Story

AJ Meier

Author, Social Impact Entrepreneur

AJ Meier is a high school student who lives on the Central Coast of California. He was inspired to write picture books because he is dyslexic, and he hopes his books will spread awareness to others about the importance of early identification and support.

AJ founded Conundrum Kids, a social impact organization, so the sale of his books can be used to sustainably fund programs that lead to the early identification of children with hidden or “stealth dyslexia.” Children with stealth dyslexia appear to read well but may unknowingly be reading words by sight because their brains use memory strength to compensate for decoding problems. Unfortunately, memory is limited, and it will begin to fail in later years when there are too many words to recall. At that point, it’s difficult for these students to progress in their education.

If young children are given nonsense words to read, parents and teachers may notice some children struggling, despite successfully meeting their traditional reading milestones. Their struggle may be because they haven’t seen or memorized the nonsense words. 

That’s how AJ was identified with stealth dyslexia. Like many others, his reading challenges were not discovered when he began learning to read in school. When AJ was older, however, an education therapist recognized a pattern among his strengths and weaknesses, specifically his struggle with reading new words, and she knew from experience and training that his struggle was consistent with stealth dyslexia. AJ finally received the specific reading instruction he needed, but he also learned how many students do not. Some children with stealth dyslexia begin to struggle with certain aspects of learning as they get older, but most are never identified as dyslexic because their school reports show they were strong readers.

That is why AJ and others learning with Stealth Dyslexia are the Conundrum Kids.

It’s important to note that not all students with literacy difficulties have dyslexia. Formal testing of reading, language, and writing skills is the only way to confirm a diagnosis of suspected dyslexia.

“The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones that do.” -Steve Jobs

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better” -Maya Angelou

Maya