Tom Jones on Dyslexia (It’s Not Unusual!)

Singing legend and The Voice star Sir Tom Jones recently opened up about growing up with dyslexia.

Speaking on BBC Radio 2 last week, Sir Tom revealed that he was often told that he was ‘lazy’ when he was at school, and was consistently being told that he needed to ‘try harder’. He wasn’t diagnosed with dyslexia until he was in his early teens – due to contracting the dangerous respiratory illness Tuberculosis when he was twelve years old, he was homeschooled for a number of months, and only with this kind of specialist tuition were his literacy differences recognised for what they were.

Thankfully, recent years have seen a much greater awareness of dyslexia both inside and outside of education, but Sir Tom’s story is an important case study when it comes to historical perspectives on dyslexia. Narratives like this sadly go some way as to explaining the large amounts of adults in the world today with unidentified dyslexia, dyscalculia and dysgraphia.

Tom Jones is part of a high-profile pantheon of musicians with dyslexia, with the likes of Cher, Noel Gallagher and Lou Reed, and it goes to show that literacy differences certainly don’t mean that it’s impossible to pursue a very successful creative career – indeed, there’s a lot of information out there that suggests having dyslexia could be very helpful when it comes to careers that think outside of the box.

You can read more about Sir Tom Jones and his experience with dyslexia at The Daily Express, and find more celebrities who have dyslexia and literacy differences at  Understood.org.