Dyslexia, Conway stresses, has nothing to do with intelligence, though many who have it have suffered through insults about their mental ability. Instead, he said, it's linked to the language processor area in the brain, how the brain wires itself before you’re born. It can lead to trouble sounding out words, and thus trouble reading.
Helping children with dyslexia runs in Tim Conway's family
It's hereditary. Conway believes that it probably affected his father, as well as aunts and uncles, first and second cousins, nieces and nephews, and his own two children.
But it can be overcome. He points to his older brother John who was severely dyslexic and couldn't read, yet went on to a long career in naval intelligence.