funny the things that happen to a dyslexic

Many dyslexics feel isolated. Remember, you are never alone

I  qualified as an inclusive education teacher oh wayyy wayyyyy back in 1995. I went to the Bolton Institue of Higher Education and took a years PGCE and I really loved the course and working with the student's on the course. I originally applied to do the PGCE course in Greenwich London I lived in London it made sense to do the course there. However I didn't get on the course can't remember why not. I later found out that someone from Bolton didn't get on the PGCE in Bolton but got into Greenwich.

Obviously I passed the course and thus began my teaching career working with students with learning and / of physical disabilities. This meant I could be working with tetraplegic students one day and students with mental health issues the next.

Part of my job including providing pre course tests for students to ensure they had the right level of English and maths to get on a course of an appropriate level. I won't get into the rights and wrongs of this right now. However, I came across quite a few young people described as disaffected learners. This is a euphemism for students who hadn't achievde at school for whatever reason, who were disruptive and or who had gotten into trouble with the police etc. All of them had left school without any qualification what so ever.

The testing showed that many of the student's were not able to attend courses they wanted to attend because of this. Oh yes they could take more basic level English or maths classes but could take any practical based courses because none existed. Almost all these students didn't want to take the basic English and maths courses. They had already tried to do this in school and had failed but they did want to do other courses. Engineering kept on being mentioned when i was talking with them.

At the time I was teaching what were then called vocational access courses so I designed a vocational access course in engineering for these students. It enabled students to do things like mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and sound engineering etc. Oh yes English and maths was in there too but it was all based around what they were doing on the course. It was relevant to the students. In the first year we took on a cohort of 12 students.

The hardest part of all this for me was training the engineering teachers in inclusion because none had ever really worked with disaffected students or with many disabled students for that matter. So it was all new for them, some felt a course for students who struggled with the basics of English and maths had no validity but others really got into the whole inclusion agenda.

I taught the English and maths side of the course which was fine but I had to learn a lot about engineering to make the learning in class relevant to the students. It soon became obvious to me because of my own dyslexia that over half the students were dyslexic. I needed to do some specialist dyslexia training. It was the start or my journey to specialising in dyslexia.

The college where I was working at the time provided this specialist training and it was fantastic. But I must have become the most tested person for dyslexia. As I was the only dyslexic on the course my classmates all gave me dyslexic tests lol. Then there was the Dyslexia specialist taking the course. 

I would be writing away or answering a question and the teacher would suddenly put one finger on her nose pointing to me with another finger and exclaim to the whole class, "See look this is how a dyslexic would do this or that". Looking back on it now I can laugh but at the time it was quite disconcerting.

Anyway that's how I started my career as a dyslexia specialist.

Getting back to the students I was working with on the engineering course all passed and went on to other courses in engineering.

#PeaceLoveGrooveyness to you all

Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCue

Unique Dyslexic Eye Podcasting and Broadcasting

 

#PeaceLoveGrooveyness from me to all of you

Unique Dyslexic Eye Podcasting and Broadcasting 

Front page from our successful Unique Dyslexic Eye Kickstarter. We raised over £790 for our Unique Dyslexic Eye Podcast Channels 

Below is a link to a podcast dyslexia friendly version  of Unique Dyslexic Eye Kickstarter:

 Podcast Version of this Kickstarter 

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, now over 320.000 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.

Unique Dyslexic Eye Podcast is entirely self funded and independent:

Some feedback from one of my dyslexic students

 

Recording a podcast in the studio

Hello all, hope everything is going ok for you all

Some student feedback

Here is some feedback I got from one very bright student I provided dyslexia support for. Most of it was very positive apart from what he has written in the last paragraph:

Having left school with little or no qualifications and with a real lack of confidence in terms of academic learning. 

But sport provided me with an avenue to realizes my potential, on the sporting field and through employment and education.

Through rugby I was given an opportunity to gain coaching qualifications and in turn gain employment. This was my dream job which I never thought possible, working as a rugby development officer within Dundee

I gained national recondition for development work I had carried out within the city through the achievements the club had made in volunteer and player development within the sport.

After seven years working through my personally perceived difficulties with dyslexia my confidence had grown and I realized I can achieve just as well as anyone else within the work place or other wise.

 

I left my job to do a HNC and HND in sports development which was done in one year at collage and achieved A’s in all three graded units.

After this I gained direct entry on to BSc Hons in Sports Development at university. Although at this time I have only received grades for one assay, which was an A18. I feel I’m achieving far high standards of work I had previously thought possible. With the support and guidance.

The dyslexia support Steve has given me has allowed me to focus my attention on strategies best suited to my personal strengths and overcome my weaknesses.

Although dyslexia should not be a block to achieving anything within within the workplace or education I still feel there are many negative preconceived prospection of individuals with dyslexia which can make life difficult.

This student was so concerned about this he didn't want me to mention his name at all.

Well that's all from me. If you like this blog please leave a like or even subscribe? Its all free to do.

If you would like to please write a guest blog or record a podcast for my Unique Dyslexic Eye show.

#PeaceLoveGrooveyness to you all.

Steve #Unique Dyslexic McCue

Finished the introduction to my dyslexia auto biography

 

I am a citizen of planet Earth

Hello all, hope everyone is well out out there in the real world,

Finally, after much procrastination and making excuses to myself I have started my dyslexia auto biography. I do have a plan would you believe.

Please let me know what you thing, and please be honest.

Introduction

I had been thinking for some time about writing a book about my life as a dyslexic. But somehow, I could never get around to doing it. There just seemed so many reasons why I shouldn’t write it.

Why would anybody want to read it?

Would I be actually be able to write a book?

What would I write about?

Do I actually have anything interesting to write about?

The list of reasons why I shouldn’t do it just kept on getting longer. My confidence in being able to write the book just kept on getting less and less. When it came to exploring the book idea procrastination became my middle name was there waiting in the wings.

It wasn’t as if I couldn’t write because I’d been writing my dyslexia blog for years. My dyslexia blog has had over 320.000 reads.

It wasn’t as if I couldn’t get through my bouts of procrastination because I done that many times in the past.

It wasn’t as if I couldn’t motivate myself to write because I enjoy the writing process. Mind you, the proof-reading aspect eeep, boring. Certainly, writing my dyslexia blog enabled me to explore my life experiences of being dyslexic, and enabled me to make sense of them.

I think maybe it was about commitment. About making a commitment to myself to explore the highs and lows of my life as a dyslexic. There was also something in there about reliving painful experiences from my childhood with my family and school.

In the end I thought to heck with it. Even if I was the only one to ever read it might be worth it to me personally.

Writing a book about my life as a dyslexic might enable me to finally get rid of that little voice in my head that still today says things about me that I would never say to my worst enemy.

I think many dyslexics are the same. We say things about ourselves to ourselves that we would never say to others friend or foe.

Well that is the first draft of the introduction done. What do you think?

#PeaceLoveGrooveyness to you all

Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCue

 

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

 

If any body would like to develop these ideas for a new dyslexia t shirt that would be fab.

Personally I like the bottom one, but would like, "I dont fit into the neuro typical box", in there instead

Hello there you lovely people, hope everything is well with you

I see a lot of information on social media informing us in the dyslexic community that dyslexia is a gift.

The majority of dyslexics (those who have actually received an assessment) do not see dyslexia as a gift. Only around 19% of adult dyslexics were assessed while they were at school. This does not reflect how most dyslexics experience being dyslexic. Life for dyslexic kids, both assessed and unassessed can be very difficult for them and their parents.

How can we change this? Well, from an inclusion perspective we can look at the models of dyslexia to help us understand what the barriers are and how we can overcome them. The medical model of dyslexia tells us it’s about deficit, disorder, and discrepancy (Blimey, that is a great definition for being dyslexic) Is it any wonder so many of us struggle with low self-esteem, self-confidence, and even long term mental health issues?

It’s not surprising so many of us feel like an enigma to ourselves. A student once said to me; “nobody likes to think they have something wrong with them especially something wrong with their brain.” But that’s what the medical model of dyslexia tells us. Once I got told that I gave up on school.

Medical model language does far more harm than good. It offers dyslexics no hope, it places the perceived failure of dyslexics to achieve academically on dyslexic kids and on the parents of dyslexic kids. We know our education system is not fit for purpose for dyslexic, neurodiverse, and disabled kids, so is it any wonder so many just give up at school? It’s no wonder so many dyslexic kids don’t achieve at school and give up on school.

That’s why I believe we need to change the way we talk about dyslexia, we need a different more positive vision. That’s why I and my social enterprise supports and promote the social model of dyslexia. The social model says it’s about diversity and difference. That we don’t have broken minds we just have different ones. The social model of dyslexia and social enterprise offers the dyslexic community a much more positive, inclusive, and empowering vision. One that recognises the role society plays in disabling us. This one fact alone shows how society disables. Only 19% of dyslexic adults were assessed at school.  

Far too many dyslexic kids have poor self-esteem and a lack of self-confidence or mental health issues because of their experiences in school. We have to change how we think and talk about dyslexia or we will continue to allow our dyslexia unfriendly education system to damage our dyslexic children.

What needs to be done? We need more teachers trained to work with dyslexic kids. We need to give teachers the time they need to develop a more dyslexia-inclusive curriculum. We need to give dyslexic kids access to dyslexia-friendly learning materials. This can be achieved, we just need to be listened to and our voices and hopes acted upon. Like the Disability Union, if we work together, change can happen! and the dyslexic community have been overlooked for far too long.

Follow Steven at : @DyslexicEye Website: www.dyslexiapathways.com

#PeaceLoveGrooveyness to you all

Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCue

As always please comment, leave a like and share as it helps my blog grow

Assistive tech a free way forward

 

Assistive technology: 

There is another, free. way forward. Its called My Study Bar which is a suite of free to access assistive technology tools that can assist with Planning, reading, writing, speech recognition and vision based tasks.

Below is a link to the Call Scotland, My Study Bar site here in Scotland.

My Study Bar Link: https://www.callscotland.org.uk/mystudybar/

All the best for the week end Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCue

Steve McCue's Unique Dyslexic Eye Blog: Dyslexia Pathways: leading the way for social incl...

Steve McCue's Unique Dyslexic Eye Blog: Dyslexia Pathways: leading the way for social incl...:   Hello there everyone: Welcome to all my followers and friends out there. Hope you are all doing away out there. One of the achievements I ...

Please accept my cordial invitation to my Unique Dyslexic Eye Podcast site

 

A wee poem from me

Hello everyone, hope you are all doing ok out there:

Please accept my cordial invitation to my Unique Dyslexic Eye Podcast which supports people from dyslexic and neuro diverse communities and those who support them. My name is Steve McCue and I am a dyslexic dyslexia and inclusion specialist. Would be fab if you could follow or leave a comment. If you have a question just ask. If you would like to be interviewed for the show let me know. If you are a musician poet or just have something to say contact me at steve_mccue@hotmail.com: https://stevemccue.podbean.com/

#inclusion #podcast #dyslexia #neurodiversity

#PeaceLoveGrooveyness from me Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCur

Dyslexia Pathways: leading the way for social inclusion

 

Hello there everyone:

Welcome to all my followers and friends out there. Hope you are all doing away out there.

One of the achievements I am most proud of with Dyslexia Pathways CIC is this:

(CIC stands for Community Interest Company) 

This means we're are a registered social enterprise and our social aim is to promote and
support the dyslexic and other neuro divergent communities. As with all
social enterprises we are not for profit.

This quote is from an Erasmus academic paper that mentions my organisation Dyslexia Pathways CIC:

"There are numerous CICS who have succeeded in providing an intermediation function developing pathways that assist individuals with disabilities to access support to engage in academic courses and vocational qualifications.

These include Dyslexia Pathways CIC, All Inclusive Disability Consultants CIC and Acute Need CIC who have all led the way for social inclusion for those within the disabled community looking to access support to enhance and develop their skillset.

There continues to remain an urgent need for person centered planning rather than relying on generic mechanism for all types of learning disabilities. There is substantial disparity in how these individuals are treated i.e. only 15 % of adults with autism are in paid employment compared to 48% of people with general disabilities (Higgins, 2009)." One in five dyslexics are unemployed."


The message is social enterprise and social model of dyslexia is  new and innovative way forward for the dyslexic community.

Many thanks for taking the time to read my blog. Would be fab if you would follow and share my blog.

#PeaceLoveGroovyness to you all

Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCue