When life gives you melons, you’re dyslexic
We are the original improvisers, problem solvers and lateral thinkers: Proud member of the D-Squad Catherine Deveny explains why being identified as dyslexic can be liberating, and shares some advice for parents of dyslexic kids.
You’re not concentrating!’ ‘Try harder.’ ‘You just need to do more work!’
Growing up, I heard these things over and over again. The way my teachers, parents, classmates — everyone — told me to learn and remember things never worked for me.
I was a very social and “creative” kid who could cook, knit, crochet, sing, understand people’s emotions and “participate well in class discussion”. But I couldn’t learn my times tables no matter what I did, could not tell my left from my right and sucked at spelling.
Now, at 48, nothing’s changed. I still don’t know my times tables, can’t spell, and still can’t tell my left from my right.
Like many parents, I was identified as having dyslexia at around the same time my eldest son, then nine-year-old Dom, was.
Note the use of the word “identified” and not “diagnosed”. Dyslexia is not a medical condition, a mental illness or a life sentence. Dyslexia is not something that can or needs to be cured. It simply means we are not neurotypical. We are neurodiverse.
It is estimated that 10 per cent of people are dyslexic. Just like most people, we are good at some things and we suck at others. We find some things really hard to learn and other things effortless.
MRIs show our brains are wired differently and, despite being in the normal or above average IQ range, our literacy levels lag a few years behind what is expected — despite normal access to schooling, books and language.
How dyslexics see the world
Neurotypicals — people whose brains and thought processes work in the most common way — learn in a linear fashion, a little like the door-opening sequence at the start of Get Smart (most people are neurotypicals).
But dyslexics see everything from an aerial perspective. We have issues decoding and encoding, which makes reading — and particularly spelling — a huge challenge. Learning can feel like information is being thrown at us in one big hit, rather than being meted out in ordered spoonfuls.
However, we are excellent problem solvers because we can connect ideas from different domains, which we can see all at once.
When Dom (now 18, finishing year 12 and 200,000 words through writing his first book) was being assessed, the psychologists asked: “Does anyone in your family have a learning disorder?”
I responded: “If he’s got something, I have it, too. I understand how he can read the word ‘was’ correctly on one page, read it as ‘saw’ the next and not be able to identify it on the third page.”
It’s very common for parents and sometimes grandparents to be identified as having dyslexia when a child is — simply because, these days, we screen for many issues and dyslexia is genetic.
When one person in your family is identified as dyslexic, suddenly there are ten. I understand why many people are “anti-label” when it comes to issues like dyslexia. Both my son and I found it hugely liberating knowing that we weren’t “dumb, lazy or not trying enough”.
Dyslexia as a difference, not disadvantage
Being identified helped us understand we had a neurodiversity that simply meant we didn’t learn the way most people did.
When Dom was identified he wasn’t fazed at all. I explained we both had the same thing and he looked at me, with my full and happy life and career as a writer, and only saw it as a difference, not a disadvantage.
For me, being identified explained a lot about the way I am and how I think. For Dom, he just knew not to be surprised if he didn’t “get” things the way they were taught at school. We’d find another way to teach him so he understood.
Growing up, I was told “the right way” to learn things. These “right ways” never worked and the ways I did learn and understand I had to figure out myself.
I would identify the finished product people wanted and reverse engineer to get there my way. Ironically, despite being told I wasn’t trying hard enough, I now realize dyslexics are excellent at trying. They have to be. Every single task they encounter they have to teach themselves how to learn.
For example, when I was in Prep, we were doing an exercise on the letter T. The teacher told us to write the word TEA in big letters on a piece of paper, go over the letters with glue, then sprinkle tea over the letters — resulting in the word TEA written in tea.
I got muddled listening to the instructions, so I simply looked at the final product and reproduced it. I picked up the glue brush, wrote ‘TEA’ in glue, poured the tea straight on to the glue and shook off what didn’t stick. The teacher was cross because the exercise was supposed to kill half an hour.
When Dom was about the same age, I asked him to “put the moisturiser” on my bed. I handed him the tube and off he went. A few hours later, I went into my bedroom to find moisturiser smeared all over my doona.
Prominent members of the D-Squad
I love being dyslexic and strongly identify with the term. I am not “a person with dyslexia”; I am a proud dyslexic. We can’t follow rules and don’t “think outside the box” because, for dyslexics, there is no box.
We are the original improvisers, problem solvers and lateral thinkers.
I frequently identify other dyslexics, not through their weaknesses but by their strengths. Dyslexics all have incredible strengths.
As I was watching comedian Eddie Izzard onstage recently, I noticed how fast his brain jumped between unrelated subjects, wound them together, created unexpected solutions and painted word pictures. I thought, “I bet he’s dyslexic”. Sure enough, he is a proud and prominent member of the D-Squad.
We’re what are generally referred to in schools as “students with uneven profiles”. The strengths we have are not compensatory, they are hard-wired, and are commonly in the areas of creativity, business, sport, people skills and engineering.
We are over-represented in areas of high achievement, be it in politics, entertainment, science, art, writing or sport.
Some prominent dyslexics include entrepreneur Richard Branson, Nobel Prize winner Carol Greider, scientist and engineer Nikola Tesla, comedian Whoopi Goldberg, inventor Alexander Graham Bell, social and environmental activist Erin Brockovich, director Steven Spielberg, Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg, artist Pablo Picasso and singer Cher.
Growing up I was told: “You’ll never be a writer because you can’t spell.” I’d respond “but I don’t want to be a speller, I want to be a writer”.
It’s a fabulous “up yours” to those people that I have published over 1,000 columns, made a living out of writing and speaking for 25 years, currently run the most successful writing master class in Australia and have written nine books (the most recently published, Use Your Words, being a book on writing).
But perhaps my most surreal moment on the journey of reconciling my childhood as an unidentified dyslexic and my life as a successful writer came this time two years ago.
In the space of an hour I was flooded with messages telling me something I had written was used in the Year 12 HSC English exam.
How I laughed. I almost failed Year 12 English with 51 per cent.
Advice for dyslexics
I am regularly contacted by frantic parents asking for advice on how to help their dyslexic child manage at school. The sheer number of apps, therapies, extra classes and targeted literary assistance available can be overwhelming. Here is the advice I give everyone…
Audio books: Get your kid listening to the audio books (not with the book in front of them). The pristine audio and clear speech helps us understand what order words go in and how they are spelt so we can predict what words come after as we read.
Keyboards: Encouraging dyslexics to write on keyboards can teach them how to spell and helps their written expression. Using a keyboard means they are reinforcing their reading by producing uniform font, not messy handwriting.
Tutors: Feeling swamped with information at school can be hugely stressful. Consider having a tutor that your child clicks with teach them topics they are weak in — before the rest of the class. They may also need a tutor, mentor or teacher in things they are excellent at: it will keep their confidence up, and remind they are brilliant in other areas.
Catherine Deveny has been a comedian, writer and professional speaker for 25 years. She’s the author of nine books, has published over 1,000 columns including in The Age and is an ABC regular who has appeared on Q&A. Deveny is the creator of the successful Gunnas Writing Masterclass which has seen 2,000 writers attend in two years. Her most recent book, Use Your Words, is published by Black Inc Books.
