Dyslexia

Dyslexia for all of you that don't know is:

1. 'a general term for disorders that involve difficulty in learning to read or interpret words, letters, and other symbols, but that do not affect general intelligence.'

This basically means that your brain works differently to the rest of the world but it has nothing to do with how intelligent you are, (you are actually more unique). Dyslexia comes in many different levels and affects people in different areas; for example it can effect reading skills, writing skills or even organisation skills. I personally have mild dyslexia and I struggle with reading and organisation skills and I have always struggled with spelling. I also have to come up with different and strange revision techniques rather then just reading a book as I struggle to put my ideas on paper; as I always say, half the time I don't fully know what I mean so how am I supposed to write it down.

Through out school I struggled a lot with the disorder as I was very nervous to speak out load. I used to get confused when it came to academic subject and revising for exams and tests. However when I told the school they were able to help me through some of my fears and give me confidence to find my own way to understand the work. In secondary school I tried to focus more on creative subject as I felt I could express my ideas and views a lot easier, but subjects like English, Maths and Science was still compulsory.

I remember once in secondary school in year 9/10 I was in English class and me and my friends have to make a list of something. Anyway the teacher then came around to check on us and read the list. I was happy to write the list as I was with my friends and they knew a couldn't spell to save my life. So the teacher read the list and saw 'David Cameron' however I had used two o's, so instead of reading on from it as its was perfectly readable like most teachers would, he decided to make fun of the mistake by repeating 'David Cameroon' several times. Now to him it was a laugh and nothing but to me it was the biggest kick in the teeth. I know it was only a joke and one extra letter, but the fact he pointed it out in front of my friend made my feel 2cm tall and it brought back all of the fears and feeling of being different, not normal and stupid. Now I wish I punched him in the face but it taught me that something you may not mean in a hurtful way, may completely kills someones confidence and I know how hard that is to rebuild.

Now-a-days as an adult (well 18 years old) I have learnt to embrace my unique brain. I has allowed me to create stories and characters in my head. When ever I watch a music video I can create a whole movie to go along with it. I still find reading difficult but when I can do creative courses and activities and I can create whole worlds in my head that my friends have to plan out and spend ages to achieve.

I made this post as I wanted to share my qualities with you and hopefully help someone through a bad patch or just tough day just like I did and still do (we are all human). I have learnt to embrace dyslexia as it has made me the person I am today. I feel like I can help my younger cousin struggling with his fears, I can do so such more in my mind them others, I have learn to tackle problems in new ways and find new solutions, I want to become a film director and so use my creative ideas ever day. Mainly I have learn to accept who you are and see that amazing things that you can do, you are different and you are unique and that is something incredible. You are one of the few born with this gift like: Muhammad Ali, Richard Branson, George Washington, Leonardo Da Vinci, David Bailey, Orlando Bloom, Whoopi Goldberg, Jim Carrey, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein and many more.

P.S. I you are stuck on how to spell something ask Siri on you phone as you can speak it.

       If you are unsure about how to revise for a test try making poster and putting the over the house on the walls so that you can project your ideas in a way that you can always see.

Please feel free to share your own experiences or just let me know if this helped. Have and amazing day!