Need a shot of positivity with your Monday coffee? Keep reading!
For dyslexics and our families, the beginning of the school and work week can be daunting to say the least.
As documented in a new survey of families in Britain, Human Cost of Dyslexia Survey (by the Studying with Dyslexia Blog and the British Dyslexia Association), lack of school support and awareness about dyslexia creates stress and anxiety in families, everything from parental guilt to financial worries.
This is the reality for 1 in 10 families around the world. Yet it can feel very lonely and tiring to fight for every scrap of support from schools that place barriers in the way of our children’s success.
But here’s the good news…
Dyslexics (and those who love us) are working tirelessly to change the world! And judging by the uptick in media coverage, I think we’re being heard!
I’ve seen so many positive stories circulating lately, from students to doctors, journalists to lawyers, telling the world that dyslexia is a difference, not a deficit.
Don’t get me wrong. Our stories are by no means easy; sadly, there is no “get out of jail free” card through the education system for most dyslexic children.
But pain is not the main message here. It’s perseverance. Dyslexics get down, but we rarely stay down. Every story comes back to this: hard work, positivity, and the right education and supports set dyslexics up for success (however you personally define “success”).
Here’s this week’s “hit of happy”:
1. Youth advocate Marcus Smith from Ontario, Canada is fighting to change public perception around dyslexia (Jun 06, 2019):
- “Ten-year-old Marcus Smith is continuing his mission to raise awareness around dyslexia and attempting to influence how reading is taught in Ontario classrooms.”
Marcus has gotten the attention of his local MPP, and is planning to meet with her this summer.
- “I am inclined to telling this story in order to bring about the knowledge of the existence of dyslexia in our society, and to promote the cause of getting everyone—especially educators, parents and the government—to embrace dyslexia-consciousness.” ~Edwin Ugwuodo
“The upside to dyslexia, even as a journalist”:
“Like two sides of a coin, dyslexia is a gift and a struggle.
I know this because I’m dyslexic. So is my youngest child. It’s genetic and extremely common. It’s estimated that 1 in 5 people have dyslexia.
Dyslexia is, put simply, a different wiring of the brain. It is not a measure of intelligence. Dyslexic brains find it difficult to recognize how sounds, words and letters match up phonetically. It’s an alternative way of thinking.” ~
4. Dr. Barbara Wirostko is an American physician, mother, advocate for students, and dyslexic. In her new TEDx talk she shares her family’s story with #dyslexia, and how they struggled to get help for their son Joseph James:
- “Dyslexia gets missed and goes undiagnosed all the time. As a society that is able to recognize learning differences, we can tap into the creativity, passion, and skills of students with dyslexia and other learning differences.”
After the tragic death of her son, her family started the Joseph James Morelli Scholarship, a nonprofit organization that supports high school and college students with dyslexia, dysgraphia, and/or dyscalculia who wish to pursue a career in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
5. Kate Griggs, is the founder of the UK-based Made by Dyslexia. In her new article, “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference” Sir Winston Churchill, she chronicles how she found her strengths:
- “The teachers positive attitude to dyslexia and their focus on strengths meant that in just a few weeks I went from feeling like a failure to realising that I actually had potential, that tests were not the be all and end all, and that I was smart, just in different ways. Eventually my dyslexia was picked up and I was given the help I needed. From there on in I loved school.”
Watch Kate Grigg’s TEDx Talk, The Creative Brilliance of Dyslexia.
More!
- Tips on how to get a better brain by this memory record holder is dyslexic!
- Matt Hancock, MP, UK, How a simple spelling error nearly cost me my political career: Matt Hancock opens up about his dyslexia
