My Blog entry

[rosieposie87]

Hello my name's Rosie im 25 and I work as a teaching assistant in a primary school. Some of you might know me from twitter @marvelousmollie as I do quite a lot of tweets to support Dyslexia Action on there. I'd love to work for the charity one day as it's something I'm really passionate about and the people who work there seem really lovely understanding people.

I was diagnosed with dyspraxia when I was 4 but also have a lot of dyslexic traits too. When I was growing up I didn't know anybody who had any difficulties. I remember when I was doing my a-levels and I was the only person who had extra time and everybody was staring at me as they left the exam room. This and people not being very understanding lead to me being scared of being open towards people. Ive found that a lot of people don't understand the full implecations of the condition. As an adult my main difficulties are memory organisation and getting my ideas onto paper. Some days I come home from work exhausted because Ive constantly been trying to remember things. Im hopeless at remembering anything numerical epecially dates and codes or times. Every morning at work I have to get my phone out to remember what the code is and Im forever asking my boyfriend what times my trains are even though he may have just told me 5 minuites earlier. Although I have an amazing long term memory I can visulise things which happened years ago and quote conversations which happened years ago. Also when im writing I can visualise what I want to write but can never find the right words to say. I often miss random words and letters out when I write things.

When I was at university I had a really bad experience, I got made to drop qualified teacher status because the lectures werent understanding towards my neeeds. I got told I was an adult now and that I had to make up my own coping startiegys. This lead to me developing very low self esteem and confidence. But also it made me more determined to help spread awareness and that nobody should go through the same esperience which I did.

I think in the adult word of work people expect you to have overcome all the difficutlies you may have had growing up. For the majority of people this can be true in some ways with intervention their reading and writing may have improved considerably. But no matter what coping stratiegies someone may have you will always have good days and bad days where everything goes to pot and employers need to realise this. I wish I could have the confidence to tell employers about my difficulties all be it that they aren't half as bad as they used to be. But the same fear always comes back that what if people aren't understanding.

This is why I think your sticks and stones campaign and your teacher training campaign are vital in making sure people get the right support and understanding they deserve and the positive aspects of dyslexia are celebrated as much as the things people find difficult.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this sorry if some of it doesn't make sense.

[Hidden]

Hi Rosie, a great read and it makes total sense!

I think it's disgraceful that you were made to drop qualified teacher status... the fact that lectures weren't understanding towards your needs... is simple a failure on their part.

And that you got told 'I was an adult now and that I had to make up my own coping strategies'.

They too were adults and they should have had the skills and emotional intelligence toward your needs!

Anyway, welcome and look forward to reading your blogs!

John

[justinsmom]

Good Morning,

My 12 year old son is having a really hard time with reading and writing. We have tried many different reading intervention programs at school. He has IEP for LD and Speech/Language. He had just rcently been diagnosed with Dyslexia. Looking for any advice! Thanks

[tizaac in reply to justinsmom]

good luck, our son is 16 this year and the school support in our area has been C**P to put it bluntly. we found out our son was dyslexic when he was only 7 and it has been hard work getting things in place at primary and secondary school to the point we are exhausted, he has no help apart from extra time allowance in exams, the education for kids like this is disgraceful in england and as parents dont know where to go for help and advise, we just struggle along with it all hoping that it will all work out for the good, we can only hope for us and our sons future

[moley44]

Hi Rosie,

I have just been reading your blog entry and I agree with you about how when you are an adult you are expected to just get on and cope with the problems that you have. It frustrates me that there isn't alot of help out there for adults and everything seems focus on school children.

I am 27yrs old, I am have dyslexia and have recently been to the hospital to ask them to test if I have dyspraxia linked in to it - they have said that its very rare to see an adult ask for this and after seeing them 3 times I have basically been told get on with life and don't think about it because they don't know how to test adults for it. I went away and still don't have any answers that I am looking for and certainly no support.

I support improving teachers knowledge on dyslexia and that things need to be done to help children with it - believe me I have been through it. But I also believe that when I left school at 18, I still needed support and still do at 27! Sometimes all I want to do is find out if there is anything else that I could be doing to help make it easier for myself i.e a new way of trying to spell words or organise myself so that it all makes sense. Sometimes I would like to be able to talk to someone to see if what they go through is the same as me because trying to talk to people who have never had to deal with dyslexia/dypraxia is very hard and they don't understand. May be there is something out there for adults and I have totally missed it.

I look forward to seeing more of your blogs

from Sarah x

[moss]

can i please ask how i would know if my 9 year old has dypraxia-school have said they think she has dyslexia traits but she struggles with holding a knife and folk and seem s to day dream a lot . ilke me she finds co-ordination hard -i noticed she cannot get her arms and legs in sink when swimming