What is Dyslexia?
By our president Dawn Matthews, who is herself dyslexic and a teacher of dyslexics
- Dyslexia is a learning difference. Dyslexics are not stupid or impaired in any way. We just perceive the world differently from other people and therefore learn differently.
- Dyslexics have strengths in creativity, business accruement, acting, design, interpersonal skills, mechanics and sport.
- We dyslexics cannot remember the look of a word and are un able to visualize the whole word, so have to work out how to spell each word as they write it.
- Dyslexics have problems with scanning when reading, and are, therefore always slow at reading. Dyslexics can, though, become very accurate at reading.
- We have problems absorbing long instructions or a lot of text or speech at one time. We prefer out information to be given to us in small chunks.
- We learn and remember things in a different way from the norm. We use our long term memories more and our short term memories less.
- We have super alert brains that notice everything that is going on and, can therefore be easily distracted.
- Amphetamine type medication does not help with dyslexia.
- We would appreciate it if you concentrated on our strengths rather than our weaknesses and stopped trying to make us normal.
- All learning differences tend nowadays, to be, gathered together under the general label of "dyslexia".
We are fine with this, but it is important to understand exactly how the pupil thinks, perceives and learns.
Learning differences include,
- Dyslexia,
- Developmental Motor Dyspraxia,
- Verbal Dyspraxia,
- Autism,
- Asbergers Syndrome,
- Hyperlexia
- ADHD.
- Central Auditary Processing Disorder.
All of these need a different teaching approach from each other.
Once a dyslexic realizes they aren’t stupid, in fact quite the reverse, it gives permission to accept who they are. And then look out world.
Registration No A1014055R | Charitable Collectors Licence no. 20981