Can you overcome Dyslexia? Speaking from experience, as I have dyslexia myself… you don’t fully overcome it but you can put strategies and techniques in place to make life easier for yourself.
For example, I have bad memory due to my dyslexia so I have to write things down constantly, sometimes more than once in order for it to stay in my head. But, also writing things down stops me forgetting to do the important tasks.
Other aspects that are affected by my dyslexia are reading and writing – spelling especially. I have trouble reading texts because letters keep moving and spelling words is hard too. But I have put strategies in place; which has made things easier when it comes to reading or spelling in front of my students and my everyday life.
But I want to let my dyslexic students and anyone else who have dyslexia; that it does not stop you learning, doesn’t stop you concurring and achieving your goals. When I did my BA Honours Degree, I thought doing my 10,000 word dissertation was going to be impossible and i thought i was going to fail. At this point, i didn’t know and wasn’t diagnosed with dyslexia. But I was still dreading doing my dissertation, still struggling and was getting completely anxious every time i tried tackling it. Luckily, I had an amazing lecturer that helped me and had regular meetings with me to help structure my writing and proof read my spelling. And YES, i did achieve my 10,000 dissertation (picture is above) and got a 2:1 grading for my degree. I was so thrilled and over the moon. But what helped me to achieve this hurdle with my dissertation was determination, not giving up and having the right support around you.
Being dyslexic shouldn’t be a hinder to you, you are unique person and learn differently from everyone else. But doesn’t mean you cannot achieve your goal, because all you need is determination and that little voice in your head saying “i’m not going to give up” or “you are not going to beat me dyslexia”.
Dyslexia is well known now and there are so many opportunities around you that can help make things easier in your everyday life. But don’t forget, there are many brilliant, famous people that have achieved their goals and had dyslexia too. For instance Albert Einstein had dyslexia and he developed so much in Physics, Science of relativity.
Anything is possible! Having dyslexia doesn’t stop you achieving; it makes you unique, more determined, creative, fast problem solvers, intuitive, visual thinker and great communicator.
I’m going to round things up with a short video from BBC Education News. It’s the Formula 1 world champion, Sir Jackie Stewart talking about his dyslexia who says some wise words.
Click here: Sir Jackie Stewart
