I'm Alan Alda and this is Clear and Vivid. Conversations about connecting and communicating.

I think things like the Selecting ADHD can be a part of your identity in positive ways.

Without discounting, the real negative experiences. On the other side of those challenges, our

stories of joy, stories of accomplishment, stories that are about potential. I think it's

one of the things that I could never have guessed at 18 that I would get to do in my life.

Dave Flink was lucky. He was diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD while he was still in grade

school with training and support. He got into an Ivy League college and once he was there,

he helped start a program where college students go into schools to mentor kids with a diagnosis

of dyslexia or ADHD. The program is called I to I and it's now entering its 20th year.

Dave has recently written a book called Thinking Differently that recounts his experience and the

experiences of hundreds of others with the same diagnosis. We talked in our Manhattan studio.

This is so good to be able to be talking with you today because we're covering when we talk,

I think today an angle on communication that we've never touched on before, which is dyslexia.

I think when I first heard about dyslexia, all I was aware of was that it had to do with mixing

up letters and words. The words would get scrambled on a page, but it's much more than that, isn't it?

Dave Flink It is. I was sort of heading down here and when we first met, which was what,

10 years ago, maybe, and we were doing a panel, you probably remember, on dyslexia with scientist.

And one of the things that I think came out of that panel was in fact exactly what you just said.

It's not just about switching letters, it's really about learning.

So when you say it's about learning, what do you mean? It's more if it's more than scrambling letters

up when you read. Do you mean that as someone is trying to teach you something,

you can't keep track of the thoughts the way they're coming at you. You scramble up the sounds

...