hand reduces the
results’ generalizability.

It was necessary to further review literature that was not in support of a relationship between
dyslexia and creativity. “No evidence of creative benefit accompanying dyslexia: A meta-
analysis”. Erbeli, F., et al., (2021) where 20 studies were included to determine summary
effects of mean and variance differences in creativity between groups with and without
dyslexia. The mean summary effect was moderated by age, gender and creativity area.
Results suggest that individuals with dyslexia as a group are no more creative than peers.
Different theories have been proposed to describe the possible link between dyslexia and
enhanced creativity. Some theories speculate a neurological basis for this link, however
others points, the link to several coping compensatory strategies that appear and develop over
time later in life (Everatt et al., 1999). As stated in this article, supporters of the coping
strategies theories suggest that to compensate for reading and writing failures in educational
settings earlier in life, individuals with dyslexia develop creative and coping mechanisms and
modes of thinking in adolescence and adulthood. Based on this Wolff & Lundberg, 2002
state that individuals with dyslexia seek out opportunities in fields that generally do no place

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heavy emphasis on academically valued skills, but which, instead, entail support skills, such
as visual arts.

Observational studies, such as the ones used in this studies lead to limitations and risk of bias.
Other limitations such as low rates of participation, gives rise to concerns regarding sampling
bias. In addition to this, in many of the studies carried out no screening was done for other
conditions such as ADHD and speech and language impairments.

The inconsistent measurement of creativity is another factor to consider with these studies
carried out, as measurement differed among studies. There are indeed limitations associated
with the reliability of the methods used and the authors recognise the need for research that
investigates the relationship of creativity and impaired reading skills in individuals where
other risk factors are involved.

“Dyslexia and Creativity: An Investigative study of Divergent thinking”. Alexander-Passe,

Neil. (2010). Similar to the meta-analysis studies, this study supports the idea that dyslexics
may choose and excel in such subjects to avoid writing, hence leading them to focus on
career paths in such artistic and visual subjects. The use of divergent measures as an
appropriate form of investigation was administered. Guildford’s divergent assessments were
used to test associational fluency, ideational fluency and alternative uses on a group of self-
diagnosed dyslexics and controls. The overall findings indicate that it is unclear whether
dyslexics are innately creative. However, the results were clear that individuals with high
frequencies of dyslexic traits displayed less divergent skills than controls and that dyslexic
females with the same high frequency of dyslexic traits outperformed control males.

There were several limitations to this study. The samples of dyslexics assessed were by self-
diagnosis rather than diagnosis by an educational psychologist. The choice of measures of
creativity is always questionable as no single measure can confirm creative skill. This study
used non-verbal measures of creativity which may also have given a bias to the type of
creativity investigated.

Martinelli, V. & Schembri, J. (2013) “Dyslexia, spatial awareness and creativity in

adolescent boys”. This study set out to explore the possibility of superior visual-spatial skills
and creativity in adolescent boys aged 12yrs and 10 months. 24 participants with formally
diagnosed dyslexia were closely matched for age, socio-economic status, type of school
attended and measure of ability, with 24 non-dyslexic peers. The assessments used were the
‘Spatial Reasoning Test’ and the ‘Torrance Test for Creativity’. The results found no

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differences between the groups on the Torrance Test for Creativity, however, the comparison
group showed a significant advantage over the dyslexic group on one spatial task:
Recognition of Hidden Shapes. It is concluded that poor literacy is associated with lower
scores on all measures of creativity even when in this case IQ and measure of ability is
controlled for.

Again like many of the other investigations to date, was done with a limited group of
participants. The reported findings were based on a small group of adolescent boys in a
particular geographical setting. All participants had exposure to web based interactive
games, which may have enhanced their spatial awareness skills. It is suggested that the lack
of difference between the comparison groups may just be particular to males. It would be
interesting to see this study being extended to include a larger number of participants both
boys and girls.

A further interesting study in support of the relationship is “Creativity and its relationship
with intelligence and reading skills in children: an exploratory study”, by Bezerra, R.L.M., et
al., (2022) The participants in the study included a sample of 75 children between 1st, 2nd
and 3rd year classes from numerous public schools in the Brazilian context. The results
indicated a gradual evolution of all these skills from 1st to 3rd year, especially for the
performance of the 3rd year. The results also showed correlations between creativity with
intelligence and reading skills. The findings were promising for these relationships and the
3rd year displaying even stronger correlations. An interesting overall finding was that the
stimulation of creative ability provided benefits in the education context for this typical
population and especially for children who are at risk for the development of learning
difficulties. However, the authors advised to observe the relationships found with caution, as
a relatively small sample was used and the effect size for correlations found was small. The
influence of the social context associated with poverty in the case of this study may have had
an impact on results. Also, the control of variables such as intelligence, personality and socio
economic level, family circumstances etc. was not controlled in this study.

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Conclusion

An overarching common finding amongst theorists reviewed for the purpose of this literature
review, was that the search must continue to find evidence that supports the hypothesis to prove that
dyslexics are innately creative. There is a need for future studies to include sufficient information
across specific creativity domains to afford comparisons. Many authors recognise that there is
still pressing need for higher quality studies which would incorporate appropriate eligibility
criteria, standardized outcome measures and potential confounders. To understand the
relationship between DD and creativity, it would be useful to replicate investigations
involving larger and more representative samples.

As outlined in this review, some studies have been made using visual-spatial measures but
have had only mixed success. Other studies requiring novel productions have had some
success and the study of divergent production has had some success, with high frequency
dyslexic females showing clear superior skills compared to male controls. This particular
study suggests that gender and other variables e.g. age and personality, combined with the
severity of dyslexia traits would be a valid way to continue the work of the study.

The assessment most widely used to test creativity links with dyslexia throughout the studies
of the “Meta-analysis” research and “Dyslexia, spatial awareness and creativity in adolescent
boys” and many other investigations was the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT;
Torrance, 1990). This measures the verbal as well as the non-verbal of creativity, however it
has been suggested that the tasks of verbal tests should be excluded and deemed unfair when
assessing individuals with dyslexia. The outcomes may have been influenced by dyslexia
related deficits in phonological awareness.

Based on their studies Bezerra, R.L.M., Alves, R.J.R. & Azoni, C.A.S. (2022), communicated
a key message, that in order to encourage collaborative learning that respects the diversity of
students, education professionals must provide spaces and methodologies that involve
creativity. Identifying and focusing on individuals’ strengths is vital. If an individual excels

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in creativity this should be encouraged and praised to allow the person to fully explore their
creative potential and energy.

Throughout the body of research conducted and the variabilities presented in the results, it is
reasonable to suggest that to some extent, the results found are products of the different tests
and investigations carried out and the range of methods applied. Thus, whilst creativity
cannot be ruled out amongst dyslexics, results could suggest that other factors such as gender
and personality, might have an influence.

Many may think only of the difficulties that dyslexia can bring to one’s life, however, as
much research and literature strongly suggests, dyslexics strive to find creative solutions and
coping strategies for tasks and situations they find difficult and strenuous. This creative and
artistic freedom can be a very positive impact and stepping stone for success for dyslexics.

References

Aguilar, K., Ceja, K,L., Chun, M., Davis, J., Lambert, R., Manset, L., Moran, P., (2019) “My
Dyslexia is Like a Bubble”: How Insiders with Learning Disabilities Describe Their
Differences, Strengths, and Challenges Learning Disabilities: A Multidisciplinary
Journal https://doi.org/10.18666/LDMJ-2019-V24-I2-8765

Antonietti, A., Cancer, A., Manzoli, S. (2016) The alleged link between creativity and
dyslexia: Identifying the specific process in which dyslexic students excel, Cogent
Psychology, 3:1, DOI: 10.1080/23311908.2016.1190309

Alexander-Passe, Neil. (2010) Creativity and Dyslexia: An Investigative study of Divergent

thinking ISBN: 978-1-61668-552-2 2010 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Bezerra, R.L.M., Alves, R.J.R. & Azoni, C.A.S. (2022) Creativity and its relationship with
intelligence and reading skills in children: an exploratory study. Bezerra et al. Psicologia:
Refexão e Crítica (2022) 35:17 https://doi.org/10.1186/s41155-022-00221-3

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Butcher, H., (2020) The Creativity Continuum, Dyslexia the Gift Blog, News and Views
from Davis Dyslexia Association International https://blog.dyslexia.com/

Erbeli, F., Peng, P., & Rice, M. (2021). No evidence of creative benefit accompanying
dyslexia: A meta-analysis. Journal of Learning Disabilities.
https://doi.org/10.1177/00222194211010350

Martinelli, V. & Schembri, J. (2013). Dyslexia, spatial awareness and creativity in

adolescent boys. The Psychology of Education Review, Vol. 38, No. 2, Autumn 2014 39 ©
The British Psychological Society – ISSN 0262-4087

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