So we must begin to think differently about dyslexia. We must help students recognise that they come in a package. That being dyslexic doesn’t mean that they are less worthy as individuals. That being dyslexic helps them be creative and visualise things and come up with original ideas. So our job is to help students change their self-talk - from “I’m Stupid” to “I’m Creative”.
If students are feeling negative about themselves, then all the more important it is for us to highlight their strengths and help them flourish. For instance, this student is a good artist and can draw the images that he conjures up in his mind. So I got him to harness his artistic talent to incorporate images into commonly misspelt words. As you can see from the screen, he drew human figures for the letters ‘r’ and ‘i’, which will help students remember the spelling for ‘friend’.
Other strengths may be creative thinking, good problem-solving, visual-spatial ability or language skills which can then be used to your child’s advantage in storytelling, team sports, puzzles, making things, fixing things, playing a musical instrument, involvement in drama, and so on.
Besides feeling stupid, our students probably feel lonely and think that they are the odd one out. So going through a list of dyslexic individuals may help our students feel more confident, especially when they learn that these famous people rose to the top in their chosen fields because of their dyslexic thinking.
I’m going to take a minute and wait for the information to sink in. You are probably surprised to learn that some of these famous people are dyslexic, so I will like you to share with your partner one person who surprised you when you found out that he or she is dyslexic.
What I did earlier was to help you make connections with a few of these dyslexic individuals so that you will remember them and share them with your students when the opportunity arises. However, I think it is not enough to share that these people are dyslexic. It is more important to let our students know how these people embraced ways to manage their dyslexia so that they can use them as role models and do likewise. For instance, Tom Cruise has lines read aloud to him so that he can remember them.
To round up this section, I elaborated on two ways on how we can remove our students’ inferiority complex in regards to dyslexia:
- Remember their strengths. And how they may even use their strengths to make up for their weaknesses in reading and writing.
- Show them how famous dyslexic individuals coped with their dyslexia.
