Labels Matter
At the age of five I was told I had Learning Difficulties, I understood this to be an adult's way of saying I was stupid. I have a 'Reading Disorder' - otherwise known as Dyslexia but nobody mentioned this to me when I was young. I therefore not only struggled to read and write but also had low self-esteem. As the years passed I would be able to start to conquer my reading disability but my self-image would take forty years to repair.
T N Traynor
Isolation
When I started high school I was told that as my English was so bad I couldn't have French lessons, but instead would have to attend an extra-English class (the one where all the stupid children were I thought to myself). It's hard to put into words the feelings that became ingrained in my spirit because of constantly telling myself that I was stupid. Between 3-7% of the population may have some degree of learning difficulties due to Dyslexia but I felt isolated.
Constant Knock-backs
People with Dyslexia are usually more creative and have a high level of intelligence (I wish someone had told me this when I was young). I was the fastest typist in my last year of sixth form. I had found something I was good at and it did masses for my self-esteem, however at the first interview I went for I froze and couldn't type. My first job after leaving school was washing up dishes in a restaurant I believed this was the only job I was capable of. You see the side-effect is more harmful than the disability. It was a knock back but not a knock out.
Passing on the Problems of Dyslexia
I got married in my early twenties and within seven years had four sons, who became my world. When your children hurt you hurt. When my third son started school I already knew he had a problem. Dyslexia can be heredity and if you have it your children have a 50% chance of getting it to.
Getting Help is Still Difficult
I always thought that I never received help in school because it was the 60's and they hadn't heard Dyslexia. I was therefore, shocked to discover that it was first identified by Oswald Berkhan in 1881! This angers me, why then in 1984 was I still struggling to get help for my son? And even now parents are still battling with the schools to help their children. Dyslexia is defined as 'A difficulty in reading despite normal intelligence.' I knew my son was intelligent but he couldn't read and everything in life swings around being able to read and write.
Mastering Dyslexia
Toe to Toe is a brilliant book for children with Dyslexia. I spent exactly ten minutes a day with Ben going through the book. Within weeks he was beginning to read at last at the age of eight, tears are falling now as I write, because like me he not only has Dyslexia but the side-effect of it and he believed he was stupid. If only I had got the school to act when he was five and we had help then things might be different because the earlier you diagnose a child with Dyslexia the better chance they have of mastering it.
Dyslexia Does Not Have to Hold You Back
Dyslexia is not a disease and there is no cure, it's a learning disability which slows a child's progression but it doesn't have to hold them back. At the age of forty and a single Mum I decided to go back to college to learn a trade to support us all. I completed my AAT course with flying colours and I went into a job straight away where over the next eight years I got promoted three times and I am now the Finance Manager. Ben, who suffers from this reading disorder far greater than me, is now a farm manager in Australia - the top guy, after several promotions.
Inspirational Dyslexics
I like to look at the list of famous people who have Dyslexia but never let it hold them back. Agatha Christie, Lynda La Plante, Tom Cruise and Jennifer Aniston to name only a few. People who can't see letters like other people do, learning scripts and writing books - it's inspirational and motivates me.
What to Look Out For
Dyslexic people see letters upside down. If you think you have a child who is struggling look out for them swapping d with b and g with p. My son also used to cross his hands over his plate to pick up his knife and fork, another tell-tale sign. Dyslexics can also have difficulty in remembering names, dates and telephone numbers and learning new languages. I believe the crush to your confidence is the most destroying part - the belief that you are stupid can cripple your life and my heart breaks for children who are still not being given the help they need.
Why I Wrote Idi and the Oracle's Quest
I poured my heart into the main character of my book, a young orphan boy called Idi. He starts his life being called names and bullied. The villagers know him as the idiot and as he grows the name is shortened to Idi. There will be three books and each one will see him learning to like himself and begin to overcome his past and low