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Written evidence from Dyslexial

 

 

  1. Having watched with interest yesterdays televised meeting I felt it appropriate that I write to you all.

 

  1. To explain, I am a 63yr old dyslexic with a 27yr old dyslexic son (currently studying for his MArch) and I have been passionate about dyslexia since my sons possible dyslexia was raised by a fantastic year2 teacher some 20 years ago. The reason she raised the possibility is that although my son was not falling behind by the prescribed 2 years (correct at that time) in his reading she felt that his I.Q. was such that he should, in point of fact be years ahead rather than 18 months behind (at the time) so she had gone to the trouble of assessing his I.Q. off her own bat. And given the I.Q. she found and the lag in his reading progress she suggested we have Tom assessed for dyslexia - which we did.

 

  1. He was assessed by a child psychologist (why can’t this sphere be opened up to others so as to make it more affordable) and found to have dyslexia and certain processing anomalies along with an I.Q. of 135-140 (due to the constant reassessing requirements (at our expense) he was tested 3 times over 10 years and ALWAYS came out with 135-140). We were then given certain recommendations and the one he followed was for us to pay for private tuition for 3 years with a specialist tutor in the Alpha Omega course - this taught him as to how English was constructed and by understanding this he was better able to achieve appropriate qualifications given his intellect - which he did, 10 x GCSE’s A-C, 4 x A levels, a level3 in Art and Design, a 2:1 BArch (missing a 1st by 1.6 marks) and is currently doing his Masters in Architecture.

 

  1. One of the matters I wanted to highlight is that given the current (which is no doubt worsening) system and the system as was at that time, I did not have the best experience and my fear it is that it will get worse :-

 

  1. In Reception class his teacher informed us that Tom was extremely clever, yet by year2 he had fallen 18 months behind in his reading ability and it was a teacher NOT the school that brought this to our attention. In fact the school blocked our way in many instances as you heard stories of in the televised programme.

 

  1. To explain -  I believe in ‘Normalising’ situations , so I would talk quite openly at the school gate of his assessment and subsequent IEP and his progress. As the primary carer I would be at the school gates daily and the number of parents that would sidle over and whisper in hushed tones ‘I believe you’ve had Tom assessed (?), how did it go?’ grew and grew. To the point that an ever burgeoning group of us would stand and chat about various coping strategies etc, that worked best.

 

  1. I ultimately went to the school Senco with an idea, you apparently now call it a ‘parent carer forum’, and asked her views on parents of SEN children being able to join together and meet to discuss many of the issues we coped with. Not only was she in full agreement, she informed me that she had also had the same idea but didn’t know how to broach the subject with the Head and would I possibly do that ( I was at that time the chair of the PTA raising some £20,000p.a for a school of 210 pupils). Knowing that 15% of the children in the school had IEP’s I approached the Head with my suggestion - he point blank refused to accommodate my suggestion! So, undeterred, I approached the SEN governor to ask him to intervene - he also point blank refused. So I ignored them both and organised meetings with fellow parents in the local pub at 6 weekly intervals. Then and now, SEN is seen by a head with ever diminishing budgets as a complete bane on their lives - to the point that I am aware of one primary school who tell parents with SEN children to take them out of their school and find a school elsewhere more suited to their needs (this may also have been motivated by school rankings as the school in question was the top ranked primary school in the area and probably wanted to maintain that position as well) and the schools budget.

 

  1. As an aside, it was only when Tom was assessed that I realised that I too was dyslexic - my Grammar school informed me that I was ‘thick’ and might as well sit at the back of the class and do whatever I wanted as I wouldn’t pass any exams . . . they were right about the exams but wrong about the I.Q. . . . but being just shy of a Mensa they wasted my ability.

 

  1. So, I have a suggestion! Rather than just SAT’s, why not assess a Childs I.Q. when in reception and then Ofsted can compare this to the child's achievements (later SAT’s) and when there are anomalies they can step in and ensure ALL children achieve their true potential.

 

  1. I have been involved with dyslexia for nearly 20 years and understand it well . . . . . Can I ask you three questions?

 

    1. What do Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have in common?

 

    1. What do Tom Cruise and Keeanu Reeves have in common?

 

    1. Lastly, what do Albert Einstein and Sir Stephen Hawking have in common?

 

  1. If you answered Computer software supremos, Actors and visionaries, you would be correct but at the same time wrong. As the one correct answer is that they are all Dyslexic Thinkers!

 

  1. Here are some facts for your illumination -

 

  1. 40% of self made millionaires (BBC study) are dyslexic but sadly 30-50% of prison (dependant on prison) inmates are dyslexic.

 

  1. 1:6 people are dyslexic.

 

  1. 1/3rd of dyslexics are diagnosed whilst in school.

 

  1. 1/3rd of dyslexics are diagnosed at university or prison.

 

  1. And the other 1/3rd do not know that they are dyslexic - my 88 year old mother asked if she might be dyslexic and then explained her difficulty in school of writing comprehensions of any length . . .she is also a dyslexic thinker but never realised.

 

  1. As we enter a new period in our evolution of AI and robots replacing humans in manual work the need is greater for creative visionaries - therefore the most should be made of the dyslexic thinkers amongst us!

 

  1. I try to explain dyslexic thinking/learning difficulties to linear thinkers as such . . . . picture if you would a spindled cottage style chair from four different perspectives - if you’d never come across such a chair these images would enable you to build a 3D image . . . so you recognise all those images as a chair. Next, take the four lower case letters b,d,p,q . . . you see them as the letters that they are, but given dyslexics see in 3D, and we manipulate images in our mind as a norm (and I for one recognise it as an asset) the images we see are different. We automatically convert a single 2D picture of a chair or any other object (even ones we have not seen before) into a 3D image in our brain (we can then manipulate and understand it) so only need to see one image to understand them and so understandably, yet confusingly those four (bdpq) letters are identical to us, which is why we mix them up so much.

 

  1. Another fact - Did you know that 80% of the graphics team that worked on the special effects for the film Titanic were dyslexic thinkers? . . . . .  We have talents that are being wasted by a linear Education system. Of more concern to me as a Mental Health expert is the consequences and the affect of not only having to cope with the struggle that dyslexia brings a child, they also have to suffer being pilloried by the system and their peers - no wonder so many go ‘off the rails’. Think what a tweaking of the current education system would have on the reduction of the prison population. Think also, of the reduction in numbers of children trying to access mental health (CAMHS) help and support if we again tweaked that education system so as to bolster rather than shatter the self esteem of so many children.

 

  1. As a committee you will all be aware of the most watched TEDx talk given by education expert Sir Ken Robinson, so consider making the most of the creative thinkers you need to tap into. . . my estimate is that there are 1.7 million dyslexics in the current UK school system.

 

 

December 2018