Angular for the Visual Learner
When I was nine years old, I started programming HTML and CSS (with help from my mom, Bonnie Brennan, who at the time had just started her career as a developer) and she loved it. Last year at the age of 16 I got my first paying job writing HTML and CSS! A few months ago as I finished high school, I began a new job writing TypeScript. Unfortunately as I ventured into more abstract topics, I began struggling. I was honestly convinced I just wasn’t smart enough to be a programmer. I tried to quit programming and pursue a career that didn’t require much skill. My mom didn’t understand and insisted that I was smart enough to be a programmer. In struggling to explain it to her, we started to suspect that I might be dyslexic so we started researching.
I’ve learned that dyslexia is like an umbrella term, it covers a range of different meanings. For some people it might be difficult to use words together. For others, it might be difficult reading words or letters in the correct sequence. For me it’s hard to comprehend and remember what I am reading. I can scan a sentence many times and still not understand what I’ve read. I sometimes feel overwhelmed when I read, especially large files of code. Seeing all the letters, numbers, and symbols in seemingly random sequences is a lot for my brain to take in and it makes me feel disoriented.
Our research led us to The Gift of Dyslexia and a (Davis Method) dyslexia specialist who essentially taught me how I learn. In the last couple months I have started to learn Angular in a visual way. Put simply, dyslexics learn in pictures. This new way of learning has completely changed not only how I view myself, but also how I view dyslexia. Dyslexia and intelligence are not related, and it took me a long time to believe that. Once I started to understand abstract concepts using the method of pictures, I finally realized I could be a damn good programmer! Dyslexia was only hindering me until I understood what it was. Now that I have the whole story, I am starting to accept and appreciate the gift of dyslexia.
So why are we here? I want to start to answer that question with some numbers. In America, there are 40 million dyslexic adults, but only 2 million of those know they are visual learners. How crazy is that? By those numbers, can you imagine how many of them tried to learn programming and struggled way more than they should have? Maybe even given up? I have to make the visuals for myself to learn Angular anyway, so I figured if I put this out there it could help someone else too!
It has taken a village to get me this far, and I am excited to say welcome to Angular for the Visual Learner! In this series my ng-friends and I will teach abstract Angular concepts in a visual way along with coordinating code examples!
I want to give a ~special~ thanks to my mom and everyone else who has contributed to this project. Disclaimer: this series is not specifically for dyslexics. If pictures help you understand Angular, this series is for you!
I am just beginning my journey with dyslexia so along the way if anyone has any comments, suggestions, or you just want to chat about this, please feel free to reach out!
Miles of smiles,
Samantha Brennan
@TheLittlestDev
RESOURCES:
Information about dyslexia: https://www.austinlearningsolutions.com/blog/38-dyslexia-facts-and-statistics.html
Dyslexia facilitators: https://www.davismethod.org/
