What is it like to read with dyslexia?
This page is an experiment with code to try and show how hard reading is for some people with dyslexia.
Not everyone with dyslexia finds reading tricky. Of those that do, one of the many ways they describe the act of reading is that the letters don't stay where they are supposed to. Others describe words as being broken up (rather than a flowing sentence) or whole lines going missing. Dyslexia is a lot more than finding spelling or reading tricky, but hopefully this page might help you to understand something. That something is visual stress.
This web page doesn't show exactly what it's like to read when you are dyslexic, but it does show what visual stress is like. It's pretty frustrating, isn't it? Now imagine you're in an exam room and the clock is ticking, or you've been asked a question in class and everyone is waiting for you to find the answer in a page of text... Suddenly the pressure's on.
Children with dyslexia bring a liveliness and creativity to our classrooms and lives. In Nina Jackson's book Of Teaching, Learning and Sherbet Lemons, she includes a list written by Olivia Gilbert (an adult with dyslexia) with the title 10 Things I Love About Being Dyslexic. It's a thought-provoking read. It's our job to make sure that each student we teach who has dyslexia is taught that what they have is not a disability and that some of the most creative, innovative people out there are those who have dyslexia too. Fancy telling Jamie Oliver, Henry Winkler, John Lennon, Richard Branson, Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Redgrave, Steven Spielberg and Muhammad Ali that they have a problem? Thought not.
Our dyslexic students are unique. It's just up to us to provide the support to allow them to show it.