Nurturing my dyslexic mental health and welbeing, yep, forgot all about that bit lol

 

Original Unique Dyslexic logo from Unique Dyslexic Get Creative  Campaign

Hello to all my friends and followers out there. Hope all is well with you,

Well after a lot of procrastination and feeling like a rabbit caught in the headlights About a week ago I actually made the decision to redesign my Unique Dyslexic website.  Its taken me 7 months to get back my dyslexia and neuro diversity work but I feel I am not stationary any more. I am moving forward. 

When I designed to original Unque Dyslexic site the idea was that I was going to learn how to edit it myself. To evolve the site as I went along, but it just never seemed to get done. Never had the time or the energy. Having two heart attacks, type 2 diabetes and hypothiroid in the middle of the Unique Dyslexic campaign. Then I had all my Dyslexia Pathways University work on top. 

I over extended my self. Dyslexic deterrmination can be a fab thing but, as with all things dyslexic, it has its down sides.What with my Dyslexia Pathways CIC work together with the Unique Dyslexic campaign, Unique Dyslexic blog and podcast and all the other social media just never got done. Not forgetting my wife and family and my life in general. I guess I did was I always do. Got too focussed and tried to do it all lol. 

I am 67 now and had the mini stroke, so I guess I am going to have learn to slow down sooner or later lol. Maybe?

      Podcast for nurturing my mental health and well being during COVID

One of my followers asked me what I was doing to nurture my well being, mental health. If this video I walk about some of the music I have been listening to during COVID. What music have you been listening to? How are you supporting and nurturing your own mental health and well being during COVID? So I thought I would record the above blog.

Give it a listen and let me know what you think. I was going to carry on reviewing my fave books, music and dyslexia resources. All my dyslexia work had stopped for COVID so I used the time to learn new skills. I was actually doing an HND in Broadcasting, whichI passed when COVID hit.

Question to you all: What did you all do with all that COVID ceated spare time?

Question: What else would you like me to podcast about?

Ok, thats enough for this Unique Dyslexic Blog

#PeaceLoveGrooveyness from me to you

Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCue

Please leave a like if you feel it deserves one, or why not subscribe to help grow my audience. Maybe even leave a review or share it amongst you social media followers?

A wee update on my mini stroke

 

Hi all,

Just written and posted a new podcast and post form my dyslexia focussed social enterprise since my mini stroke in January this year. I lost the sight in my left eye and I am also dyslexic. I am shattered. This is me a couple weeks ago. You would not think I had had a stroke in my left eye.

#PeaceLoveGrooveyness from me

Steve #UniqueDyslexic Mc|Cue

What is the social model of dyslexia and what it means for dyslexics

 

Hello to you all, hope everything is going well for you

I recorded this vlog above some time ago. In it I talk about the work my Social enterprise, Dyslexia Pathways Community Interest Company does. It was founded in 2007. We focus on dyslexia and neuro diversity and the academic. 

.

I also talk about our Unique Dyslexic Get Creative campaign which focusses on the creative.

At Dyslexia Pathways CIC we challenge a medical model of dyslexia that tells us dyslexia is all about, deficites, disorder and discrepency. It basically tells us our brains are broken and in need of remediation. In all honesty it is our education system that requires remediation.

The medical model of disability views disability primarily as a problem of the individual, directly caused by disease, trauma, or another health condition, which requires medical care provided in the form of individual treatment by professionals. In this model, disability is seen as a deficiency or abnormality.

There is also a social model of disability and neuro diversity This is a model that we support. 

The social model of dyslexia frames dyslexia not as a deficit, discrepancy and disorder within an individual, but as a difference in cognitive processing, that is compounded by societal barriers and expectations. By an education system that does not work for us.

It emphasizes that the challenges faced by individuals with dyslexia often stem from a world that is not designed to accommodate diverse learning styles and preferences, rather than from the condition itself. 

Dyslexia is not about #deficitesdisorderdiscrepency 

What is the best explanation of a medical model view of disabilities or the social model pf dyslexia?

Holpe you all enjoyed this blog and associated video.

Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCue

PS.

Please leave a like or a comment, maybe even subscribe, it would enable us to increase our foot print.

Right now this blog is heading towards half a million hits. So a big thanks to all those who helped us to achieve this.

Also thanks to all our directors and volunteers for the work they have done to support the dysexic and neuro diverse communities. 

Society tells us dyslexia is about, deficit, dissorder and discrepancy. This is an outmoded medical model of dyslexia, dyslexia is about diversity and difference, different minds unique solutions

We as dyslexic need to get together to build a social movement to improve the lives of dyslexics clobally

 

Me recordinng one of my Unique Dyslexic Eye Podcasts

Hi blog readers hope you are all well

For decades we have had individual parents of dyslexic kids fighting our education system one at a time. Sometimes they win little victories and get support for their dyslexic kids. Most of the time they face long battles and get nowhere. 

My research showed only 19% of dyslexic adults were assessed while at school. This is simply not good enough.

We as dyslexic adults need to get together to build a social movement where we can work together. Work together to bring positive changes to the current education system that up to now is still failing too many of us and our children. 

Right now many of us are fighting for positive change from the bottom upwards. We have to influence those who are responsible for developing education policy. This can only be done if we work together and take this to those who make policy. 

There needs to be political will to make the changes to our education system that will enable our dyslexic kids to succeed is school. Right now there is no political will to do this. Only by working together can we influence those who run our education system.

We have to make a much more positive case for supporting our dyslexic kids. We have to move away from an old outdated medical model of dyslexia that basically tells us our brains do not work correctly. That somehow we are not normal. That we are broken in some way. 

What does this say to potential employers about dyslexics? What does this say to our dyslexic kids? Its a medical model that talks about dyslexia in terms of discrepancy, disorder and deficits. 

Its a three D model that's about as 3D as a blank sheet of paper. If puts a focus on dyslexics as being the problem and totally fails to recognise that dyslexics fail because our education system and society is dyslexia unfriendly.

I am not saying dyslexics do not need support at school. What I am saying is we need teachers in every classroom being trained to teach to meet the diversity of learning needs in the class room. To enable teachers to do their job of teaching our dyslexic kids together with their non dyslexic, neuro diverse or disabled peers in a classroom. All together living, learning and playing together.  

Every day I visit Facebook I read real life stories about dyslexic kids and parents battles to get what is a human right to a good education. Stories about dyslexic kids not wanting to go to school. About parents seeing their children crying and frustration and fear about going to school. This is just not good enough at all. 

I believe it is society that disables dyslexics and that's why I promote and support the social model of dyslexia. I am not saying it's a perfect model but it places the responsibility for the failure of our education to meet the learning needs of dyslexic kids where it belongs. 

Not on the shoulders of dyslexic kids and parents. But squarely on the shoulders of those who shape our education system and politicians why are responsible for developing and running an education system that fails so many of us. 

Dyslexics can and do succeed but many do so in spite of their education not because of it. 

photo above: we must enable dyslexic kids to fly and learn together with their disabled, neuro diverse and non dyslexic peers

We must change how we think about what it means to be dyslexic in a society that disables. We must change how we think and talk about dyslexia.

We have to challenge the current medical discrepancy of dyslexia. It is a model that has nothing positive to say about dyslexia or to dyslexics. It is a model that has only served to trap us behind a narrow one dimensional negative stereotype definition of dyslexia. A definition that totally ignores and stifles our potential and strengths.

That is why I support the social model of dyslexia. It talks about dyslexia in terms of diversity and difference and it recognises that it is society that disables us.

#dyslexia is a difference that reflects #diversity. We need to unleash and nurture that potential not remediate or stifle it.

What are your thoughts on this? please comment


Anyway that's enough from me apart to say my #dyslexia blog has had neary 395.000 reads. Ta to all who read and contribute to my blog including guest bloggers. Hope you enjoy and share my latest one.

many thanks for reading and your support

#PeaceLoveGroovyness to all my blog followers and readers

Why not visit my Unique Dyslexic Eye podcast page and join fab dyslexia / neuro diverse clan.

Unique Dyslexic Eye Podcast Page

#PeaceLoveGrooveyness from me

Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCue

Whats is lawfall can also be morally and spiritually wrong

 

What is legal can also be morally wrong and no guide to human decency

1 in ten I am dyslexic logo

Hi blog readers hope you are well:

This not a dyslexia related post, but its important to read this.

Our governments and laws they create are no guide to human decency and morality:

Today, we have a Labour Government, A LABOUR GOVERNMENT! ordering the police force to arrest ladies and gentelmen in the 80s and 90s for protesting the State of Israel murdering unarmed Palestinian women, men and CHILDREN in Palestine. If prosecuted they face up to 14 years in prison.

This is totally leagal in the eye s of current governments in Israel and America.

The Holocaust was legal and people who hid and saved Jewish people were prosecuted as criminals.

Slavery was legal and people who freed slaves were considered to be criminals by the governments of the day.

Segregation and Apartheid was legal and people who fought against it were considered criminals by the governments of apartheid.

Tory government imposed austerity and changes to benefits is responsible for the deaths of 10,000s disabled and vulnerable people. 


Some people are calling this government sponsored social murder. I will only add the companies responsible for running this are making tens of millions of pounds sterling from this despicable process.

If we fail to hold our governments to account when they are morally and spiritually bankrupt.

We risk encouraging those who would create a new

Holocaust. Who would enslave free people and who would segregate seek to repeat these crimes against humanity today and in the future. 


Thanks for reading, I know its not strictly about dyslexia but I think we as dyslexics have a strong sense of justice. Maybe that because we experience injustice throughout our lives. Or maybe its a dyslexic trait?


what do you think?


please share


Thanks for reading


Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCue

Running free to access dyslexia surgeries in 2005

 

My guitars, music really helped me cope with the trials and tribulations of being dyslexic

Hello there to you all, welcome to a new blog

The more things change, the more things stay the same?

Way back in 2005 when I was running the dyslexia department in a college in London. When I first started working there I visited all the staff rooms to introduce myself.  This lead to some very interesting conversations around dyslexia. As a result I ran a number of open dyslexia surgeries for students and staff wanting to find out more about dyslexia. As it turned out, a large number of staff took up the offer and came to the surgeries.  

Some just want some advice on ways to support their dyslexic student s more effectively. But others came because they either knew they were dyslexic or suspected they were dyslexic. 

All had some concerns that being dyslexic would hinder their career prospects and nearly all had not disclosed they were dyslexic.

As a result of this I put together a proposal for a new dyslexia focused project called Breaking down the barriers of dyslexia. 

The basic idea was to provide free dyslexia screening and assessment to staff at the college as well as provide training in dyslexia friendly work strategies.   

I managed to secure a fifty thousand pound grant from the Learning and Skills Council in London for the project.  The project itself went very well. We had a target to provide 8 free dyslexia assessments and in the end we provided 23.

However, at the end of the project despite how well it went 99% of those assessed still did not want their bosses to know they were dyslexic.

Eight years later and things do not appear to have changed much.

I was talking with a degree student yesterday who I had been providing dyslexia support over the last semester.  A very bright student as well. He was expressing an interest in becoming a teacher but felt that it was not possible for him to become a teacher because of his dyslexia. 

He was expressing his concerns about telling any prospective employers about his dyslexia. That if he did it would adversely affect his job and career prospects. He would be a great teacher as well in my opinion

There is far too much focus on dyslexia as a negative condition that adversely impacts on our abilities to succeed academically and in the work place. Let’s face it what employer wants to take on a dyslexic who can't spell, has poor memory, a brain that does not work properly, who can't read well etc. 

This is what the average person in the street believes dyslexia to be. Very few mention any of the positives of dyslexia at all. So it is not surprising many dyslexics keep it a secret, including teachers.

For every positive single article on dyslexia there and 20 or more negative ones. If we are ever to change people's attitudes and perceptions about dyslexia we need dyslexic teachers in classroom who are positive about being dyslexic and can act as role models and mentors to dyslexic children.

#PeaceLoveGrooveyness

from me

Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCue

A live and unscripted vlog from a very chilly day April

 

Just play the video to hear and see my Unique Dyslexic Podcast

Hi everybody, hope you are all ticketyboo out there

This is a VLOG I recorded, live and unscripted from my allotment 2nd April 2021. It was then my latest dyslexia and neuro diversity blog from my allotment in Glenrothes Scotland.

It was a chilly day in Glenrothes. In this podcast I discuss progress with my dyslexia and nueo diversity work. There is a wee call for support with developing my dyslexia websites. Finally, a wee look around my allotment.

Please leave a like, or share and subscribe.Why not join my dyslexia and neuro diversity clan. Or join mhmy Unique Dyslexic Eye clan.

If you would like to ask a question ask away. #PeaceLoveGroovyness to you all.

Here are some links to my Unique Dyslexic social media:

My Uniique Dyslexic YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVKyJJgQWkYUa93-GdtX3fg

One of my Facebook channels:

https://www.facebook.com/stephen.mccue.5

My Xcom:

My X com

My BlueSky:

My BlueSky

My PodBean:

Unique Dyslexic Podbean page

#PeaceLoveGrooveyness

from me

Steve #UniqueDyslexic McCue

Dyslexia neuro diversity and injustice we have to suffer in a dyslexic / neuro diversity unfriendly society.

 

Unique Dyslexic Eye logo

Hello all, hope everything is well with you

I dont suffer with dyslexia I embrace it for what it has given me. I challenge the negative medical model of dyslexia that tells us dyslexia is about deficits, discrepency and disorder. Its a model that tells us all our brains are broken. 

I was talking with one of my dyslexic students about this. He said, "nobody likes to thinks there is sonething wrong with them, exspecially if its the brain".

Our dyslexic / neuro diverse brains are not broken, they is different. Dyslexia is about diversity and difference.

Here is a link to one of my Unique Dyslexic Eye podcasts. This is episode 4 from series 2.

Below is a link to this podcast on You Tube

                       

               Episode 4 from series 2 of my podcast, Unique Dyslexic Eye

Let me know your thoughts on this podcast and please leave a review.

Many thanks for listening from me

Steve #UniqueDyslexicEye McCue