Spell Dyslexia

Rewind, it's 2005

Gold Digger by Kanye West was in the charts, a loved up Tom Cruise jumped for joy on Opera's couch, Jennifer Aniston splits with Brad Pitt shocker and Jamie Oliver leads a Turkey Twizzler school dinner revolution. Oh yes, and our daughter was diagnosed with Dyslexia, this is what she has in common with ALL these people.

At the same time, I'd had a few ideas around raising awareness for other parents about Dyslexia and registered the domain name Spell Dyslexia. I've still not done anything with it, and it remains a work in progress, just like our story.

When Penny was first diagnosed, I thought, oh for god sake, what a ridiculous spelling for something that's about spelling? I had no idea what the scope of Dyslexia was or what it meant to Penny. What chance did we stand if we couldn't even spell it and had to look it up. Already it felt like a strange barrier to understanding what was going on. I'm laughing because our daughter would spell it Dislexia, but as we're from Manchester, we'd pronounce it Dyslexioh.

So, that's why it's called Spell Dyslexia.

The idea was to blog about our families very new, very challenging and very raw experiences with Dyslexia. I was angry and wanted to rant to anyone listening about our struggles, tears and heartache, our battles with the system, our battles with Penny, all the frustrations, including our own ignorance and questions. 

Fast forward to 2021, it's very different now because we have a handle on it. Penny is in the final throws of her Animation Arts degree at Bournemouth University, there are still moments of angst, but I hope to share what we've learned along the way and what we keep on learning.

As our Dyslexic journey became more positive, I turned the energy I was using for anger to fight for Penny into supporting her. I want to share this more reflective story in the hope that other worried parents don't feel as alone as we did. 

What's now clear is that there's a much greater understanding, evolving technology and support out there. Still, I'm not sure things have changed so much in the classroom, great stigma still exists, especially if you don't have the means or the tenacity to access something that can really make a difference. 

At the end of each musing, I read it to Penny and ask her what she thinks...

"I knew I was different and I was treated differently in class from the word go, I was always self-conscious of this. I never understood why I was doing things like Toe by Toe, which I hated. I remember being taught a maths equation, the teacher had to repeat it so many times, his frustration was palpable, this was a common experience and was so pressurising and upsetting, in the end I just said I understood it."

So here goes with our Spell Dyslexia blog, every Wednesday for the foreseeable on LinkedIn #spelldyslexia

Lisa & Penny Riley