Changes

There are very few certain things in life, I think there is an old saying that mentions birth, death and taxes. But there is one more certain thing in life and that's things never stay the same. Some of these things we have little or no influence over, some we have and some are both of these things.
 
Being dyslexic is one thing we cannot change because many dyslexics are born dyslexic and for me personally, today, I am very happy that I was born dyslexic. Of course it was not always so. When I was at school, oh we are talking 1963, when I started primary school there was no such thing as dyslexia. I don't even remember if there was anything like one to one learning support back then anyway.
 
Like many dyslexic kids I did struggle with some parts of my learning. My spelling and handwriting in particular I struggled with. Oh I did struggle with reading but I was lucky as my dad read to me from an early age and I gained a love of reading even though I was not exactly the quickest of reader. It got so bad with my handwriting that I just wouldn't write in front of anyone and was embarrassed every time I handed it work to my teachers. I had to write slouched over the page and cover what I was doing with my right arm lol. I couldn't chance or influence that and neither could my teachers. 
 
I continued to struggle with my spelling, writing and reading all through my school life and eventually I got so sick of it I just stopped attending school when I was about 14. I still went to art and music classes, I enjoyed religious education, not because I am religious in any way, it was because we talked a lot about world issues, we debated and best of all it didn't involve much writing.

I would show up at school for art and music because I could express myself through both mediums. I had a love of reading by then because it sparked my imagination and that encouraged me to write stuff, poems, songs and short stories.
 
However, left school thinking I couldn't learn and was not very bright the inevitable happened and I left school with very few qualifications. Well I say that but I don't know because when my results came I just threw away the letter. I just thought I was not a good learner and just not very bright.

I don't remember anything about my self esteem or confidence levels but I certainly remember being an angry, frustrated teenager.

It was not until I was about 35 year old that I decided to go back to school and I found I had a love of learning. Oh I still struggled but I had some great teachers and we dyslexics, if we are anything at all, are determined individuals. 

It was when I was in my second year of university I discovered I was dyslexic and this discovery changed everything for me. It was the start of a journey which enabled me to work with my dyslexic strengths, to understand myself as a dyslexic and place my struggles at school and with my dad into context.

But the biggest positive that came for being assessed was access to Disabled Students Allowance. It was a eureka moment as they say, I finally started to understand why I had not succeeded in school and why I had struggled. Once I began to understand this I found I could take control over my dyslexia instead of my dyslexia having control over me.  

This enabled me to buy a computer and software and overnight my hand writing issue was no longer an issue. I found I could type as fast as everyone else. I was a dyslexic learner unchained lol.

Finding out I was dyslexic enabled me to overcome many barriers placed in front of me by society and many of the self imposed barriers I had placed in front of myself. 

After passing my honours degree I went on to do a PGCE in Inclusive education. It was during this time I made it my mission to find out as much as I could about dyslexia. I was able to start working to my dyslexic strengths, to start overcoming barriers placed in front me by society and by myself.  
 
 Many medical and even dyslexia specialists experts, so called, would have us believe that being dyslexic makes us disabled, that we have a malfunctioning brain that we are different from the norm. Whatever norm might be. This discrepancy or medical model of dyslexia is something that needs to change. This is a model that fails dyslexics miserably in my view because it has so many negative connotations attached to it.

Dyslexia was only a disability in my case because I had no understanding about my dyslexia, because I didn't have access to the tools that would enable me to learn. In my case it was the keyboard and computer that unchained me from my own negative perceptions of myself as a learner. 

Today our schools still fail far to many dyslexic kids, we are not taught in ways that enable us to access the learning that takes place in the classroom. Or access to the tools that enable us to read, write and learn effectively. Because of this still to many dyslexic kids leave school with little or no qualifications. 
 
 In my career as an inclusion and dyslexia specialist, gawd I hate that word specialist, I have come to the conclusion that dyslexia is not a disability. It is a neurological difference which has many positive attached to it. Dyslexics are big picture thinkers, we have strong empathy, we are determined, creative, great emotional intelligence. We are so many positive things yet we still have to live with a discrepancy model of dyslexia. A model that disables rather than enables.

Ok here is something to think about lol its a bit way out there and there is no way to prove it one way or another. Prehistoric humans were hunter gatherers. We know they were hunters because in many caves there a paintings of men hunting animals for food. We see this as prehistoric art and that's all it is.

But to hunt as a group successfully you have to have a plan, a strategy, a means to coordinated the hunt as well as pass this information on to future generations. Maybe this cave art is the work of early, big picture thinking, problem solving dyslexic prehistoric people planning a hunt or passing on knowledge to future generations etc.

Being dyslexic in a society that uses art in such a way would make being dyslexic in that society a big positive and so the dyslexic gene got passed on and still remains with us today.

Ok so it might be a little bit X Files but who knows?

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