Children talking about dyslexia

A 9 year old's view of dyslexia. We think this is wonderful!

When you hear your child is dyslexic, it’s easy to feel a little lost and confused, especially if you don’t have anyone to talk to. At the beginning, this was me.

When my daughter was diagnosed with dyslexic aged 6, I looked up the condition on the internet and the stats told me it affected 1 in 10 of the population, which prompted the question, where are the other parents with dyslexic children?

I was bombarded with information and was told by very well-meaning people everything my daughter wouldn’t be able to do, all of the things she would find difficult, rather than all the things she could excel at. I really struggled at the school gates, overhearing parents comparing their children’s excellent spelling results, their above-average reading and “fingers-crossed” they would soon be moving up to platinum book strip!

There’s no disputing, spelling, reading and writing are very tricky and an everyday challenge, however my daughter has a passion for problem-solving, a love of drama and music and is incredibly resourceful and creative.

At school, my daughter has always been very open about her dyslexia and I have taught her to be proud of her dyslexia and never ashamed. This has generated some interesting questions from her classmates: "Can I catch dyslexia from you? I got two spellings wrong in my spelling test, does that make me dyslexic? Does your brain work differently from mine?"

This prompted us to make a short video to help other children understand a little more about dyslexia. I hope you enjoy my daughter’s video, she wrote it herself and her aim is to help other children… just like her.