Consequences of Neglecting Dyslexia: Dyslexia Matters

By Harvinder Doal

This book indicates my life experience with dyslexia as a student and how it has affected my education and social life. It also identifies that schools/colleges need not to neglect someone who has symptoms of a potential special educational need or learning difficulty and investigate it as soon as symptoms are noticed. The reason to why these need to be investigated is also highlighted in the book and how the diagnosis turned my life around. Employers also need to work around the needs of an employee who has any form of difficulty of performing high standards of work and providing necessary equipment, which is illustrated in the book. This book shows how to do it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Nov 8, 2018
• ISBN: 9781546293897

Harvinder Doal

My name is Harvinder Doal and I am a 25-year-old man who is currently working as a Nursery Nurse as part of an agency, so I get called on an on-call basis from schools and nurseries if there is a member of staff absent so I can cover, which I have been doing for almost 2 years now. My hobbies are watching TV (particularly watching Liverpool football matches), listening to Punjabi music etc.

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Copyright © 2018 Harvinder Doal. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 11/07/2018

LIbrary of Congress Control Number: 2018913183

ISBN: 978-1-5462-9390-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-9389-7 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1   What Is Dyslexia?

Chapter 2   What is Dyspraxia and Asperger’s Syndrome?

Chapter 3   Life in Epilepsy

Chapter 4   Life in Infants and Junior School

Chapter 5   Life in Secondary School

Chapter 6   Life Changing Experience in College

Chapter 7   Resitting GCSE Maths and English

Chapter 8   My Work Placement and Developing Skills as a Childcare Worker

Chapter 9   Challenges in First Employment

Chapter 10   Life with Depression

Chapter 11   Crisis in Friendship

Conclusion

Bibliography

About the Author

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to say thanks to my brother, Parminder Doal, who has helped me with proofreading, giving me feedback and important advice regarding the book. This book was only possible because of his help. When I did not know how to write down my ideas, I would tell him what to write, and he would write it for me. Thank you, Parminder.

More thanks go to my parents, who have helped me a lot. Whenever I’ve had grim times, they have supported me with money, advice, and freedom. When I was going through depression, they did not force me to look for a job or tell me to leave the house because I was eighteen and was an adult who needed to start living independently. They supported me in my hard times.

I would also like to say thanks to my CACHE teacher, who agreed to interview me and asked me a very important question— ‘Have you been tested for dyslexia?’—when I told her I could not read and write. I was given a college place, but the conditions were to have two grade Ds in my GCSE subjects, and they could be any two. One thing that I did not say in the book was that I did not meet the requirements of that college, but they still agreed to give me a place, and I passed it at the end as an A* in level two and a B in level three. Thanks for understanding that I may have dyslexia and for arranging LSA to support me so that it would be easier for me during the course.

I would like to thank the LSA who helped me throughout college. She was able to understand me and the way I could learn. She also believed in me, told me that I would be a great childcare worker, and told me that I had the right tools to help children because I did not want them facing the same problems that I faced. My experience would be the key. She encouraged me all the way. For example, I wanted to do level 4 in dyslexia, and she was happy and said, ‘You can do it.’ A few hours later, I went to another teacher, and she said, ‘No, do not do this because it is too hard. You must write reports.’ My LSA tried to build my confidence, and for that reason, I will never forget her. Thanks a lot for believing in me.

INTRODUCTION

This book is about my experiences with dyslexia and the difficulties I have faced when I was in school and undiagnosed. What is dyslexia? What are the signs and symptoms of dyslexia? These are some of the points that will be highlighted in the book.

When I was a young child, I faced a lot of pain. I had epilepsy when I was just eleven months old. My mother was very overwhelmed to have me as a first child and finding out that I had epilepsy was heart-breaking for her. When I grew out of epilepsy, I used to bump into objects when I walked on the street, and my speech was delayed due to the volume of fits in those early years.

When I started school, I faced hardship in several ways, such as poor English skills, slow in childhood developmental needs and requiring support in classwork. I wished people took my needs more on board. Why did nobody look in more detail to the fact that I cannot read and write when I was in year three and onwards? My infant school was very good with starting to find out that I may have dyslexia, but I was in year two at the time, and it was too late to take the matter forward. They told my junior school. Did they do something with that information? No, they did not do anything. When I was in high school, it was challenging for me to know that I could not read big books like my peers; I lacked confidence. The same was true with spelling. I believe that the professionals did not play the roles that they were paid to perform. One positive part of my school life was in year ten and year eleven, when I went for work experience in a nursery. I went to India, where there were nursery age cousins, and I was with them for five weeks. I used to control them very well and played with them well. As a result, my extended family suggested that I should work with children as a career, which made me believe that I could do so. I applied for a college course for CACHE level two in child care and education.

Throughout my life, I have faced hardship due to schools not taking my needs seriously and not giving me the support required. Consequently, I did not improve in my time at school and did not get the grades that I had the potential to get had I been diagnosed initially. I felt very upset that my peers could read but I could not. The TAs used to ask me to read to them, which was very hard, and sometimes I’d say to them that I needed to go to the toilet. Reading the words were very hard for me, and so I looked for excuses to not do it. The TAs did not think at that time that there must be something wrong with me, and therefore they did not talk to the SENCO to take further action.

When I also in school, I preferred to use the computer more than writing on the paper as I do not need to form the letters, whereas when it comes to typing on the computer, the letters are already on the keyboard and it was just a matter of typing it, but the school did not consider this and take action accordingly. As an adult now, I still use computers as it makes my life easier as I do not need to worry about spelling as the computers have an auto-correct.

When I went to college, my life turned around. I had a teacher who cared about my needs. When I went for my interview, I told her that I found reading and writing very hard. She said that I would be sent for an assessment for dyslexia. Before my interview, I had an English and maths assessment, and I found that very challenging because I could not read, and my spelling skills were weak. The Learning Support Assistant (LSA) spotted me struggling, and she was very confident that I had dyslexia. When I started my level two course, I was sent for a diagnostic test which confirmed that I had dyslexia. The dyslexia teacher told me to stop the assessment halfway because I found the work extremely difficult, and she was able to diagnose that I was severely dyslexic. After the diagnosis, I improved dramatically, which made me more confident in doing my courses. At the end of the courses, I got the following results: an A* in level two and a B in level three. Compared to hardly having any GCSEs in school, my results were outstanding.

Dyspraxia is linked with dyslexia. This overlap because most people have both learning difficulties. Dyspraxia affects mostly the physical side of a person. When I was an infant, it was hard to learn to walk, roll over, sit, and crawl. I struggled with some basic skills of life: eating, running, kicking, and catching a ball. When I was a child, my parents tried to teach me how to kick and catch a ball. NHS website have stated that ‘Delays in reaching normal developmental milestones can be an