I recently assessed the most inspirational young adult! She has achieved and passed all her GCSES, a higher Level BTech, AND a first class honours degree!!
You may wonder why she suddenly decided she needed a diagnosis and what makes her inspirational… Because from what I have said here she has done nothing out of the ordinary! All she has done is just jumped through some academic hoops that many people do. But let me tell you what I saw hidden under the surface….
This young adult is severely dyslexic but had never received a formal diagnosis because she managed to just do enough at each stage to scrape through. She worked incredibly hard to compensate and find ways round it, keeping her effort and hours and hours of extra work hidden from view, and she also played the game! She understood her weaknesses and accepted them, whilst fully embracing and fine tuning her strengths, choosing qualifications that, where possible, had a course work element because exams didn’t work for her. This way she could draft and redraft and ask questions and ask all the questions she needed to.
Now at 26 she is applying to do a masters degree and quite an academic masters degree. She just knows that she won’t be able to complete it without additional time and support. At this stage she can’t get any extra support without a formal a diagnosis. The assessment and report provided her with so many answers. I can honestly say her dyslexia had massively impacted on her reading and spelling skill development and I don’t know how she has managed to achieve what she had with such limited support.
Other than…
Hard graft, determination and resilience and a drive to be the best she could be no matter how tough it got. Even when she was close to failing she kept on moving forward, no matter how small the steps were she etched forward. Even when she felt like a failure and her mental health was in tatters giving up wasn’t an option.
That’s the inspiration…
And what makes me sad is, it shouldn’t have ever been this hard. If the education system allowed for pupils to be swiftly identified, they could then all be taught and supported in a way that enabled them to thrive and not feel so worn down!
Luckily this person had strong support networks around her to help her. But if they didn’t the story would be very very different! I was so grateful and privileged to be able to help this young person, and once again thankful I get to support people in the way I do. PLUS it was a huge reminder to me personally as a fellow dyslexic or anyone working against adversity, anything is possible is you just believe and take the relevant action.
If you are an adult or know of an adult affected by dyslexia and think a diagnosis could help you make the next step, please do get in touch. I would be delight to help you be inspirational.