This week is Dyslexia Awareness Week, and Miss Melissa Knight from our Learning Development Department has been raising awareness around school about Dyslexia with lots of facts and information for pupils and staff to find out more.
This morning, Miss Knight presented to all pupils during Thursday Thought about what it means to live with dyslexia.
Dyslexia is a learning difference which mainly affects the way someone processes information. As a result people with dyslexia will have difficulty with reading comprehension and writing skills, including spelling.
Not everyone's dyslexia is the same, it affects people in different ways. Generally people with dyslexia will have a combination of abilities and difficulties. Lots of people with dyslexia have some great strengths including creativity and problem solving.
Dyslexia facts
- 10-15% of the population have dyslexia, so there is likely to be a pupil with dyslexia in every class room
- Those with dyslexia use only the right side of the brain to process language, while non-dyslexics use three areas on the left side of the brain to process language
- Dyslexia is on passed through families
- Dyslexia ranges from mild to severe. Around 40% of people with dyslexia also have ADHD. And those with dyslexia use about 5 times more energy to complete mental tasks
- Dyslexia is not linked to intelligence - 75% of people with dyslexia have above average skills in planning, making and game playing; 84% have above average imagining skills such as creating a new idea; 71% have above average communication skills such as creating vivid stories or pictures
- Dyslexia is not a disease, there is no cure
There are lots of famous people with dyslexia who have achieved many amazing things:
- Richard Branson
- Jamie Oliver
- Albert Einstein
- Orlando Bloom
- Kiera Knightley
- Holly Willoughby
- Mohammed Ali
- Sir Steve Redgrave
- Pablo Picasso
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Agatha Christie
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Steven Spielberg
And the list goes on...
