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:

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#PeaceLoveGroovyness to you all

Steve McCue