Teacher highlighted creative powers of dyslexics
ARTIST, TEACHER
8-1-1925 - 15-10-2012
SUSAN Parkinson, who has died aged 87, helped found, in 1992, the Arts Dyslexia Trust, an organisation that has significantly affected attitudes to the condition in Europe and America.
Herself dyslexic and trained in drawing and sculpture, Parkinson later became a teacher. As a result, she knew that many responsible for managing education considered dyslexia an affliction to be cured.
By contrast, she felt that dyslexics, often blessed with visual and creative prowess, had specific talents to offer the arts, science and business, despite their problems with reading, writing, learning by rote and organisational skills. She recalled that, while teaching at a school for dyslexic boys, she found their work displayed imaginative powers that far surpassed what she had encountered in the art colleges where she had worked.
She conducted small-scale surveys and tests that revealed that dyslexics generally have better visual-spatial awareness than non-dyslexics. By the time she retired in 1985, she was convinced that there must be some reason why a lack of ability with words should so often bring with it a higher than average ability in subjects requiring visual-spatial skills. Then she found that the Harvard neurologist Norman Geschwind and others had collected evidence on the subject.
It emerged that traditional academic education depends on the use of words and numbers that are understood sequentially, whereas visual thinkers, including many talented dyslexics, think three-dimensionally. Parkinson noted that there are profound differences between these ways of thinking. Her conclusion helped lead to a fundamental reassessment of dyslexia.
Susan Elizabeth Sanderson was born in Calcutta, the daughter of a wine merchant based in Bombay. The family returned to England in 1930, settling in a farmhouse in Kent. She went to art colleges in Maidstone and Canterbury, then to the Royal College of Art, where she flourished under the tuition of Frank Dobson and won the college's Life Drawing prize in 1948. A year later she married Richard Parkinson, and they set up a pottery that for a decade produced an array of elegant figures in fine porcelain, some directly representative but mainly witty caricatures of animals and people. Years later the Victoria and Albert Museum put three of her pieces on display in its ceramics cabinets.
After the marriage ended in 1962, she taught art for 22 years and later took a degree in research methods and statistics. What she learnt added to her teaching experience and led to the creation of the Arts Dyslexia Trust.
She had no children.
Frequently Asked Questions about this Article…
Susan Parkinson (8 Jan 1925 – 15 Oct 2012) was an artist and teacher who founded the Arts Dyslexia Trust in 1992. Her work highlighted the creative and visual-spatial strengths of many dyslexics, arguing that these talents can contribute to the arts, science and business — a point everyday investors might find relevant when thinking about talent, innovation and workforce diversity.
The Arts Dyslexia Trust, founded by Parkinson in 1992, aimed to promote the strengths of dyslexic people, especially in visual and creative fields. According to the article, the trust significantly affected attitudes to dyslexia across Europe and America and helped prompt a fundamental reassessment of the condition.
Parkinson conducted small-scale surveys and tests which suggested dyslexics generally showed better visual-spatial awareness than non-dyslexics. She also referenced work by neurologists such as Harvard’s Norman Geschwind that supported differences between visual thinking and traditional sequential, word-and-number based education.
Parkinson noted that traditional academic education relies on words and numbers understood sequentially, whereas many visual thinkers — including talented dyslexics — think three-dimensionally. She highlighted profound differences between these ways of thinking, which informed her view that dyslexia can coexist with higher-than-average abilities in visual-spatial subjects.
The article points out that dyslexics can possess strong visual and creative abilities that are useful in arts, science and business. For investors focused on innovation, human capital or competitive advantage, recognising diverse cognitive strengths in teams and leadership can be relevant when evaluating companies or sectors that rely on creativity and spatial problem-solving.
Parkinson trained in drawing and sculpture at art colleges including the Royal College of Art, where she won the Life Drawing prize in 1948. She ran a successful pottery producing notable porcelain figures (three of which were later displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum). Her hands-on art background and long teaching career gave her direct experience of dyslexic students’ imaginative powers, shaping her belief in their strengths.
After teaching art for 22 years and retiring in 1985, Parkinson took a degree in research methods and statistics. That combination of practical teaching experience and academic research helped lead to the creation of the Arts Dyslexia Trust and informed her studies and surveys into dyslexic cognition.
Parkinson’s pottery work was recognised by the Victoria and Albert Museum, which displayed three of her pieces in its ceramics cabinets. Her advocacy through the Arts Dyslexia Trust is credited in the article with significantly changing attitudes to dyslexia in Europe and America.
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