A protracted anaolgy about (some aspects of) dyslexia
Imagine the task you
are trying to do (reading a word, filling out a form, making change)
is a locked door. There is a little note on the lock that says 'blue
key'.
Now for most people
unlocking to door would just be a case of turning to the board next
to the door which has all the keys lined up. Every key has it's own
hook and is properly labelled with a different coloured tag or the
right name.
If it's a door they
know they can reach for the blue key almost without looking.
Sometimes it takes a moment to scan through those carefully labelled
ordered keys until they find the blue one.
But then they have the
key and can unlock the door.
This is how a
non-dyslexic brain finds the information to complete a task. It sorts
through what it knows looking for the information it needs to finish
the task. The information is in some sort of order that the person's
brain knows and understands.
Now a dyslexic person
comes to unlock that door. They might see that the note that says
'blue key' but that note might be missing or damaged, but they know
they need a key. Instead of turning to a nicely ordered peg board
they are confronted with a big bowl full of unlabelled keys all
jumbled up.
At best they can go
through every key one by one until they find the right key, but
realistically it's going to be a daunting task and every key that
doesn't face is a smack in the face that the keys aren't properly
labelled.
A dyslexic brain can
not always find the information needed to complete a task. It's not
that it isn't there, we have the information we just can't find it. A
dyslexic brain doesn't label things properly or put them in a nice
convenient order. This means that a dyslexic person might not even
know the information is there, never mind how to find it.
Sometimes there are
methods a dyslexic brain can use to help overcome this. We can use
relaxation methods to keep us calm whilst we carefully sort the
information: separating the too big keys from the smaller keys, or in
a real life situation breaking a big task into smaller tasks. We can
practice new ways of learning or labelling information: looking at a
key from all angles before we put it away so we can remember what it
looks like or in real life trying different learning pathways like
speaking out loud or practising when we learn new information.
We can ask for help. We
can write things down. We can count on our fingers, draw pictures,
sing songs, talk out loud, use reference books – anything we want
for trying to make sense of that big bowl of keys.
