I read in one of his book that Dominic O’brien has dyslexia or was diagnosed with the same. So how did he managed to be an eight time memory champion ?
Dyslexia and intelligence, as well as dyselxia and powerful memory, aren’t mutually exclusive; O’Brien is a great example of dedication towards something you’re passionate about, and excelling above and beyond. I don’t think it was in spite of his dyslexia, and I haven’t read his book recently to recall, but perhaps there was a degree of wanting to prove that he could regardless of personal obstacles.
I also keep echoing Lynne Kelly’s Memory Craft because I finished it so recently, but the opening line of the book (to paraphrase below) is a great hook:
“I was blessed with an appalingly bad memory. I say blessed, because had it not been so bad, I wouldn’t have sought to improve it.”
There’s also a regular journal on this website titled “Un-stupiding myself” where the author has been overcoming their mental obstacles to excel in memory training and abilities.
These examples alone should be enough to say that memory training can work for anyone.
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I met Dominic O Brien in person in the UK. He told me directly he had dyslexia. Maybe he lied tho. He taught me how to win a memory championship, but I am too lazy to practice consistently. Maybe next year
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I am teaching a 3rd grade student who has symptoms of Dyslexia and ADHD. She has a very poor memory even to remember memory techniques itself. She doesnot understand memory techniques at all. Suppose I will help her remember 1st president of USA is Washington by asking her to imagine a washing machine, she will answer 1st president of USA is a Washing Machine. 
That’s why I was asking
Her classmates of same age who dont have symptoms of dyslexia and ADHD are doing great in these memory techniques
She adds number like this
749 + 681 = 131210 no matter how many times I told her to carry the remaining digits in units place to 10s place.
I even show the process of carry over by making animation.
She counts numbers like this
ten
twenty
thirty
forty
fifty
sixty
seventy
eighty
ninety
tenty ( told this automatically )
When I ask her what is 10,she tells onety not ten.
Her answer to opposite of morning is no-morning , opposite of good is no-good etc…
I hope she will understand memory technique when she will reach 30 and will tell me “I wish I would have learnt memory technique when I were 9”
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Hi Gyana,
what you describe is not necessarily typical for dyslexia nor necessarily for ADHD.
Students with ADHD might make such errors, but typically are able to understand rules of language.
Students with dyslexia sometimes show this confusion of opposites you mention, but often are able to memorize.
Obviously it is impossible to diagnose anything based on a forums post, so just as a thought, I assume this student as further challenges beyond dyslexia / ADHD.
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I have dyslexia and ADHD and I remember quite well 
It sounds like you’re describing a different mental disorder but I am not a doctor
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hmm…
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Why would he not be able to? I remember reading that synesthesia can lead to enhanced memory recall, and various neurological divergences have been shown to have an effect on memory as well.
Then there is also the question of how much his dyslexia is influencing his actual ability. Not all dyslexia is equal.
This is around 8 years old, right? Looking at my own son (7), this is not too crazy. Every kid goes through developments at their own pace, so so might just need more time to grasp this. From what you describe, I see a lot of things that point to her being incredible at pattern recognition.
Math is tough. I see adults do what you describe here. Along with your washing machine example, I see her do everything right. She doesn’t make a mistake, she misses a step. I can’t say anything about the teaching as I am not present, but I do teach math one day of the week to a class of adults who have a massive learning disability (some developmental, some through events like an ABI). The addition you showed is something they would definitly do, because that makes sense. They do 7+6 because they are both in the same place, that they understand, same with 4+8. It makes sense. They started with simple sums like 123+456 where there are no next steps, and they apply what they learned perfectly. They don’t understand why it does not work that way for 749+681. That is tough to do for them and tough to explain for us.
With the washing machine example I see something very similar. I can see my own kids do this. All of my kids (ages 6 to 12) have an understanding of mnemonics, and they all can make grocery lists in a memory palace. If we need carrots, there is a carrot at the front door of their memory palace. Would I let them put a washing machine there to help them memorize the first president of the USA, they will say Washing Machine at first. They never needed that additional step to remember Washington, so they go by what they learned.
Why would this be dyslexia or ADHD? To me this seems to be pattern recognition and predictability.
Is she wrong though?
Language can be broken down to various levels, and she shows pretty good morphologic application. Our language consists of various small chunks, and in english the meaning can change based on the morphemes around that word. “Climb” would be a base, and “Freeclimbing” adds “Free-” and “ing” as morphenes that specify and alter the meaning. She might not be correct in het use of language, but is she wrong? If something is good, we say “that is good”, and if something is not good we say “that is no good.”
I don’t see dyslexia, I see great semantical adaptivity. There is a branch in lingustics that is cognitive semantics, and it basically focusses on how our mind processes and produces language in relation to meaning. Your student is showing she is pretty semantically developed.
I might drag this on a bit, but I do want to say a little more about this. Language is not intuitive. Children are intuitive, and thus they will not always use language the way adults want them to. Just take a little look at the skit below, this could very well be a conversation between an adult and a child.
Taking these two comments together a bit, but I want to put my psychologist hat on to express caution here. As I described above, what I mainly see the kid (!) show is excellent semantic understanding and application. Mathmatics aside, the shown examples show she knows how language works. It is up to the adults in her life to say “yes, yes I know we say twenty, thirty, forty, etc. But it is hundred, not tenty. I don’t know why, the writer of the english language must have had a stroke or so. Yes, ten should also be onety, but it is not and we have to deal with that”.
Now, I put a little exclamation mark behind kid in the paragraph above. Lets remember that we are talking about a kid. I am all for catching disorders in time, but I am against labelling everything kids do different than us. Again, going by the things that were described I want to repeat: the kid is right, we are the ones who make her wrong. I don’t see any disorder, I see a very smart kid who can apply what she learned in situations she didn’t encounter before. The fact that she doesn’t do it the way we want is not a shortcoming on her end.
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