Eleven year old Holly wrote this very powerful description of her experience of living with dyslexia. We have the permission of both Holly and her mother to post this on our website.
Holly was assessed and diagnosed by a SEND5 specialist dyslexia teacher in November 2021. We would like to thank Holly for allowing us to share this and wish her the very best with all her future learning.
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Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a pain. Dyslexia makes you worry, it causes lots of stress and every day you wonder how you’ll cope.
I have Dyslexia, I worry about whether I’ll be able to keep up in class, not because I don’t pay attention but whether everything will be too quick. Will the teacher explains things too fast, will they write on the board and expect me to copy into my book quickly. If I’m trying to copy my brain doesn’t allow me to listen and also to focus on the individual words they become a blur and my spelling impossible. My brain just doesn’t seem to have the ability for me to hold information. Everything takes extra focus and concentration. My brain works differently to my friends. It likes to mix up letters and numbers, I find it hard to remember letter patterns so my spelling is really bad. Sometimes, if I’m feeling brave I’ll ask someone in class how to spell a word and they will laugh at me because they think it’s so easy. It makes me feel embarrassed and stupid. I constantly worry about whether a teacher will walk behind me and laugh at my awful writing or wonder why my spelling is so bad. I don’t want them to think I’m lazy or stupid. If my spelling is bad it means I’m busy thinking or trying to get everything written down before I forget. Sometimes I’d like to shout slow down or a handout would be so helpful.
What dyslexia does give you though is dedication and determination. You have to work at 110% all of the time. When I look at celebrities such as Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Jenifer Aniston from friends and Richard Branson I know how hard they must have worked to have survived school and achieved what they have. I thank people like Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Steve Jobs (Apple) for creating computers and phones that allow me to dictate my thoughts or correct my spellings. Life is more about ideas than spellings. Apparently it’s good to think differently.
Whilst doing online research I found the following information:
· 10% of the UK Population have dyslexia and between 9-12% globally
· 40% of 300 millionaires have dyslexia. A study in 2003 by the BBC and featured in The Sunday Times highlighted that dyslexia is a driving force due to their childhood
struggles
· 25% of CEO’s (Chief Executive Officers) are dyslexic – MIT 2017
Apprentices on GCHQ’s scheme (UK Surveillance programme) are four times more likely to have dyslexia than those on other organisations’ programmes. GCHQ says those with dyslexia have valuable skills spotting patterns that others miss. “We’re looking for people who can see something that’s out of place in a bigger picture, who have good visual awareness and can spot anomalies,” said Jo Cavan, the director of strategy, policy and engagement at GCHQ.
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