Dyslexia
Anaru’s Speech – Dyslexia
Koromatua School
August 2012
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you couldn’t read or write? What if the thought
of spelling simple words made your head spin and stomach churn?
Sadly, this is the reality for children with learning difficulties. The particular learning difficulty I
would like to talk to you about is Dyslexia. Broadly speaking, dyslexia is an inherited condition that
often makes it really hard to read, write, spell, and sometimes do maths.
There is a common misconception that dyslexics see words backwards, so instead of seeing the
word “PAT” they’ll see “TAP.” Instead of “GOD,” they’ll read “DOG.” This gives rise to jokes such as
“Old MacDonald was dyslexic, “O I E I EEEEE.” Or “Did you hear the one about the dyslexic atheist,
he didn’t believe there was a dog!”
For dyslexic people, reading can be a nightmare. Words on the page may disappear, move around,
fade in and out. Each person experiences it differently. Imagine trying to read words that won’t sit
still. The harder you try, the words get blurrier, you get more frustrated – then the words start to. .
. breakdance??? . . . . You start stuttering and then, the teacher yells at you for messing around. It
is not pretty. Consequently, this can lead to more anxiety, stuttering, humiliation, lower selfesteem and more failure. For people with dyslexia, instead of school being a “home for learning,”
it can become, “a house of horrors.” DUN, DUN, DUN.
On the other hand, having dyslexia isn’t all doom and gloom. There are upsides too. Some have
even termed it a “gift.” Dyslexic people tend to think in pictures instead of words. This helps them
to imagine things really vividly, sometimes in 3-dimensions. This dyslexic gift helps them to be
creative and “outside the square” thinkers. There are loads of famous people who have (or had)
dyslexia such as Walt Disney, Leonardo da Vinci, Tom Cruise, Magic Johnson, Mohammed Ali,
Winston Churchill. People with dyslexia can excel in many areas like sports, dancing, and they
make outstanding public speakers.
One person I want to talk about is Thomas Edison. In school, he was terrible at maths, he had
difficulty with words and speech, he couldn’t focus, he talked when he was supposed to be
listening and never listened when the teacher was talking . . . totally unlike me!!! One time,
Thomas’s teacher even called him retarded. His mum withdrew him from school and began
teaching him herself. Thomas Edison became an avid reader and went on to invent 100’s of useful
devices including the phonograph, the incandescent light bulb and alkaline batteries. Not bad for a
problem child.
Way back in the days when I was a “youngin,” I really struggled to read. I remember being called
stupid and getting picked on because I couldn’t read properly. I even remember asking if I could
quit school when I was 7. Like Edison, my mum helped and encouraged me. She read a book called
Dyslexia
‘the gift of Dyslexia’ and I learned to read by making 3-dimensional playdough models of words
that caused me trouble.
Like me, the challenge for many children is not that they can’t learn, the challenge is that we learn
differently. The education system does a good job of teaching the majority but children who learn
differently can fall through the cracks and get labelled slow learners and failures! In reality, the
system is a failure . . . a failure at recognising and catering for differences.
Instead of expecting all children to learn exactly the same way, we need to harness the different
strengths and accept different ways of learning. Thomas Edison didn’t achieve DESPITE his
dyslexia, he achieved BECAUSE of his dyslexia! If dyslexia really is a gift, like any gift, we should
receive it graciously and look forward with great anticipation to what lies beyond the wrapper.