(At the top of all of my blog posts. I have put a blue screen reader. When you click on it. It will read the article to you. Imaged below) 👇
This is a blog post is inspired by the campaign being run by Matt Hancock MP for early dyslexia diagnosis. In this link you can see an article about the campaign https://chamberuk.com/matt-hancock-launches-dyslexia-screening-campaign/
What is Dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a learning difficulty which causes problems with certain abilities used for learning, such as reading and writing, according to the NHS up to 1 in every 10 people in the UK has some degree of dyslexia.
For a more detailed description of Dyslexia please look at this NHS page on Dyslexia
The importance of getting an early diagnosis
First of all getting a early diagnosis can will help to find the right support for the child at an early age. This will be beneficial for the child and hopefully help them develop on their reading throughout there schooling. It is also embarrassing and demoralising to not be able to read as much or develop as your peers and not knowing why, this can also have an affect on the your mental health. A diagnosis of dyslexia could help to know what’s going on. There are many more reasons. But early intervention seems to be the key.
The problems in getting an early diagnosis (how I see it)
State school do not get a huge amount of funding and cannot test people for dyslexia quickly. There can be a long waiting list to get a state funded dyslexia test. As the waiting list can sometimes be so long You may need to go private and that can cost a lot.
Technology
There is a lot of free text to speech software out there. The one that I use is called My study bar. But like all programs these can break down. There is also programs like read and write that is very good but costly. But they have this at most school, colleges and universities. I was able to get mine through disabled students allowance.
Most desktop computers, laptops, tablets and phones have built in accessibility tools. Microsoft word also has built in text to speech. Lastly my best friend at the moment is the speech function and most smartphones
(Please click here) to find the accessibility features for your device.
Applications
I’m not sure if anything has changed but DWP benefit applications are paper form cannot be filled up on the computer so this means text to speech software can not be used to read out the long words on the long form.
One good way of amending this is to obviously make it so you can fill out the forms onling. Obviously not everybody is online so you could have easy read benefit forms showing the key points of what we must do. Lastly I would have disability friendly trained with in job centers to support what people with form filling. As a parliamentarian member of the party of government who is campaining on dyslexia making sure the benefits system is easy to navigate for people with dyslexia and or disabilities should be their number one priority. as money is incredibly important, especially in this cost of living crisis.
My experience.
Going through my school for people with additional needs I allways found reading and writing difficult. Before taking my GCSEs in 2009 my parents asked if I could have a Dyslexia test. My parents was told that there was no point because people with learning disabilities have a low IQ anyway, that was a bit disheartening and insulting. In hindsight I don’t think it’s true at all.
When I finished school I went straight to studying at college unfortunately still not being able to read or write properly. A few months in to my first year of college i visited my old junior school Danecourt. After hearing that i still wasn’t able to read to well my old head teacher John summers introduced me to there new reading and writing teacher Claire walsh who kindly when through a new phonics sounds reading course with me. This course lasted for about a year and thanks to Claire walsh and John’s kindness, they pretty much made me better at reading.
I still experience problems like getting some letters and numbers the wrong way round and really needing to think about my left and right.
A year or so after finishing college i started my job. A couple of years after. I decided to study an access course at the open university that led to me starting my law degree.
In order to be successful in getting my disabled students allowance (DLA) the Open university suggested that I get a Dyslexia test.
I believe it is very important to have an early diagnosis because o once you get that diagnosis it can help you all the way through your schooling.