Dyslexia Awareness Week

Dyslexia Awareness Week – You might be wondering: do I have dyslexia?  The symptoms will differ depending on whether you’re a child or younger adult – or an undiagnosed adult.

This year Dyslexia Awareness Week takes place from 1-7 October 2018 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and the theme for the week is #21stCenturyDyslexia.  The aim is to raise awareness around the barriers that prevent people from using technology at school, in the workplace and at home!

In Scotland Dyslexia Awareness Week will take place from 5-10 November 2018 and theme is ‘Dyslexia: my wider world’.

It’s especially important to spot dyslexia in schools.  Children with dyslexia tend to mix up words – which might mean saying something like ‘beddy tear’ instead of teddy bear.  They may have trouble saying long words and learning the alphabet could be a problem.

Other signs involve not only issues with learning letter names but also with the sounds of words and letters.  This means the phonological awareness is poor and they might not be able to answer a question like: ‘What word would you have if you changed the ‘p’ sound in ‘pot’ to a ‘h’ sound?

The signs in young adults and adults will be less obvious.  They might write more slowly and have problems expressing their knowledge on a subject.  If you’re experiencing real difficulty with spelling or find yourself trying to hide your work from others this is quite an obvious flag that something is going on.

You can also get involved by fundraising for the organisation.  Need some suggestions for getting started?   The British Dyslexia Association has provided lots of ideas to help you on your way!  A car boot sale is a great one!   You know that spring clean where you find lots of miscellaneous stuff you don’t know where to put?  Well gather it all together, get your friends and family to do the same and you’ll be off in no time!

Don’t forget – World Dyslexia Day is celebrated on 4 October 2018!