Wednesday, 31 March 2021

Dyslexia and neuro diversity: surviving and thriving through COVID


#PeaceLoveGroovyness 

Hi readers, followers and subscribers hope you are well

I have been getting nothing but positive feedback from all my dyslexia students this year.

I think my focus on well being and mental health has proven itself.

If students are in the right place with they well being and mental health they are better able to cope with workload and challenges of being at university presents dyslexic students.

My dyslexia work had certainly helped me survive and even thrive during COVID. How have you all been coping with COVID?

Please leave a like if you like, subscribe to keep updated with by social media, comment and ask a question if you have one.

Good news is my dyslexia blog is closing in on 300.000 reads or views I want to thank you all for following my dyslexia / neuro diverse blog. 

How have you all be coping through this COVID crap?

#PeaceLoveGroovyness to you all

Steve McCue

Unique Dyslexic Eye: The story so far and Anita Govan dyslexic performance poet's live show for the Unique Dyslexic Get Creative Exhibition

#PeaceLoveGroovyness from Unique Dyslexic Eye

Hi to all our readers, subscribers and followers hope you are all feeling fab

A few words about my organisation's Unique Dyslexic Get Creative campaign and our response to COVID with our Unique Dyslexic Eye podcasting and broadcasting show.

Thanks to the National Lottery for their £10.000 award to Unique Dyslexic Get Creative. Huge thanks to all directors and volunteers who worked so hard to make this Dyslexia Pathways CIC campaign a success. Also, thanks to an unknown donor who gave us £1000 for the event. 

So chuffed by all those who contributed to our successful Unique Dyslexia Eye Campaign which raised over £790 to help us launch the show. 

Thanks to all the performers who performed at the event. Finally, thanks to all those from the dyslexic and other neuro diverse communities who got involved in our 6 creative workshops. Finally, huge kudos to all who got involved from all over the world by sending us their creative work for the Unique Dyslexic Get Creative exhibition.

Your comments and feedback would be fab. If you are a dyslexic or neuro diverse musician or poet. Or you have something to say about dyslexia and neuro diversity why not get involved with our response to Unique Dyslexic Eye response to COVID and send me a song or a poem for Unique Dyslexic Eye show.

This link will take you to my Unique Dyslexic Eye podcast show page: https://stevemccue.podbean.com/    

You can also find the show on Apple, Google, Spotify, You Tube and many other podcast and radio broadcast social media pages.

Huge thankyou from me to all those who have subscribed to the show, given us a like, taken the time to give us a follow or downloaded the show. I may have founded the show but its your show. 

Finally, why not join or Unique Dyslexic Clan and subscribe or follow the show? 

My email is: steve.mccue@uniquedyslexic.com

#PeaceLoveGroovyness to you all

Steve McCue, (founder of Dyslexia Pathways CIC and Unique Dyslexic.


This video is of the very talented dyslexic performance poet Anita Govan performing at our Unique Dyslexic Get Creative Exhibition.




Saturday, 27 March 2021

Dyslexia and reading: It aint all doom and gloom, trust me

HG Wells books

Hi followers and readers how are you all?

I have been hooked on H G Wells War of the Worlds since I was about 8 or nine years. It gave me a passion for science fiction and encouraged me to read and read and read. I still go back to it today from time to time and guess what? I still find new things in the book. 

I became an avid sci fi reader and, apart from school and the local library was stuffed full of books. For working class kids like me the local library was the only place to go to access books at that time. Now we have our government closing down libraries. Such a short sighted thing to do. It was like a second home to me.


I have seen all the War of the Worlds movies and series on TV and radio.  I went to one of the first Jeff Wayne's first War of the Worlds concerts tour a couple times when I lived in London. Unfortunately, I can't afford this new show and I now live in Scotland. Not that there is likely to be another tour any time soon thanks to COVID.

Luckily enough the local library was just a stones throw away from where I lived as a kid. I could see it from my front door in Longberrys, Childs Hill, London. 

Then there was always comics to devour when ever I could get them which by a quirk of fate I had access to new comics on a regular basis and for free. More about that later lol. Unfortunately, that library no longer exists. So many libraries have been closed here in the UK just crazy and short sighted.

Even further back, when I was a kid maybe 3 or 4 I was reading Noddy and Thomas the Tank Engine books. A little story here, those Noddy books were read to me so often I knew them off by heart lol. People would see me with the book in my lap apparently reading out loud and following the lines. They just assumed I was reading the book. I had really just memorised them word for word. 


They all gave me a thirst for reading. I was very lucky one of my aunts father owned / ran a sweetie come newspaper shop just around the corner of my primary school All Saints. Most times when I went to visit my aunt there were new comics there just waiting to me to read.

sci fi comics
At that time I just thought the way I read was the way everybody read. I knew I was missing lines, sentences and paragraphs but just accepted it as the way everybody read.. My teachers certainly never picked up on any reading issue.

It wasn't until I was 35 that I was assessed as dyslexic. Once I was assessed it all began to make sense. I discovered I had academic ability and achieved a BSc in Geography with Honours. I went on to become a dyslexic, dyslexia and inclusion specialist. I founded the world's first Dyslexia focussed social enterprise Dyslexia Pathways CIC.

Now I have been teaching and providing Dyslexia and inclusion support to college and university students for over 25 years. I would never have achieved this without that dyslexia assessment. My own research showed only 19% of dyslexic adults were assessed while they were at school. 

Not enough it being done to enable dyslexic kids to access reading and learning. Our education system simply fails far to many of us still. 

Advice for parents of dyslexic kids. Use your children's curiosity, let them decide what they want to read. Let them read comics, let them play computer games especially games that includes reading. Not only can computer games help develop reading skills. They can help with sequencing issues. 

More to the points kids dont even realise they are doing it and learning from it. We have to be more sneaky when encouraging our kids to read lol. If you can spark a child's curiosity, find out what interests them hey use that to encourage them into reading. 


Make it fun not a chore. Make it interesting to them not a bore.

Find the right books or comics or computer games that require reading as part of the game do your kids read? Do it with them together so its not just mum or dad making them read stuff they may have no interest in.

Thanks for reading:

Please leave a like, comment, subscribe or share it would all really help me grow my podcasts, broadcasts and blog.

#PeaceLoveGroovyness to you all

Steve McCue

Tuesday, 23 March 2021

Dyslexia is about Diversity and Difference and not Discrepancy, Deficits and Disorder

My #PeaceLoveGroovyness t shirt designed by yours truly realised by Bill Blenman



Hi blog readers hope you are all well

Yep society says dyslexia is a medical problem, that it’s about deficits, disorder and discrepancy, that we are faulty, that our brains are faulty, that we need treatment. But just not enough so we can get an assessment from the NHS. 

I have always been of the opinion that dyslexia assessment should be free. Only 19% of assessed dyslexic adults were assessed while they were at school. As a result we see so many dyslexic adults left with a life time living with poor self esteem, low self confidence and mental health issues. 

So much dyslexic potential wasted, so many dyslexics being an enigma to themselves. Over 50% of adults in our prisons are dyslexic. Not sure how we know this when so many of us never get a dyslexia assessment. 

It costs society £35.000 a year to keep an adult in prison alone. Just think how that £35.000 a year could be better spent supporting dyslexic kids at school? Enabling dyslexic kids to succeed, enabling society to benefit from dyslexic potential. Totally crazy on every level.

#PeaceLoveGroovyness to you all

Steve McCue 

please follow and subscribe its free to do

Wednesday, 17 March 2021

Dyslexia: Different Minds, Different Thinking, Unique Solutions

 Study shows stronger links between entrepreneurs and dyslexia


#IAmDyslexic

t has long been known that dyslexics are drawn to running their own businesses, where they can get around their weaknesses in reading and writing and play to their strengths. But a new study of entrepreneurs in the United States suggests that dyslexia is much more common among small-business owners than even the experts had thought.

The report, compiled by Julie Logan, a professor of entrepreneurship at the Cass Business School in London, found that more than a third of the entrepreneurs she surveyed - 35 percent - identified themselves as dyslexic. The study also concluded that dyslexics were more likely than nondyslexics to delegate authority and to excel in oral communication and problem solving and were twice as likely to own two or more businesses.

"We found that dyslexics who succeed had overcome an awful lot in their lives by developing compensatory skills," Logan said during an interview. "If you tell your friends and acquaintances that you plan to start a business, you'll hear over and over, 'It won't work. It can't be done.' But dyslexics are extraordinarily creative about manoeuvring their way around problems."

The study was based on a survey of 139 business owners in a wide range of fields across the United States. Logan called the number who said they were dyslexic "staggering" and said it was significantly higher than the 20 percent of British entrepreneurs who said they were dyslexic in a poll she conducted in 2001.Work since has shown this number could be as high as 35%. We must also remember many many dyslexics never receive a dyslexia assessment.

She attributed the greater share in the United States to earlier and more effective intervention by American schools to help dyslexic students deal with their learning problems. Approximately 10 percent of Americans are believed to have dyslexia, experts say. 

Please note I am dyslexic, I don't have dyslexia. 

One reason that dyslexics are drawn to entrepreneurship, Logan said, is that strategies they have used since childhood to offset their weaknesses in written communication and organizational ability - identifying trustworthy people and handing over major responsibilities to them - can be applied to businesses.

"The willingness to delegate authority gives them a significant advantage over non-dyslexic entrepreneurs, who tend to view their business as their baby and like to be in total control," Logan said.

William Dennis Jr., senior research fellow at the Research Foundation of the National Federation of Independent Business, a 400,000-member trade group in Washington, said the study's results "fit into the pattern of what we know about small-business owners."

"Entrepreneurs are hands-on people who push a minimum of paper, do lots of stuff orally instead of reading and writing, and delegate authority, all of which suggests a high verbal facility," Dennis said. "Compare that with corporate managers who read, read, read."

According to Logan, only 1 percent of corporate managers in the United States have dyslexia.

Much has been written about the link between dyslexia and entrepreneurial success. Fortune Magazine, for example, ran a cover story five years ago about dyslexic business leaders, including Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways; Charles Schwab, founder of the discount brokerage that bears his name; John Chambers, chief executive of Cisco; Craig McCaw, the cellular phone pioneer; and Paul Orfalea, founder of the Kinko's copy chain.

Similarly, Rosalie Fink, a professor at Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, wrote a paper in 1998 on 60 highly accomplished people with dyslexia, from a Nobel laureate to a Harvard oncologist.

But Logan said hers was the first study that she knew of that attempted to measure the percentage of entrepreneurs who had dyslexia. Carl Schramm, president of the Kauffman Foundation, which financed the research, agreed. He said the findings were surprising but, he noted that there was no previous baseline to measure it against.

Emerson Dickman, president of the International Dyslexia Association in Baltimore and a lawyer in Maywood, New Jersey, said the findings made sense. "Individuals who have difficulty reading and writing tend to deploy other strengths," said Dickman, who has dyslexia. "They rely on mentors, and as a result, become very good at reading other people and delegating duties to them. They become adept at using visual strengths to solve problems."

Orfalea, 60, who left Kinko's - now FedEx Kinko's - seven years ago, and who dabbles in a hodgepodge of business undertakings, is almost boastful about having both dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

"I get bored easily, and that is a great motivator," he said. "I think everybody should have dyslexia and ADD."

He attributes his success to his difficulty with reading and writing because it forced him to master verbal communication.

"I didn't have a lot of self confidence as a kid," he said. "And that is for the good. If you have a healthy dose of rejection in your life, you are going to have to figure out how to do it your way."

Danny Kessler, 26, also has dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. He founded Angels with Attitude, which holds self-defense seminars for women. He is a co-founder of Club E Network (www.clubenetwork.com), which sponsors "networking events," runs an online chat room for entrepreneurs and produces television shows about them.

He said he also had low self-esteem as a child, and now views that as a catapult into the entrepreneurial world. "I told myself I would never be a lawyer or a doctor," he said. "But I wanted to make a lot of money. And I knew business was the only way I was going to do it."

Hope you enjoyed this article and hope you feel more positive for reading it.

#PeaceLoveGroovyness to you all

Steve McCue

Sunday, 14 March 2021

Social Model of Dyslexia and Social Enterprise an Empowering, Inclusive and Positive Way Forward

Photo from our Unique Dyslexic Eye Exhibition

Hi blog readers hope you are all feeling fab

The Social Model of Dyslexia and Social Enterprise an Empowering, Inclusive and Positive Way Forward

That is why I and my social enterprise support and promote the social model of dyslexia. Its a model created by dyslexics for dyslexics. It tells us dyslexia is about #diversity and difference. 

We have been trying to solve the issues we face using terminology and ideas that are embedded in medical modal thinking that in my view do not fit or work for us. The idea that dyslexia is a disability is imposed upon us by non dyslexic thinking.

We have to stop thinking in terms of disability and focus on the idea that dyslexia is about diversity and difference. If we are going to build a community do we want one based on a medical \ discrepancy model vision or social model of dyslexia vision?

What do you think?

#PeaceLoveGroovyness to you all

Steve McCue

A dyslexic student I was supporting said to me?

#VivaLaDifference #VivaDiversity


Hi me old muckers hope you are all well

A dyslexic student said to me, "nobody likes this think they have anything wrong with them, especially when it comes to the brain". The medical model of dyslexia says we have a discrepancy, a disorder a deficit. 

This is not an assessment its a life sentence, no wonder so many dyslexics give up on school. 

That's why I support the social model of dyslexia because it says being dyslexic is about diversity and difference. It recognises that it is our dyslexia unfriendly society and education system that disables. My blog / podcast explores how badly society handles diversity and difference.

#PeaceLoveGroovyness to you all

Steve McCue

Wednesday, 10 March 2021

Reflections from another busy dyslexia day

 

My Peace Love and Groovyness logo

Hi all hope you are all keeping safe and well:

Another busy #Dyslexia day yesterday, 5 students, doing a lot on well being. Students stressed, too much time on line, too much isolation, too much stress and anxiety. If we learn anything from this its online teaching can;t replace in class teaching yet. The technology isnt here yet to make it work for students or staff.

Students spending up to, and over, 40 hours a week online attending lectures, doing group work, researching, writing assignments etc, too much time with eyes on screen, to much time sitting at the screen impacting on eye sight, physical impacts on neck, back and wrists etc

Dyslexic students will be spending even more time on line. DSA training isnt working. I am not apportioning blame but more needs to be done. One of my students has dropped out, too heavy a workload, isolation, stress. She is a bright, talented student and shown tremendous determination, strength of will and courage to hang in there with her course. I am so proud of her.

Yep remote teaching is the only game in town right now but its impacting on student physical and mental health that will have life time consequences, not enough is being done, its not even in the conversation.

Even before COVID we were spending to much time staring at our screens and not enough time looking at the stars. Too much time living in social media land and not the real world. Too much time living in a virtual world dreaming virtual dreams.

Thanks for reading

Steve McCue

#PeaceLoveGroovyness to you all

Thursday, 4 March 2021

Little old Epigenetic Dyslexic Me lol

 


Hi Followers and readers

Thu, 4 Mar 2021 Epigenetic me lol

Society just doesn't get diversity and difference:

https://youtu.be/7MLVVqk-LRw

a new podcast from me

#podcast #mentalhealth #dyslexia #diversity #neurodiversity

Please leave a like or thumbs up would be fad if you could leave a comment and share

#PeaceLoveGroovyness to you all

Steve McCue

Tuesday, 2 March 2021

If you would like to support the work we do at Unique Dyslexic Eye you can:

 

Unique Dyslexic Eye Logo


Hi all hope everything is ok with you all

If you would like to support what we do at Unique Dyslexic Eye you subscribe, leave us a thumbs up or like, share on your social media or comment on our You Tube and Podbean pages:

Unique Dyslexic Eye You Tube

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You can donate to out Patreon Page by clicking on the link below:

https://www.patreon.com/UniqueDyslexicEye?

Twitter at  @DyslexicEye

You can also find Unique Dyslexic Eye on Apple, Google, Spotify, Breaker etc.

I founded my social enterprise Dyslexia Pathways CIC 12 years ago. This year we embarked on a new venture. This was our response to Corona and lock down.


This year I passed and HND in Broadcasting. We founded two new accessible and inclusive podcasting and broadcasting social media pages called Unique Dyslexic Eye. My Steve Unique Dyslexic McCue blog has had over 270.000 views and our aim is to bring that success to our podcasting and broadcasting.


Our overall goal is to support and nurture the mental health and well being of the dyslexic and neuro diverse communities. On our podcasts and broadcasts we play exclusively music and poetry written and performed by dyslexic and neuro diverse musicians. We also raise awareness of the positives of being dyslexic and neuro diverse and I give advice an guidance on how to succeed and overcome barriers to employment and education.


When I founded Dyslexia Pathways CIC I wanted to offer a different vision. One that challenged the idea that dyslexia and neuro diversity is about disability and discrepancy. To do this we promote a social model of dyslexia which focuses on the idea that dyslexia and neuro diversity is about diversity and difference. We see our social model and social enterprise model as an innovative, inclusive and positive way forward. We do not see being dyslexic or neuro diverse as a problem. We believe it is society that disables us and this begins at school which are still dyslexia and neuro diverse unfriendly.