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What does dyslexia look like in every day life? What are the highs and lows? Answers to these questions often depend on what stage of life you’re in, what came before, support you have from family and friends, and what you’re preparing for in the next step in your life.
By Margaret Rooke For the past ten years, I’ve been listening to children, teens, and others with dyslexia. It’s been a fascinating journey, teaching me what can help them do well and what leaves them struggling. It’s shown me how we can all be that adult supporting a young person with dyslexia – it can cost nothing, and it can change lives. I’ve written books to allow children and teenagers to tell others what they know and to help them feel less alone. My latest is for young children: Meet the Dyslexia Club! The Amazing Talents, Skills and Everyday Life of Children with Dyslexia. For this I’ve created young characters who talk about their lives, with many of their words coming from real children […]
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There is a talent cluster that we’ve seen among dyslexics in diverse backgrounds, and it’s a gift of being able to see people and events from multiple perspectives. Within the MIND strengths framework, this could be in I for Interconnected Thinking, N for Narrative Thinking, or D for Dynamic Thinking. It is a gift to be able to visualize or or imagine a simulation of how people and events can be seen from different perspectives, and it allows empathy for people and situations that others might miss, or a connection of events that others see separately, and predictions that provide positive opportunities for bettering one’s situation or the world, or staving off problems. You might notice children who seem unusually empathetic or observant about the […]
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‘Dyslexic moments’ like in the BuzzFeed video with Becky and Corey may happen a lot depending on how significant dyslexia related challenges are. Besides car directions, there are little mistakes writing down phone numbers or addresses or jotting down notes. Supportive families know how to be flexible and roll with the unexpected. It’s not uncommon for people to wonder whether they should bring up their dyslexia as they get to know someone better. It’s not easy bringing up these things because it can call up all sorts of past memories of being in school and misunderstood, and chances are, a significant other may know little about dyslexia. Some people choose not to bring the subject up – while others may have not known they had […]
One of the most neglected issues in the field of dyslexia is the topic of social and emotional health. We now know that as a group, dyslexic people are more emotionally sensitive than non-dyslexic people and because emotion memories may be so strong in dyslexic people, negative and painful experiences can have long lasting effects on children and adults. I was recently talking to a woman who remembered the moment when a substitute singled her out for a simpler, alternate assignment. She said it was the moment she decided that she would close the door on her dyslexia and do everything in her power to act like she didn’t have it. It would take years for that feeling to change. She never told anyone […]
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Asynchronous development refers to an unevenness in development which may include wide differences in various aspects of cognition, physical development, and emotional development. The unevenness in these different aspects of development can create paradoxes (being ahead in some abilities as well as behind) and opportunities as well as stress. Asynchronous development was first introduced in the academic and educational literature in the context of gifted children – children who showed wide discrepancies between strengths and weaknesses and who were sometimes referred to as being “twice exceptional”. In the figure below, an example of score variations is seen in a gifted student with dyslexia. Where the standard scaled score for age is 100, this student had strengths in verbal comprehension with a score of […]
By Dr. Dan Peters of Summit Center “Things were fine last year and now he wakes up with a stomachache and says he doesn’t want to go to school. It takes me forever to get him out the door. We are often late. He ends up screaming at me and telling me I am the worst parent ever! I end up yelling at him and almost have to pull him out of the car. He leaves upset and I feel upset, worried, and angry. Why is this happening!?” If it sounds like I was in your car this morning, that is because this situation is very common with children — both with those I work and those I parent. On the outside, a child’s […]
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“Challenging behavior is just a signal, the fever, the means by which the kid is communicating that he or she is having difficulty meeting an expectation. “ — Ross Greene, The Explosive Child The difference between the experience of one student and his or her dyslexia can vary a great deal depending on temperament. In psychology, temperament refers to consistent differences in emotional disposition and behavior that are biologically-based and relatively consistent over time. Temperament is part of a person’s personality, which also includes intelligence, humor, interests, and talents. Among the various temperamental differences, certain “difficult temperamental traits” may make some school experiences (like remediation or pull-out) difficult to accept. Examples of difficult temperamental traits include: negative responses to new people or situations, slowness to […]
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When I listened to music, I used to get really frustrated because I could never understand the words of a song that I had just heard for the first time… then I reread my report: “Isla struggles with auditory processing.” Now, I understand…that makes a lot of sense, something that I hadn’t thought about, which is why I think it’s so important.” – Isla McDade-Brown When Dr. Brock Eide was in England, he met up with young filmmaker Isla McDade-Brown from the University of York who was filming a documentary for her final Film and Television dissertation. Isla was identified with dyslexia at the age of eight, but now as a final year college student, she was reading her assessment as an adult and reflecting […]
Summertime tends to be a great time for dyslexic students. The grinding schoolwork routine is gone – and school, if at all, has fewer time commitments and less time in a seat. TAKE A BREAK First, especially if your student has had a difficult school year with heavy workloads, make sure there’s sufficient time to rest, recover, and do different things. Many students need a chance to remember that life is not school and they are not their report cards. EXPLORE AND CONNECT Summer can be a great time to explore the world, pursue new interests, and spend time on hobbies. So many people have told us over the years that what matters the most to them in their career success had little to do […]
Over the years, we’ve met many dyslexic adults with people strengths that span the full range of careers. Sometimes people with strong empathy are drawn to jobs that really need the human touch – whether it’s counseling, nursing or other health professions, or in business, user design, employee or customer relations, sales, or management. Now there’s a little trickle of research to suggest why dyslexics may excel in people professions. EMPATHY Empathy has been defined as an ability to understand and feel with the perspective of another person. The understanding and feeling sides are different things – and it’s possible to be better at one than the other.
Cognitive Empathy Understanding other people’s thinking from various perspectives is sometimes referred to as cognitive […]![Your “Mini-Me” and Bullying [Premium]](https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Your-Mini-Me-and-Bullying-400x250.png.webp)
English singer-songwriter Robbie Williams recently shared that he was saddened after learning that his 10-year old daughter who is like a “mini-me”, dyslexic also with musical abilities, was rejected by a friend who decided she didn’t want anything to do with her after learning that she was dyslexic. “I tried to make it clear to her that sometimes you just have to let other people go, that you should let them go – but without sacrificing your self-esteem in the process…This girl did not deserve her love and friendship…I speak from experience.” Because many adults today discover that they are dyslexic only after their children are identified in school, this reliving the school and social-emotional stresses as their own children try to navigate their lives […]
