I had always struggled with reading and writing when I was in school, going right back to my primary school days. Where I’d be asked to stand-up and read a word of the board or phonically sound out letters and words, to demonstrate I had leant and understood what the rest of the class had. 

The problem was I hadn’t! I was falling behind, and like other students was struggling I was placed in catch up classes, where I would watch others come and go, while I stayed! always struggling! always remaining!

It was my grandad who would finally get the breakthrough with me in reading. he would sit with me for hours, Following the new changed reading patten they had for me when I struggled with words I didn’t know. Getting me to repeat words over and over, instead of sounding them out, which obviously hadn’t been working for me. 

He turned my hatred for reading into a newfound love for reading. Introducing me to authors such as Beatrix Potter, C. S. Lewis, Roald Dahl, and Laure Lee, as well as Poets such as T. S. Eliot. 

By my teens, my love for reading had taken over my life, if I as board I would read, if I struggled with my homework I would read! Losing myself in imaginary worlds. Of course, my reading was slower than everyone else’s – still is! and I mumbled as I read and when I was writing anything, which could be annoying for anyone else around me. 

It was in my teens that my writing journey really started, writing in-depth stories for competitions and detailed stories for English essays. My imagination ran wild, only problem was I had shit grammar and punctuation, To be fair I had none! I just wrote what I have in my head and that doesn’t contain grammar and punctuation. 

I was 35yrs old when I found out I had dyslexia. I was the best day of my life. I burst into tears when I read that report, for years I had thought myself stupid, even slow. At last, I realised it wasn’t me! I had nothing to be ashamed of, my brain was just worked differently to others. After all aren’t we all different?

With the information from the Dyslexia assessment, I now knew the best ways for me to learn, the things that didn’t work at all and how I could be helped within the workplace. 

Finding out I am Dyslexic hasn’t hindered my life, It’s improved my life. It’s built up my confidence, my self-esteem and I don’t have so much self-doubt anymore. 

Of course, I still struggle, I can’t pronounce most words, I can’t spell most words either! and if it wasn’t for Microsoft word, my work wouldn’t contain any grammar or punctuation. 

Yet I don’t care! because that’s who I am, that’s me a weird can’t spell dyslexic author! 

For more information on Dyslexia, free webinars and much more. check out British Dyslexia Association Facebook page link below: