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Lisa’s Dyslexia Story: Leading Defence Dyslexia
From being the outsider at school, to empowering dyslexics from all corners of the Ministry of Defence, Lisa’s dyslexic journey has seen her through highs and lows. Now she’s also supporting her son to wear his dyslexia with pride.
Lisa’s dyslexia brought her many challenges growing up. Not only did she struggle to read and write, she also struggled to make friends. Lisa’s experience of dyslexia at school was swarmed with feelings of isolation and shame, constantly shunned by both teachers and pupils who read her dyslexia as slowness.
“I couldn’t read until I was ten, I have terrible spatial awareness and bad short-term memory. Fitting in as a child was really hard.”
Lisa wasn’t officially diagnosed with dyslexia until was 32, when her son had his assessment. Lisa knew very early that her little boy was dyslexic. He struggled terribly through reception, unable to read or write his name, while short term memory presented even more problems in the classroom.
The school labelled Lisa’s son as SPLD (specific learning difficulty) but couldn’t support having him tested any further. This frustrated Lisa, as it felt like the school believed he would simply grow out of his learning difficulty, even without any special support.
Lisa was determined to get her son the help he needed. Getting dyslexia statemented is expensive, but unable to watch their son struggle any more, Lisa and her husband saved to get him a private assessment, and Lisa got tested too.
“My spelling and grammar was so bad that I remember in GCSEs I handed in an essay and my teacher covered it in red pen. I was really upset because I tried so hard. Then I got my dad to proofread it and took it back and the teacher accused me of plagiarism because she didn’t believe it was the same piece of work.”
Luckily, after being statemented, Lisa’s son was given incredible support by the school, with a 121 tutor and dedicated nurture class with ‘precision teaching’ to help him catch up. These revised, specialist teaching methods saw him go from not being able to read to reaching the top level of reading in just 18-months.
Having an official diagnosis was also freeing for Lisa. Finally empowered to embrace the things about herself she’d always fought to keep hidden, Lisa set up the Defence Dyslexia Network at the Ministry of Defence, to help empower her fellow dyslexic employees to come out of the shadows and wear their dyslexia as a badge.
To Lisa delight (and surprise!) the group was an immediate success, growing from 4 dyslexic members to 1,300 in just over a year.
“I wanted to get awareness out to the MOD that employees with dyslexia are not stupid and not lazy. They can bring so much to a team, they just need to be accepted for who they are.”
Through a combination of presentations, talks and workshops, the Defence Dyslexia Network has helped empower dyslexics across the MOD, helping them develop personal thriving mechanisms to progress in their roles and embrace their dyslexic brains and empower them see all the positive trait their dyslexia brings.
Setting up the network has really built Lisa’s confidence. Where she used to just struggle by herself, she’s now confident announcing her dyslexia and explaining to managers and colleagues how she needs to work. She’s also come to appreciate her strengths – her natural empathy, her ability to problem solve even in tense situations, her determination and her creativity.
Finally, Lisa has been able to come out of hiding and realise who she really is, and she hopes her work with Defence Dyslexia has helped more dyslexics feel the same.
“Dyslexia doesn’t mean your brain doesn’t work, it just works differently, and systems can be adapted to support that. We have to take ownership, we can’t just expect our managers to know how to help us, we have to be honest and empower ourselves to do the best we can do.”
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