From Dunce to Degree | Dyslexia Inspirational Story

Birmingham Evening Mail, The Life Mag. 16.04.00 by David Jones
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Education experts have made great strides in the teaching of dyslexic children, but understanding of the condition has been a long time coming. Birmingham youth worker Antonio Farruggia tells DAVID JONES how he conquered his dyslexia to gain a degree

“I WAS in my first year at school when I first realised I had difficulty reading. At the age of four, the other kids were already progressing more quickly than I was. The first problem I remember was not being able to tell the difference between ‘ch’, ‘sh’ and ‘th’ when I read them on the page.

Of course, I was too young to say anything and there was very little awareness of dyslexia in those days so I was just left to struggle – and that was just the beginning of my problems… By the time I sat the entrance exam for secondary school, I’d stopped trying altogether. I was messing about all the time and getting into fights. I think a lot of it was out of sheer frustration because, looking back, I know I wasn’t ‘stupid’ at all.

…the prospect of having to read out loud in class would fill me with terror. I would start messing about in the hope that I would get thrown out – anything to avoid having to read. On the few occasions I did have to read to the class, it was a nightmare. I would be okay for a sentence or so then I’d stumble and I would feel myself starting to panic, which just made it worst. Then my vision would go blurry and the words would start jumping around the page. All the time I could hear the other children getting restless or giggling – it was so humiliating

Of course, he teachers went through all the traditional options to try and get me to improve. I was sent to an educational psychologist and it didn’t take long for them to stick me in the remedial group. It didn’t help my reading and writing, but I met an amazing bunch of kids. We were all stuck with this label that we weren’t as cleaver as the other kids but it seemed everyone in that class was good at general knowledge, quizzes and so on. It seems clear now that it wasn’t the kids who were failing – it was the education system that was failing them. Looking back, I reckon there must have been a lot of dyslexic kids in that group, but there just wasn’t enough awareness of dyslexia to realise the type of specialised teaching we needed.

Eventually I left school with no qualifications and very low self-esteem. I was a complete rogue really, always getting into trouble, drifting from one labouring job to another. Fortunately, there was one teacher who took an interest in me in my final year at school and got me into weight-lifting. He suggested that I go along to the Birmingham City Amateur Boxing Club, so I did and I immediately found somewhere that I felt I was wanted. I started going regularly, working out on the weights and helping the youngsters who used the gym. It really gave me a sense of self-worth and the feeling I had something to offer. If it hadn’t been for the club, I could easily have ended up in prison

Since then, I’ve interviewed hundreds of dyslexic people for my research and I’m now doing a part-time PhD looking at the links between crime and dyslexia…

What I really want to do now is set up a support service for dyslexics and their families so that I can use my research to help as many people as possible. I’ve got a real passion for learning now and I want to put that to good use. I don’t know how ‘clever’ I am – I suppose that’s what I’m finding out, and if I can spare anyone else the pain I went through as a youngster whilst I’m at it, then so much the better.”

Tell us Your Dyslexia Story

We all know about famous ‘dyslexics’, but what about every-day people that have overcome barriers despite dyslexia?
Send us your story, along with a photo or video, for Dyslexic Brian’s Inspirational Stories section.

2000 word essay in a week? You have to be joking?

Every now and again I read something that throws my mind back to my undergraduate studies and reminds me of just how difficult writing essays can be for someone who hasn’t overcome their dyslexic difficulties yet. The frustration, anxiety and heartbreak at not being able to produce written work to a standard that you feel adequately expresses your thinking is one of the worst things imaginable as a student eager to get the grades you feel you deserve – you know the subject inside out but you just can’t show it on paper!

This brilliant short story by Shirley Cooper from Aberdeen in Scotland gives ‘none-dyslexic people’ an insight into a few of the issues experienced by some ‘dyslexic people’ when faced with the task of having to write a 2,000 word essay in just one week. This might seem like an easy feat for most people who do not have issues with writing but as you will see it presented Shirley with a massive challenge that she had to courageously battle through!

Shirley is an inspiration to all of us at Dyslexic Brian as I’m sure she will be to all of you who read this amazing story.

~ Antonio Giuseppe Farruggia-Bochnak Share this story on FacebookShare

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2000 word essay in a week? You have to be joking?

Awww the alarm! 7.45am already, which means I slept for….. (Counting on fingers) 4 and a half hours! Mmmm it is going to be a long day. Even though I was up half the night I did not finish that damn essay. Stress! It has to be in tomorrow and I’m not half done yet, even though I’ve been at it for days, long into the night and early morning. Oh well!

So I get and the first thing I do is switch on the computer, ready to start battling with it again…. soon. Must wake up first, brain is in a fog that is particularly hard to shake this morning. Probably prolonged lack of sleep and the fact that my brain is in constant action. Thinking, thinking all the time, thoughts whizzing in and out, playing movies in my head. Constant thought I can’t escape. Thoughts about everything…thoughts about nothing…..just thoughts all the time. Great!! Being able to think fast, that can’t be a bad thing…right…. wrong! Think of these thoughts whizzing around in there, but when trying to apply an appropriate output for these thoughts you become stuck. That is, the thoughts run up against the brick wall in your mind, jumble up and ‘fall’ out in no particular order. Must sit for ten minutes in silence with my coffee, try and quite the jumble.

It’s Sunday so my family are sleeping late, I won’t be disturbed for a while. So I sit with the laptop on my knee staring at what I wrote the night before. I start to read, I’m confronted with a page full of undeveloped thoughts, bad grammar and lots of waffle! Depicted by the spell checker as lots of little red and green squiggly lines. Awww another frustrated groan leaves my throat. I know what I mean when I write it, I know the facts, I’ve done my ‘homework’ I understand the subject. Why, why is this so hard!

A week, that’s what we were given to produce a 2000 word essay, a week! Perhaps an achievable task for someone more adept with the written word than I. But to me, to be honest a mammoth task! I look at my essay plan again, the order in which I think the information should go based on Cottrel, Palgrave and other authors of ‘how to write a good essay’ type books. The trouble is (I think) that I know my conclusion before I start; I’ve made my judgment on the subject. I don’t necessarily know however, why I think that. This leads me to ‘what an essay is?’

I suppose it is a description, or flow of thoughts, describing arguments and evidence that lead to a natural conclusion. Where the writer takes a certain viewpoint, or impartially describes the argument, using a logical flow of the thought. And that’s when the problem is obvious, my chaotic mind struggles with putting my thoughts in any rigid logical order. The undeveloped thoughts (on paper) are a symptom of my fast thought, my hands unable to keep up with what I’m thinking, so ‘skipping stuff’. Add to this a below average ability for spelling, poor short term memory, slow reading and processing rate, and you have the ingredients for a tortures task!

So I say to my friendly lecturer, who said in an encouraging way “its only 2000 words, and I know you have notes… so you can do it” when I complained that a week was not long enough. I say, you’re probably right, given longer I would have just pained over it for longer! But…in no way is it a flippant or easy task. Just so you know, it will take me twice as long, tremendous amount of concentration, a deathly quite atmosphere in which to quite my mind, many re-writes, re-reads and re-arranging. Then when I get my work back, there will be pages of corrected grammar, spelling and sentence structure, to contemplate. Even though I looked that work over at least three times and could see no mistakes, they are there! Almost like a chicken with blue ink on its feet scratched all over my work! Ah well…I pull my wandering mind back to my work and continue with the battle. I just have to work harder…that’s all!?

~ Shirley Cooper from Aberdeen in Scotland

Malcolm | Dyslexia Inspirational Story

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As with many ‘dyslexics’ Malcolm’s experience of the British education system was not a good one. Before being labeled as ‘dyslexic’ Malcolm’s lack of concentration was a concern and a mystery to his parents. At the age of seven his parents paid for him to be assessed at the Dyslexia Institute. In Malcolm’s own words, his life changed from then. Each week Malcolm received lessons to help him overcome dyslexia. He believes that although it meant his parents investing a lot of money in his education each week, it was worth it.

Despite his progress outside of school, Malcolm did not enjoy the school experience. When he started secondary school, he used a laptop to help him keep up with the work load, and to help his teachers to read his work. However being different and even using a laptop meant that Malcolm was bullied.’ Sunday night,’ he says , ‘was hell’ because he dreaded going to school on Monday morning.

At the age of fifteen Malcolm prepared to sit his GCSE’s, he also made a career choice: to use his skills to become a furniture maker. His mother was thold by one of Malcolm’s teachers that he should ‘lower his expectations’. Despite this Malcolm wasn’t deterred he sat his exams and achieved five GCSE’s grade A to C.

Malcolm now attends college full time to learn furniture making. He doesn’t know if this will be his final career choice, but he does know that he is not going to give up. Malcolm’s determination to succeed is an inspiration. Malcolm stresses that anyone with dyslexia dyslexic or parents of dyslexic children shouldn’t t give up, It is worth pushing the the education system, and it is worth investing in your future. Malcolm’s message: ‘If I can do well so can you’.

Tell us Your Dyslexia Story

We all know about famous ‘dyslexics’, but what about every-day people that have overcome barriers despite dyslexia?
Send us your story, along with a photo or video, for Dyslexic Brian’s Inspirational Stories section.

Overcoming Dyslexia as an Obstacle to Success

Dyslexia Quiz

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Match the Famous People’s names to the ‘Obstacles Experienced’:

FAMOUS PERSON	OBSTACLES EXPERIENCED
Jamie Oliver Famous chef and celebrity	Was put in the ‘stupid row’ when at primary school; later, as an unemployed and struggling single parent, wrote on scraps of paper in a local café.
F W Woolworth Famous for founding the ‘Woolworths’ chain of shops	Enjoys writing songs and tried to get into reading but just can’t get into that ‘book thing’.
Richard Branson Famous entrepreneur	Achieved his greatest work after the age of 46, by which time he was completely deaf.
Ludwig van Beethoven A famous composer	Being dyslexic has helped him in the business world – he sees some things more clearly than others.
Alexander Graham Bell Famous for inventing the telephone in 1876	Didn’t speak until he was four and didn’t read until he was seven.  His teacher described him as ‘mentally slow, unsociable and adrift forever in his foolish dreams’.
J K Rowling A famous writer	Was told by his employers at the shop where he worked that he was not good enough to service customers.
Albert Einstein A brilliant physicist	Was told after a meeting with the President, “That’s an amazing invention, but who would want to use one of them?”
Robbie Williams Famous singer	Didn’t do well at school; people thought he was ‘thick’.

Source:

Dyslexic man named as top teacher | October 2009

A West Yorkshire teacher who overcame dyslexia to achieve his career dream has been named the most outstanding new teacher in the country.

Edward Vickerman, head of business at The Freeston Business and Enterprise College in Normanton, was given the title at the Teaching Awards in London.

Because of his dyslexia, the 26-year-old said he was sidelined at school and not expected to achieve much.

He was described by a colleague as a “whirlwind” in the classroom.

While working in the hotel industry, Mr Vickerman discovered ways of overcoming his dyslexia and achieved a degree in hotel management, which set him on the road to success.

Invigorated department

He then decided to pursue his dream of becoming a teacher and chose to take a postgraduate teaching qualification.

Colleagues and students said Mr Vickerman was an “inspiration to work with” and had invigorated the department, introducing new courses to match student needs.

Mr Vickerman said he gets round his dyslexia by using new technology in lessons rather than communicating by writing.

The Teaching Awards, founded by Lord Puttnam 11 years ago, are open to every school in the UK and reward excellent teachers, head teachers, teaching assistants, governors and sustainable schools.

Source: BBC published Monday, 26 October 2009