Hi!

I am a mother of three, two of which have dyslexia. Both found out about their dyslexia when they were studying at the university. It took my son almost 10 years to finish his university studies and thesis, largely because he didn’t know that he had reading difficulties and didn’t know about the tools and support that he needed and which were available to him. I didn’t know much about dyslexia when the kids were small; at that time society as a whole lacked knowledge about it. When they were kids, they had spelling problems and disliked reading. I just attributed this to us living abroad, with two mother tongues – Swedish and English.

Back home in Sweden, my son had a friend at university who told me about his dyslexia. When the friend shared his challenges, they just resonated with my son, that he went and checked himself. As soon as my daughter heard that, she also checked with a speech therapist, and they both had dyslexia. I was as proud of my children with dyslexia as I was of my child without. But it felt a little awkward that I didn’t understand their struggles during school. As I myself love books, I continued to teach the children literature, but only one of the three appreciated it. One fine day, my daughter kindly asked me not to get any more books for her 😊.

In retrospect, I wish I had continued reading aloud to my children longer and not prioritized so many other things, like cleaning 😊. However, I remember being very impressed with my daughter’s writing capacity. Her spelling was very imaginative, but I still think that people with dyslexia spell better than others; as the words sound. When she writes today, however, you hardly notice any typos, thanks to programs like TorTalk and Word.

I think self-confidence is the hardest part of having dyslexia as well as the challenge to follow the school’s curriculum. The annoying truth is that both my mother and I misjudged people by their spelling before we knew more about dyslexia. Now that I understand that you can’t afford this and that there are tools that correct the spelling, I instead want to encourage you to make use of tools such as TorTalk. In my daily work at the school, I also want to encourage us, teachers, myself included, to gain more insight into how to help students with dyslexia and see signs of it. For example, it is not always just the reading and/or spelling that can be a challenge, you may also need support with planning and perhaps breaking down big goals into smaller ones.

As a parent of a child with dyslexia, I want to share some advice. Have a dyslexia investigation done as soon as you see signs of dyslexia! Read about the symptoms on 1177 and TorTalk’s website. Then make sure your child gets tools that suit them! Teach yourself the tools, and practice with your child until the tool is part of everyday life and nothing strange. Take time with your child, love, encourage and affirm their abilities! For example, I have seen creativity and problem-solving skills, in my children having dyslexia. Remember that your children are unique and amazing! Don’t let the challenge of dyslexia get the last word, it is only a small part of your child. As for books, read to them, laugh, maybe cry; appreciate books together. If you yourself have dyslexia, listen to books together, and read with your ears!

Good Luck and all the best,

MariAnne