Social model of dyslexia together with social enterprise, an alternative way forward

 

I am a fab one in ten dyslexic

Hi blog readers hope you are all well

I have no problem with being dyslexic. I am very happy that I see and experience the world through my dyslexic prism.

I do have a problem with our #Dyslexia unfriendly education system and society that quite simply has failed us. 

#dyslexia is about diversity and difference and it is society that disables us.


That's why I, and my organization Dyslexia Pathways CIC, say the #dyslexia is a difference that reflects diversity and not dyslexia is a condition that disables us.


The negative medical discrepancy model has also resulted in:


Over 50% of people in our prisons are dyslexic


Dyslexics are 6 times more likely to be long term unemployed than non dyslexics


Only 19% of dyslexic adults were actually assessed as dyslexic while at school

Many of us leave school with long term mental health issues, poor self confidence and low self esteem because of our negative experiences in education

This is not acceptable and cannot continue.

We ourselves have to change how we think and talk about #dyslexia, the medical discrepancy model way has not worked for us. Society will not just do it for us.


All the medical discrepancy model has done is isolated and marginalized many of us. Its created a negative medical discrepancy model stereotype around dyslexics that disables us in our own eyes and in the eyes of society. It is a model that has been imposed upon us by society.


We need to challenge it and fight for change because if we don't future generations of dyslexic kids will continue to be failed. Of course some positive change is happening. However, it is far to slow and we have had to fight for that change every step of the way

We need to celebrate and recognize dyslexic culture and all that dyslexics have achieved across all areas of society.

That's why my social enterprise Dyslexia Pathways CIC supports and promotes the social model of dyslexia and social enterprise model. It is a more positive and inclusive way forward.

A model that celebrates and embraces dyslexia and recognizes our diversity, neuro diversity and difference. One that does not try to turn us into copies of non dyslexics.

More importantly its a model created by dyslexics for dyslexics.

If you think my blog has something to say please share and like it. If you have something to say please leave a comments. We will never see any change unless we all talk about and share our experiences.

thanks for reading

Peace love and groovyness

Steve McCue Founder of Dyslexia Pathways Community Interest Company

PS: my dyslexia blog has now had nearly a quarter of a million reads

Dyslexic imagination and dreams can be very scary.

 

Show my relationship with handwriting lol

Hello there everyone, hope you are all well.

Dyslexic imagination and dreams can be very scary. I had a very bad vivid dream when I was a kid. I was in bed and there was a full moon and I think it was either Mars or Venus shinning quite bright in the sky near it.

In my dream the planet fired laser beams through the window. I tried to get up but was paralysed in bed. There is a name for that sort of dream, no idea what it is though. The bedroom was on fire and I just could not get out of bed.

In the end the dream frightened me awake. Think I must have been about 9 or 10 and reading War of the Worlds at the time. Very vivid and very scary. I still have a memory of that dream.

Have you ever had a scary vivid dream and are you dyslexic?

That'e enough from me Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCue

#PeaceLoveGrooveyness to you all

Did a wee search on this out of interest. I certainly remembering a lot of the symptoms as stated below.

Overview

What is sleep paralysis?

While falling asleep or waking up, your brain sends signals that relax muscles in your arms and legs. The result — muscle atonia — helps you remain still during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. With sleep paralysis, you regain awareness but can’t move.

What does sleep paralysis feel like?

During a sleep paralysis episode, you're aware of your surroundings but cannot move or speak. But you can still move your eyes and breathe. Many people hear or see things that aren’t there (hallucinations), making episodes even more frightening.

How long do sleep paralysis episodes last?

They last anywhere between a few seconds and a few minutes.

Who gets sleep paralysis?

Rare or isolated sleep paralysis can occur in people of all ages. And it’s more common in the setting of sleep deprivation in association with a changing sleep schedule, which may happen if you are a college student or do shift work. Recurrent sleep paralysis is a symptom of narcolepsy, a disorder of unstable sleep-wake boundaries.

Symptoms and Causes

Why does sleep paralysis happen?

During the rapid eye movement (REM) sleep stage, you’re likely to have dreams. The brain prevents muscles in your limbs from moving to protect yourself from acting dreams out and hurting yourself. Sleep paralysis happens when you regain awareness going into or coming out of REM. Because narcolepsy is characterized by unstable wakefulness and unstable sleep, people with narcolepsy have frequent night awakenings that can be associated with sleep paralysis.

Are there specific causes?

The condition has many causes, including:

• Narcolepsy.
• Shift work.
• Sleep deprivation.
• Obstructive sleep apnea.

What are the symptoms of sleep paralysis?

The symptoms include:

• Paralysis in your limbs.
• Inability to speak.
• Sense of suffocation
• Hallucinations.
• Fear.
• Panic.
• Helplessness.
• Tightening around your throat.
• Daytime sleepiness, which may be a sign of narcolepsy.

Very busy dyslexia / neuro diverse university semester so far

 

Our Prestige Award for best Dyslexia Non Profit in Scotland

Hello to you all,

When all we see on our TV's is crap news. Its good to be able to bring some good news into that toxic mess.

Last week was my busiest dyslexia / neuro diverse student support week since before COVID, also busiest month. We can certainly do with the income. Next week will probably the last week until after Christmas and New Year. I certainly could do with the break.

However, this means I will have some time to make a couple Unique Dyslexic Eye podcasts over the next couple of weeks. Including a new Christmas song from the fab Bex Adams.

Then, as most will know, my organisation, Dyslexia Pathways CIC Prestige Award for best non profit dyslexia support organisation in Scotland. My podcast / broadcast social media channels Unique Dyslexic Eye is also going well.

We could not have achieved any of this without our supporters and friends. Huge thanks to you all.

Thanks for reading. If you are from the dyslexic, neuro diverse or disabled communities and would like to record your own guest podcast / broadcast for the show just email me and lets get you on the show

That's it for todays blog

#PeaceLoveGrooveyness from me Steve #UniqueDyslexic Mccue

Dyslexia and neuro diversity: It's a nature nurture thing.

 

The nature nurture of being dyslexic or neuro diverse

my initial design for the Unique Dyslexic logo, I wanted the U to intertwine with the D to show uniqueness and dyslexia go hand in hand

Hi blog readers and social media followers hope you are all well.

As a dyslexic I have been thinking more about dyslexia as a life experience. 

I experience and make sense of and understand the world through my dyslexic prism. Being dyslexic through eyes, thought processes, decision making and dyslexics senses. There is not a blob in my head that is dyslexic and the rest isn't, it is much more complicated than that.

All of us have different lives have different life experiences as children and adults which can impact on how we manage our lives as a dyslexic.

It's a nature nurture thing. I was born dyslexic no getting away from that thank gawd that's the nature side of dyslexia. 

Then there is the nurture side. Our experience with family, school, friends etc. The nurture side is ongoing and shapes us and who we are through our lives.

Our dyslexia unfriendly education system, simply fails to nurture us. As a result can leave many dyslexics with feelings low self esteem, self confident, self worth and even long term mental health issues and trauma. But we can all overcome these issues. For me personally relationships with friends, reading sci fi comics and books, becoming a musician and computer game player etc all helped me to overcome theses issues. 

But most importantly I had a dyslexia assessment at age 35. Only a dyslexics can comprehend how liberating the realisation of this can be.  

This assessment enabled me to make sense of my inability to succeed at school. It enabled me to realise I was not as thick as a brick at school. Society disables us, only 19% were assessed as dyslexic while at school. 

But so many dyslexics never receive an dyslexia assessment. Nobody really knows how many un-assessed dyslexic adults are out there. But I think this number is very high. 

That is was our dyslexics a unfriendly education system that failed me not myself. 

But the effects of experiences at school can still come to the surface. I can still experience periods of low self esteem and depression etc. I can still scold and berate myself for being an idiot. I can say things about my self to myself that would never say about anyone else. 


It's no wonder that so many of us hate being dyslexic, can feel ashamed of being dyslexic. Many will never know the answers to why they feel how they feel. To why that have struggled all through their lives. 

Question to you all:

How do you feel about being dyslexic / neuro diverse?

Please leave your thoughts in the comments section of this blog.

Anyways that's enough for this blog

Peace love and groovyness to you all

Remember dyslexia is about diversity and difference, its what makes us unique. Humanity and nature have thrived because of diversity and difference.

I know it seems nuts to many dyslexics because of their negative experiences at school but I love being dyslexic. I would not have it any other way.

Thats #PeaceLoveGrooveyness from me 

Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCue

Neuro diversity, music and me

 

Me with my first bass guitar, a converted right hand bass for a lefty one. I think this is maybe 1979

Good morning all.

Well this morning the frost has laid a white blanket on the grass, roads and cars etc. I have been a musician most of my life. I still have my bass guitar which I bought around 1982. Its an Left Handed Ibanez Musician Bass. As far as I know one a few were ever made. Cost me a small fortune lol. Also have an Ibanez six string, cant remember which model.

For a good few years I have been into Ambient music. Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure. Personally, I like the feel or writing and listening to ambient music

I bought myself a new music app for my I pad a while back. Its called Scape and is a generative music app from Brian Eno and Peter Chilvers. You dont have to be a musician to use it, its quite easy to use. There are a good few free music apps out there.

If you are into making music, try some of the free, or free, apps available. For me as a dyslexic I have always found music and making music fab for many reasons from helping me develop my concentration to my sequencing skills and relaxation etc. All of which could benefit any dyslexic like myself. Its an app for Ipad and a fab tool for creating ambient music with art. I have been a fan of ambient music since 1975 and even create my own now and again. Wrote a whole album of ambient stuff a while back.. Ambient music and this app will not be for everyone. But investigate it.

One of my own personal fave ambient musician is Brian Eno.

Thanks for reading, please leave a like or a comment. Are you a dyslexic or neuro diverse musician?

Please help by blog grow and subscribe.

Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCue

Thanks to all my followers and readers, I appreciate your support.

My organisation won an award

My organisation's "2023 / 24 Prestige Award

Hello all, hope everything is hunky dory with you all

Hi all, here is a photo of my Prestige Award for my organisation, best Dyslexia Support Non Profit of the year 2023 / 24. This is for the third year in a row.

#PeaceLoveGrooveyness from me Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCue
 

Dyslexia, inclusion, diversity and difference a new and positive way forward

 

Together we can touch the stars

Hello all of you out there across the world

New ideas and new way forward for the dyslexic community:

Almost all new ideas are generated by individuals but they are given life by and nurtured by communities and the cultures they can create.

If we are ever going to move away from a negative medical model of dyslexia that has nothing positive to say to dyslexics or about dyslexia. We, as dyslexics, need to come together and create a coherent global dyslexic community. A community that has a single message. This being that dyslexia is a difference that reflects diversity. 

A global dyslexic community that has a more positive social model of dyslexia vision of dyslexia. A vision which nurtures and values dyslexic diversity and difference and celebrates all that we have achieved and are still to achieve in the future.

We need to consign the medical model of dyslexia to history where it belongs because it has failed us as dyslexics. The medical model of dyslexia is one that has been imposed on us and does nothing but shackle us to a negative stereotype of dyslexia.

The social model of dyslexia together with social enterprise defines us by what we can do and achieve. It empowers and frees us from the negative medical model stereotype that tells us being dyslexic means we are disabled is some way.

The social model of dyslexia was developed by dyslexics for dyslexia. It is our own model.

That's why I believe that dyslexia is a difference that reflects diversity and that neuro diversity is as important as biodiversity.

My organisation Dyslexia Pathways CIC was one of the first dyslexia focussed social enterprise in the world and we have embraced and promoted the social model of dyslexia through social enterprise.

Why not join us and let's create the global community and culture we are dyslexics need to move forward and enable our dyslexic kids to thrive and succeed.

Dyslexia Pathways CIC was the first dyslexia focussed social enterprise in the word We support and promote dyslexia and neuro diversity through social enterprise and social model of dyslexia.

We believe this offers a positive and innovative way forward for the dyslexic community and an empowering alternative the the medical model of dyslexia. A model which tells us our brains do not function normally and that we are broken in some way.

The social model tells us dyslexia is all about diversity and difference. Nature thrives because of diversity and difference as does humanity. That's why we say vivaladifference for dyslexia and neuro diversity as well as for disability.

If we cannot respect and embrace neuro diversity and all other aspect of diversity on planet earth. Then how will we embrace and respect it when we meet it out there in the universe?

And Finally:

A little something for every dyslexic in the world. May your journey as a dyslexic in a non dyslexic world be a fab one. Every single one of you dyslexics out there are fabtastic. A huge heap of thanks to all those who love and support us.

Many thanks for reading #PeaceLoveGrooveyness to you all from me Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCue