Have you been affected by dyslexia?

0:00Lunchtime Live with Andrea Gilligan on NewsTalk. Are you living with dyslexia? We want to talk about the support services that are there for you and the improved services that are also required. It is dyslexia awareness month in October. So we want to chat to people who have their own experiences. I've been diagnosed with dyslexia down through the years. I'm Andrea Gilligan on e-mail at e-mail. If you're very welcome to the programme. Hi Andrea, how are you? When did you find out that you had dyslexia? I was seven. I was in primary school and I had an assessment done in primary school. I was just after that we realised that there wasn't something sitting right with myself. I was a little bit slower, I suppose, in developing than my cohort in primary school at the time.

1:05I didn't really know what was going on at a seven, but I was getting extra support. I was brought to resource classes at that time. I was a little bit more comfortable with my mother and dad were kind of aware at the time that I had dyslexia. How was your school experiences looking back? Looking back here it was to be honest, it was awful tough. In school I was bought out for maths and English and Irish and in resources in primary school. To be fair the support in primary school at the time was great. I was a school that's when I really started to struggle. I was a teenager and I was a young woman. I knew I wasn't as fast as my cohort in certain aspects of school. In terms of practical learning, I thrived in art and I thrived in PE, but when it came to sitting down doing my maths or my English and Irish, I did struggle.

2:07I was a student and I was supposed to sports for me in secondary school, probably ranked as much as I had in primary school. It was a challenge. Even when you talk about your own experience of this, the fact even that you had that assessment at seven years of age, I know from talking to other people over the years. It was identified maybe at a young age. I was quite young compared to a lot of people that I know that I had their assessments done at the time. I was quite young because it was kind of highlighted very quickly. I was looking with the teacher I had at the time, kind of spashed it quite quickly, but I have been aware that a lot of people aren't getting the help that they need in current circumstances in schools with their just sexy assessments and a lot of people's practical privates. For me early on, I was assessed and I was given the degree-nice push. For secondary school, for me as well, in terms of support and stuff,

3:07they didn't have the resources I supposed to support me in the way they would have liked. But for me going on to higher level education, I was able to embrace my sex, learn in a way that maybe it was a little bit different and a little bit more practical. I was able to, I shined as a individual with my practical subjects. And P and Irish and home economics for me is where I did very well. But yeah, I did struggle a lot with it. I still do, but I embrace it. I suppose that more than that is than I could as a child. What do you mean you're working for yourself? Isn't that right, you're entrepreneurial based? I've always had it. Yeah, I started my own business last year. So I suppose for me as well in a work environment, it was so important for me to be very open and honest with employers as well down to the years that I had dyslexia. And I suppose for me, I embrace it now.

4:09I learn in a different way. I'm a very good problem solver. Being dyslexic, there's so many positives to being a dyslexic person. It's just we need the supports and the resources to embrace it, especially from early childhood. Rosie Bissett is the CEO of dyslexia Ireland is joining us here on the line as well. How many people do we know how dyslexia in this country, Rosie? Well, we would go on an international consensus that it would be at least one in ten. So that means in every classroom there's at least three children, certainly in every classroom in the country. So this is the most common learning difference that teachers are going to face in a classroom any given day. And yet you know from talking to people, I'm sure down through the years, like their experiences are so wide and varied, often given on where they're based. When you hear Reef are talking about the great supports, she had a primary school level, how that changed at secondary, and nearly came back again as third level, but people's experiences of getting support

5:09and help, they're so different. That's so true. And this is what we hear all the time and half for many years. The system is very hit and miss, so it literally depends on what school you have to work with. What school you happen to go to? Did those teachers or the teacher you happen to have in a particular year, have any training and defeccia, or did they chances are they spent some of their own time and their own money getting training on dyslexia? I think that trajectory of let's say primary, I think certainly has improved in many ways. Still more work to be done. Secondary is still the pinch point. That is the area that I think a lot of our young people with dyslexia, and other neurodivergence find, many of them find incredibly challenging. And ironically, you know, if you manage to get through us, I'm leaving third and get into college further or higher education, things tend to improve significantly. As in EFA's case, you know, there is maybe more support, more flexibility, but also you get to perhaps pick a subject area that aligns with where your strengths and your skills are, as opposed to being asked to do so many subjects,

6:11many of which are not very accommodating up your dyslexia. And it's very unfortunate then, Rosie, because with the time somebody, you know, maybe gets to just sort of zone in or or pour their attention into two or three different topics. At that stage, like a lot of people will likely have fallen out of lovewood school because of the experiences they've had grown up. A hundred percent. And I think particularly if you look at our dyslexic adult population, you see this really sharply, you know, particularly those who went through the school system. Before EFA, we'll say, we're things we're even worse than many of them left school very early or sometimes we're even totally school early, those school wasn't for them, you know. And yes, I know countless examples of individuals who were who were told things like that, who went back to education later on in life, maybe after a dyslexia identification, etc. And did incredibly well, you know, or set up their business or went back and people who did PhDs and things like this, you know. And we need to, I suppose, look at seeing people in a more rounded way in terms of all of their skillsets,

7:14you know, seeing where those trends are and where there are challenges, support them properly and give them the accommodations so that they can do well in their education journey. Lister here has gotten to a trophy to tell me that they too have dyslexia. There were 40 years of age when they actually got the diagnosis. I'm now 70 and once I actually understood the condition, I really turned it into my own superpower. Another list nurse is my daughter is dyslexia, she excelled in a lot of the practical subjects in school, like baking, arts, crafts. It was in the area of academics that she really struggled. Sadly, the leaving started as geared to those with good memory skills. And as a result, my daughter really struggled with that. She completely slipped through the net. For anybody else, Rosie, who maybe feels that their child is in a similar position to that texture, what would you say to them? I would always say as a parent, trust your own goals, trust your instincts. You do know your child best. And if you feel something is not right about their learning, then try and do something about yourself. In the first instance, we'd always say, talk to the school,

8:16tell them about your concerns. You know, have they noticed anything? Can they provide any additional support? Can they potentially put the child forward for an assessment with the national educational psychological service, which is the school of psychological service? The big problem people have in terms of accessing assessment is the public route is completely underfunded. And there are not enough psychologists in place. Schools have very few assessments they're able to get done. So most, you know, as Ethan, I'm sure many of your listeners will be aware of, you know, the majority of people end up having to go privately. You know, there's no other route to them. You know, that's the reality. And yes, that identification is incredibly powerful, because it's about having a word to describe what's going on for someone. It's about saying sometimes it's often about, we talk about it as not about labeling someone with dyslexia, but actually relabeling them or giving them a kind word to describe their learning difference. And it's about then getting rid of the horrible labels of things like stupid, lazy, you know,

9:17not trying hard enough, et cetera, that's often where they're beforehand or unfortunately that people say to them. What's your advice, if at anybody today, that, you know, maybe is in the kind of the latter years of school, and they're finding it, you know, they're finding it difficult, but they know that there's certain areas that they really excel at. Yeah, I support for me like I was very close to not doing my leave-and-sturch, because I was, I was, I was academically burnt out because I was trying, you have to try 10 times harder as a dyslexic person. And I support for me, I was very lucky, I had great support in my secondary school, and family support, to just keep goal and then to give college a goal. And I did, and I went to college, and for me, I went to G-MIT in Galway, and I was welcome to the open arms and the support that I got in terrible education was what got me my degree, and I did computing a digital media, so I work in social media, and I have American business now, and I suppose when you do something that you're goddess and you're, you know,

10:18as well as that there, you know, focus on one subject, one area, that creative mind that I had was tacked into very, very quickly when I went to G-MIT, and I'm so glad I stuck with it, you know. I want to slow me to chat to you both today, and thanks a million EFA for sharing your story with us. EFA Kill Kelly, there who's a sad entrepreneur based in County Galway, and Rosie Bissett, who's the CEO of dyslexia Ireland, email us lunchtimelive at newstalk.com if you want to share your own story with us. Lunchtime Live with Andrea Gilligan, weekdays at midday on newstalk conversation that counts.