The Dyslexic Democrat

The polls were not good. A lot of people thought Kendrick Meek (D) should just drop out of Florida's U.S. Senate race. It looked as though Meek was not even going to move past 25% of the vote against the Republican nominee, Marco Rubio, or even past the incumbent Gov. Charlie Crist, running as an Independent.

Meek was not going to back down. It just wasn't part of the hulking 6'3" former A&M linebacker makeup. Meek is no quitter.If he had been a quitter, the rundown streets of Miami's Liberty City would have chewed him up and spat him out long ago, when he was the shy dyslexic child of a single mother who became Florida's first African-American Congresswoman.

State seal of Florida

Kids who grow up on mean streets know that defeat is something that must be prevented at all costs, or street credibility evaporates for good. So Meek struggled through a Dickensian-like battle for respectability. He graduated Miami Springs High School and with the help of a full scholarship became star defensive tackle for Florida A&M where he earned a degree in criminal justice. No small feat for a kid with dyslexia who bore the brunt of his classmates' teasing for being slow.

Football

Meek has said that because he was dyslexic, there were things he just couldn't do, but that football bridged the gap for him, keeping him motivated and still striving for an education. If it hadn't been for football, said the former linebacker, he doesn't think he would have made his way through college. Meek was diagnosed with dyslexia in the third grade.

Dyslexic Child

Speaking about his disability, Meek described words that appeared jumbled on the page, and numbers that were transposed. Class work was a constant struggle. It was a trial to have to work long and slow at what, for other kids, seemed automatic. His classmates picked on him for taking so long to do his work.

Kendrick Meek

Natural Leader

Ken Riley, Meek's coach at Florida A&M remembered that Meek was a leader both on and off the football field. Riley said that Meek made such tremendous efforts toward coping with his dyslexia that no one suspected he suffered from a disability. Coach Riley described Meek as, "… extremely articulate and determined." Meek earned the appellation "clubhouse lawyer" from Coach Riley because whenever the other players needed any type of help or advice, Meek was the one to whom they gravitated. Riley described Meek as a "natural leader" who already knew he was going to go into politics.

Everyday Individuals

Meek spoke about the Florida constituency: "You do have an over-representation of poverty and hard times here," he said. "When you come from this kind of situation, working to correct it, you become a United States senator that carries the values of everyday individuals."

Stay Tuned

Meek may not have won the battle this time around, but is still fighting the war for the duration. Stay tuned.

Related articles

• Techniques and Tips for the Dyslexic Student (community.cognibeat.com)
• Symptoms of Directional Dyslexia in Preschool (brighthub.com)
• Dyslexic but I don't know what to do next (mirror.co.uk)

Driving Dyslexic

Most people know that dyslexia can cause reading difficulties, but how many know that dyslexia can have an adverse effect on driving skills? One small study compared the responses of dyslexic and non-dyslexic drivers to traffic signs and found that dyslexia can slow a driver's reaction to the same degree as a moderate drinking bout.

30% Longer

These results are bound to cause some controversy as people wonder whether it's safe to allow people with dyslexia to get behind the wheel. According to the study, the reaction time of those with dyslexia is 30% longer than for the typical driver. In the UK, drivers who just exceed the drinking limit of two pints of beer, tend to have a 10% longer reaction time. Experts are wondering if those with dyslexia should undergo testing beyond standard driving tests before receiving driver's licenses.

Simulated Roads

Hermundur Sigmundsson of Trondheim's Norwegian University of Science and Technology administered two tests to a group of 17 volunteers, including six individuals with dyslexia. The first test had the participants drive for 4 minutes along a simulated rural road at 50-80 kilometers an hour. The second task required the volunteers to drive on simulated city roads at lower speeds for10 minutes.

Traffic Signs

As the participants drove, a simulator flashed traffic signs within the drivers' visual field. The drivers were asked to respond to these signs by pushing a button or saying the word, "Now," and their response times were recorded. When driving in the rural road simulation, the signs were located straight ahead, while during the urban simulation, the signs appeared in random locations.

Delayed Reactions

During the rural road simulation, the 6 dyslexic drivers needed an average of 0.13 seconds longer to react than did the non-dyslexic participants, and took 0.19 seconds longer to react while using the more complex urban simulation. In both the urban and rural simulations, the control group—the non-dyslexic participants—needed 0.6 seconds to respond. This means that the drivers with dyslexia experienced a delay of 20%-30% reaction time.

Sensory Information

These results jibe with earlier studies in which dyslexia was found to affect the method by which the brain processes sensory information. Those with dyslexia are known, for instance, to be clumsy as children, and are often later in achieving developmental milestones such as crawling, walking, or riding a bike when compared with their more typical peers.

Cellphone Usage

The UK has banned certain activities known to slow a driver's reactions. Drunk-driving has long been illegal and cellphone usage while driving has also been outlawed. Cellphone usage while driving has been found to slow a driver's reaction by 45%.

Issue Warnings

But driving impairment expert Oliver Carsten from the UK's University of Leeds says that it isn't sensible to outlaw driving while dyslexic. Carsten says it makes better sense to issue a warning to dyslexic drivers rather than forbidding them to drive. Meanwhile Sigmundsson says that larger studies must be performed to confirm his results before taking any action regarding the dyslexic population and driving.

Other Factors

A spokeswoman for the UK's Department for Transport specified that reaction time is just one cognitive function used while driving. Furthermore, quick reaction time has not been found to be a good predictor of driving excellence. Young drivers in their teens, for instance, have shorter reaction times but tend toward more accidents due to overconfidence. Drunk drivers have other impairments in addition to their slowed reaction times. Their peripheral vision may be impaired so that they cannot see objects on their periphery. They also tend to be more aggressive when driving.

This article has been reproduced with the kind permission of www.cognibeat.com and can be found at http://community.cognibeat.com/2010/12/driving