Hall reveals her children have dyslexia

The Texan model Jerry Hall has revealed that all her children with the lead singer of the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger, have dyslexia.

Elizabeth, 23, a model, James, 21, Georgia May, 15, and nine-year-old Gabriel all have the learning difficulty, said Hall, who has herself been diagnosed with dyslexia. "They all take after me. Being dyslexic is difficult at the very beginning but as you get older you learn to cope with it and I think it's great."

The condition is inherited, and is believed to affect one in 10 people in the population. Ms Hall, 50, told Closer magazine she believed the condition was "a gift because it makes you think differently". She said she spends two hours every day driving her son Gabriel to a school that helps dyslexic children. "It's a slog but worth it, and it really helps him when I read to him."

Her comments come two months after it was revealed that the Labour MP Ruth Kelly removed her son from state education and placed him in a £15,000 a year school to help him cope with the condition.

Nadine Dorries, Conservative MP for mid-Bedfordshire, also a dyslexic, said that computers - particularly the spellcheck feature - transformed her confidence in dealing with the condition. "I wanted to write as a child, but was also afraid to write. Simple things like constructing a letter would look normal to me but there would be chunks of words missing."

Her own dyslexia went undiagnosed during her education, but she recognised dyslexia in her own daughter, who after being formally diagnosed studied for a year at the fee-paying Kingham Hill School. "She is now sitting her finals exams for her degree," Ms Dorries said.

Other high profile people who are known to have dyslexia include Bill Gates and Sir Richard Branson.

Independent News and Media