The Dyslexic Gorilla
Have you seen the Dyslexic Gorilla?
There’s a well-known psychology experiment called The Invisible Gorilla. You can find it on YouTube and it’s worth a watch, but this is NOT about that, so please read to the end!
SPOILER ALERT: In the Invisible Gorilla experiment viewers are asked to count how many times players in white shirts pass a basketball. Halfway through the video, a person in a full gorilla suit strolls onto the screen, beats their chest, and walks off again. Bold. Obvious. Unmissable.
Except it is missed. By most people.
Why?
Because they were focused.
Because their attention was locked onto the task.
Because their brain filtered out anything “irrelevant.”
It’s a fascinating quirk of how we process information. And it is a useful analogy for something that dyslexic and neurodiverse individuals like me encounter every day.
Spotting the Dyslexic Gorilla
The Cost of Focus
For many neurodiverse individuals – whether dyslexic, autistic, ADHD, or otherwise – success comes at a hidden cost. It’s not that we don’t see the gorilla. It’s that we’re so busy juggling cognitive load, masking, translating instructions, or managing anxiety that our full capacity is already spoken for.
We’re playing the game.
Counting the passes.
Trying desperately not to drop the ball.
But just like in the video we miss something, when we do it’s not because we weren’t trying. It’s because we were trying so hard.
The dyslexic myth is that dyslexia means you cant read and write. While that can be a common challenge, it is important to remember that dyslexia is a processing disorder. Personally, I got to 42 being able to read and write reasonably well – I’ve published a kids book and written numerous poems and lyrics to songs – before anyone suggested I was dyslexic. Only since learning more and realising how my processing issues represent themselves have I really understood it. It is responsible for many challenges I face – recalling facts, words & names, managing 24hr clocks, and hearing questions in real time. My focus on a task and the effort that goes into getting the thoughts out either verbally or in writing often results in unseen errors.
And when we do miss something – a step, a date, a detail – THAT is often the only thing people focus on!
What did you read? What did you focus on? Read it again…
The One Ball We Dropped
People rarely notice the nine things we’re getting right. They notice the one thing that slipped.
They don’t see the effort.
The strategy.
The pre-planning.
The recovery.
They see the error, not the endurance. It batters our confidence and holds us back.
And that’s a problem, not just for neurodivergent people, but for those who work with them, teach them, live with them.
If we’re measuring competence by whether someone noticed the gorilla, we’re using the wrong scale.
For Instructors, Trainers, and Educators
If you work in a learning environment – whether behind the wheel, in a classroom, or in a workplace – this is your call to rethink how you define progress.
Are you noticing what your learners are juggling?
Are you adapting your expectations based on the effort, not just the outcome?
Are you building systems that notice the gorilla, or penalise people for missing it?
Consider using a modern approach like LTD which you can read about here.
Because the gorilla isn’t just a psychological experiment. It’s a metaphor for effort & errors, and it beats its chest to remind us of the invisible effort, unseen pressure, and how easily we focus on the negative.
Neurodiverse people aren’t broken – They’re running a different operating system, often with a hundred hidden processes running in the background.
We don’t need pity or praise. We need recognition and a growth environment.
And occasionally… someone to notice the gorilla for us.