This week is Dyselxia Awarness week! I have not mentioned before in my blog, purely as it has thus far not been necessary, I am severely dyslexic.
The issues surround disabilities, learning difficulties (now more commonly referred to as ‘neuro-diversities’) and access have always interested me, and it is for this reason that they have formed the focus of my MA .
I come from a family of dyslexic children, who have all struggled with formal education in one way or another. I am not sure of how much you know about the so called “disability” (what a negative and horrible phrase!) that is dyselxia, and therefore I will explain it to some degree.
- One in four families in the UK contains a disabled member, with over 2 million children being labeled as disable or with Special Educational Needs (SEN).
- Dyslexia is the most common “disability” under the umbrella term SEN.
- 10% of the British population have dyslexia.
- Some of histories brightest, greatest and most successful individuals had dyslexia; Einstein, Edison, Walt Disney, Kiera Knightly, Richard Branson, da Vinci, George Washington, and Steve Redgrave.
- Dyslexia can affect all forms of learning and is more than just a difficulty with spelling, reading, writing and mathematics.
- As a condition dyslexia varies greatly in terms of severity from individual to individual.
- There are a series of conditions associated with dyslexia including; dyspraxia, dysgraphia, ADHD, dyscalculia and irlen syndrome.
- Dyslexia effects phonological skills, memory skills, self esteem, and can effect eye sight/visual stress.
***These are my own personal views on dyslexia and neuro-diversities***
As a individual with dyslexia I have struggled with six main things
- Memory – as a child I would “off load” important information to my mother as soon as I saw her, relieving me of the need to remember tasks, dates and times.
- Telling time & an awareness of it – this is something I still struggle with and causes me angst and stress, when I was younger unless I was told it was lunch time I would happily miss it as I wasn’t aware it was the middle of the day.
- Spelling – until middle school I was unable to spell my own middle name or my mothers name. I apologise for any mistakes in my blog posts, I have come to heavily rely on spell check but also have a unique ability to miss spell words as other correctly spelt words.
- Reading – although I can read fine, I am a slow reader and as a result hated reading aloud in classes at school.
- Self esteem – this may well also be a personal thing, but due to my poor ability to tell the time I am often very nervous and doubt myself in relation to abilities to manage tasks.
- Visual stress – as well as having dyslexia I have Irlen syndrome which is a condition that effect the muscles in yours eyes and cause headaches, and for some individuals the appearance of words moving on a page. I have special glasses that reduce the glare of a page and stop word movement.
It is my own opinion that I am not “disabled” by dyslexia but in fact “abled” by it, I wouldn’t go as far as to say it is a gift, but I certainly would change the way I work or think. Dyslexia has taught me to think outside of the box and has allowed me to develop my own methods of learning.
I am proud to be a dyslexic individual and think that my struggles with dyslexia have helped me to become a better person and have helped me to see education and learning in a different light.
Since it is Dyslexia Awareness week I will be blogging about some of my thoughts and feelings towards the subject. As my interests lie in Natural History and Museums, and since my MA dissertation focused on these subjects I shall be blogging predominantly about them.
*** I should like to point out that my posts are only being proof read by myself and the trust worthy spell checker, therefore I apologise for any gramma and spelling mistakes (they are often quite humorous) ***
Museum Musings 