More dyslexics gaining help

More dyslexic adults are returning to the classroom to improve their reading and writing to cope in a modern working world, a Dunedin teacher says.

Speld teacher Jean Roulston said she had provided private one-on-one tuition for dyslexics since 1991.

Dyslexia was a reading disability that occurs when the brain does not properly recognise and process certain symbols, Ms Roulston, herself dyslexic, said.

She had taught people between the ages of 5 and 6 with dyslexia, who were an ''equal mix'' of male and female.

Although half of them were from school referrals, every year more adult students signed up because the modern workplace required writing skills, she said.

''You used to be able to hide it [dyslexia], but there's no hiding anymore. Today there is a paper trail for everything.''

Dyslexics could see the ''big picture'', often acted on impulse and could be successful in business, she said.

However, they struggled with details, but if they were in positions of power they had administrators to handle those. The most dyslexic student she had was an 8-year-old boy, who wrote her a story using just the letters K, L, M and N, she said.

He was now 22 and studying towards a chemistry degree, she said.

Speld was holding a two-day introduction to specific learning disabilities in Dunedin next month, she said.

-shawn.mcavinue@odt.co.nz

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Dyslexia

• Affects about 7% of New Zealand school pupils.

• Affects people of all backgrounds and intellectual levels.

• Is not because of a lack of intelligence or desire to learn.

• Dyslexic parents likely to have dyslexic children.

• Often goes unidentified until the adult years.

Source: www.speld.org.nz

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