alone

I was working with one of my dyslexic uni students yesterday. It was not a very easy session for him or myself. He is struggling with his course work and his work load had gotten on top of him quite a lot. He is obviously a very bright student and knows his subject very well but his issues with confidence and motivation were causing him great anxiety. All he knew was he had this big ball of stuff in his head that he knew this work needed to be done and when it had to be completed by but the ball was impenetrable to him.  

So we sat down together, worked out what needed to be done and by when. We then started to break each assignment down into its constituent parts and put together timelines to plot out what needed to be done and set some goals for the next couple of weeks. We opened out this ball of stuff in his head and mapped out different routes to enable him to get to his destination of assignments completed.

Of course he still has to get on with his work and his issues with motivation will still be there but because we had spent a little time doing this mapping out exercise he now felt he could tackle his work. He said because he had kept everything in his head the problems with his work just appeared so huge and undo-able. I gave him my e-mail and said he could contact me to discuss his progress if he felt he wanted to.

During this session he told me he had never really talked to anyone about being dyslexic not his parents or his friends. He told me he didn't understand his dyslexia or what his dyslexia report said about him. He basically felt quite alone with his struggles with his dyslexia. In fact this was the first time he had discussed anything to do with dyslexia with anyone else. I wonder how many other dyslexics there experience these same issues.

So much time, some much money spent on so much research, and still so little is understood about dyslexia by so many.....including the so called experts sigh