I have dyspraxia

Developmental co-ordination disorder (DCD), also known as dyspraxia, is a condition affecting physical co-ordination. It causes a child to perform less well than expected in daily activities for their age, and appear to move clumsily.

I am also dyslexic

Dyslexia results from individual differences in the parts of the brain that enable reading. It tends to run in families. Dyslexia appears to be linked to certain genes that affect how the brain processes reading and language.

As a child, I found it difficult to spell, my pages were littered with red Inc, crossed out lines, and was often told to do better. I was clumsy, I would drop things, my balance in the gym hall was brought fits of laughter from my friends. But I did ok, I muddled through.

Through my working life, my first real encounter with my spelling being an issue was when I sent out  my first letter, the recipient,  a solicitor asked to speak to reference DML, she pointed out that my letter was littered with spelling mistakes and suggested that I always get my letters proof read before I sent them.. I did.

My boss was incredible  he would give me spelling tests, and I  learnt how to spell specific words connected to law. I was very lucky. 

I did a variety of jobs, I began a teaching degree, and when working in classroom, my students would say I'd misspelt  words and I managed to get way with it by saying 'great you noticed, I will keep writing  misspelt words to keep you on your toes ' they believed me. 

When I did my university degree at university, I was fortunate enough to get referred to a specialist  as my tutors were concerned, at my inability to spell remember, texts, and my frustration at getting things wrong.

Now at 58, I'm not  unduly worried about by my spelling, I use spell check, so  i like other dyslexics kinda cheat, but it's fab to be able to have my spelling checked automatically for me. 

So, I've now decided its ok, I know lot of words, some quite grown up ones, and I love language so that's OK, I can talk, communicate, explain, discuss, argue, engage with clients, and have a debate, and I can read, I just forget books ater I've read then, so make heaps of notes.

So, why am I telling you all this?

Im telling you so that you can begin to understand that by having a label, dyslexic, dyspraxic given by specialists  , is not something any of us should embarrassed  by, we are so much more than our labels. 

It's what makes us unique, it's can be frustrating, sometimes even a when I'm  writing the quiz answers out, and no one can read my scrawl   and it's scrawled  because otherwise people would see the mismatched words, I'm now trying not to apologise for my mistakes and just say I'm dyslexic. 

We all use decoys to fit in, but I'm trying now to celebrate my differences, to know that despite having dyslexia I did ok, and I'm urging you to accept any differences you may have, to reach out for help if you need it, to talk about it. . Try not to be embarrassed by having any 'label' because they are just that and we are much more than our labels.

To me that's the important stuff... and if I get a word misspelt  it's ok, so, know that all of us are different, have different strengths, weaknesses, but we are all doing the best we can

We are all pretty amazing,
Deborah x

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