Thursday, 29 August 2024

Blimey how time flies when you are a dyslexia and inclusion specialist lol


Hello everyone, hope you are all well.

Blimey, how time flies, 16 years since I founded my organisation Dyslexia Pathways CIC, 30 years since embarked on my career as a dyslexia and inclusion specialist and 10 years for my Unique Dyslexic campaign. All are still going strong.

Its been hard work, many thanks to all who have supported my work, to many to mention.

#PeaceLoveGrooveyness to you all from me,

Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCue

Monday, 26 August 2024

Give me 10 dyslexics in a room

A rose from my garden



Hell everyone, hope all is well for you,

Just a very short blog from me today.

Give me 10 dyslexics in a room and oh the problems we could solve together with our unique dyslexic minds. Lets create a dyslexic think tank. Who is up for putting one together with me?

#PeaceLoveGrooveyness from me, Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCue

Sunday, 25 August 2024

Only 7% of dyslexics believe society is doing enough to enable us to succeed in education and employment


#dyslexia a difference that reflects #diversity #vivaladifference
Hello from me Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCue, hope all is well with you all.


The medical model of #dyslexia tells us we are disabled, our society shows us we are disabled. 

In the end many of us become a self fulfilling prophecy and believe we are disabled.

The social model of #dyslexia say society #disables. Just ask #dyslexics how society does this.

But if society can disable us it can also enable us. Just ask #dyslexics how society can do or has done this?


A couple years back my organisation Dyslexia Pathways CIC, 'Community Interest Company' carried out a wee bit of #dyslexia research. We asked dyslexics to share their thoughts on being dyslexic. 



How would you answer the questions bellow? 




Do you think enough is being done to enable dyslexics to succeed in education, training for work or in employment?


93% said not enough is being done
7% said yes

Well looks like more work needs to be done by all dyslexia organisation, schools, colleges, governments and employers.

What one thing would you like to say about being dyslexic?


Here are some of the responses form this question:


I think differently to most people and my cognitive performance is in the 99.8 percentile. 

It may take me a while to get the information in but I can work magic once it is 


Its amazing just try it


Think creatively


Worse things can happen it shaped me


We need more help and acceptance


I am unique


I am just me, nothing is seriously wrong, I just see things differently, different does not have to be bad


I don't like others telling me what works and what doesn't, its different for each of us


I have the ability to see what others dream of and live my life in the moment


I am happy dyslexic I fit into a group better than being called slow or dumb


For every succeeder there are a thousand suffers


It has given me a creative twist on the way I see the world


I don't want to hide it I want to celebrate and share my gifts


I am not stupid and being diagnosed confirmed it

So following on from this I have a couple questions for you. 

What would your answers be to the questions we asked?

What would be the one piece of advice you would give to other #dyslexics?


many thanks for reading much appreciated


#peace #love and #groovyness to you all

what the medical and social models of #dyslexia say about #dyslexia

Sunday, 18 August 2024

Many dyslexics are drawn to running their own businesse,

 

Dyslexia: Different Minds, Different Thinking, Unique Solutions: 

#dyslexia a difference that reflects #diversity


Hello all, hope you are all well out there in the real world
Study shows stronger links between entrepreneurs and dyslexia
Dyslexia Pathways CIC Enabling Dyslexics to Fly

The Dyslexic Mind is a Fabtastic Mind



It 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 non-dyslexics 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 maneuvering 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.

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.

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.

regards

#PeaceLoveGrooveyness from me

Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCue

Friday, 16 August 2024

Free assistive tech tools for dyslexic learners

 



Hi all, hope you are all, "doing away", as we say here in Scotland. 

Here is a link to a suite of free assistive technology tools called, " My Study Bar". 

My Study Bar is designed to support learners struggling with literacy issues including dyslexia. But it can be used by all learners.

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


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

If you do decide to download and use, please let me know how you got in with it, maybe write, film or record a review of your experience with downloading and using it.

#PeaceLoveGrooveyness to all

from me

Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCue

Thursday, 15 August 2024

Chat with parent with a dyslexic kid at primary school

 

embracing dyslexia



Hello there blog readers hope you are all well

Ahhh, here we go again someone telling me I am dyslexic and therefore something is not functioning properly. That being dyslexic means my brain is broken sigh. 

Lets wheel out the old medical model of dyslexia AGAIN!. A medical model of dyslexia that has got we dyslexics exactly nowhere. A medical model of dyslexia that shackles us to a negative stereotype that basically comes down to this. A medical model of dyslexia that tell us dyslexia is about, disorder, discrepancy and deficits. That Dyslexia is a problem to be fixed.

I have just read that if we dyslexics go through one particular programme 80% of dyslexic problems disappear. Hmmmm dyslexic problems? Ahhh, does this mean teacher training is going to include training on ways to support dyslexic learners in an inclusive learning environment in the future I ask myself?

Hmmmm nope not on your nelly does it.

Does it mean is our dyslexia issues just disappear and we are no longer dyslexic if we go through this programme. Or is it that we are still dyslexic but somehow cured of those pesky dyslexic problems?

Dyslexia does not disappear it is a part of us. It was a part of us when we were born and it will be a part of us until the day we pop our clogs and go to meet our maker. We need to be enabled to understand and work with our dyslexia.

From my perspective dyslexia is a very important part of me because it enables me to do so many very positive things well. In my life I have been a professional musician, an inclusion and dyslexia specialist, a social entrepreneur etc. I don't think I could have done any of these if I had not been dyslexic.

Dyslexia is a difference that represents the diversity inherent within the human race. How much art, how much science, philosophy etc would have been lost if it were not for the way the dyslexic brain works. I don't say the dyslexic brain is broken I do say it is just different.

Vive la difference I say.

I will finally say I do not suffer with dyslexia. I embrace it for what it gives me. But what I do suffer with is education systems that still fail the vast majority of dyslexic kids at schools all over the world.

Who I do feel for are all the dyslexic students I have worked with in colleges and universities after listening to their nightmare experiences of being dyslexic at school that has failed them.

I was chatting with a parent yesterday about her son who is at primary school. She was concerned her son may be dyslexic. She asked the school to explore this and the school simply said no. Apparently, they treat all students the same. I think that was their idea of inclusion.



ta for taking the time to read my blog 

#PeaceLoveGrooveyness to you all


Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCue

Saturday, 10 August 2024

Podcast on the importance of a dyslexia assessment

Home made Jammy Dodgers as made by Layla

Hello everyone, hope you are all well,

Here is another episode from my Unique Dyslexic Eye podcast show.

This episode I talk about the importance of a dyslexia assessment. Hope you enjoy, comments and questions are welcomed. https://stevemccue.podbean.com/e/episode-6-of-unique-dyslexic-eye-radio/

Many thanks for reading / listening to my dyslexia podcast

#PeaceLoveGrooveyness from me, Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCue