What I learned at DyslexiFest

Last Saturday, I escaped a drizzly afternoon by visiting Scotland’s first-ever dyslexia festival. The one-day event took place in The Lighthouse in Glasgow. Tucked down a wee lane, The Lighthouse is not the easiest building to find, but it is one of Glasgow’s architectural gems. It was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and it is

Dyslexia Friendly Storytelling

A couple of weeks ago, the BBC launched this year’s 500 Words competition. 500 Words is a writing competition for children between 5 and 13 years old. Each entrant submits one story of up to 500 words. The three winners in each age category win either their own height in books, the Duchess of Cornwall’s

Three little known signs of dyslexia

When I was in primary school, my new teacher asked everyone in the class to tell him something they thought he should know about them. I remember that I wrote something along the lines of, “If I’m staring into space, don’t stop me – I’m thinking up stories or imagining.” That’s not very surprising for

Cutting-Edge Technology from 3500BC

You probably don’t remember learning to speak. It happens too early. Most of us are chattering away before we’re out of nappies. But you may have painful memories of learning to read: the anxiety of spelling tests, word lists, and red pen. That’s because speaking comes naturally to us, and reading doesn’t. Human beings have

The Power of Purple

On the morning of my recent exam I received a text from my mum saying, “Remember to take your purple glasses!” That wasn’t because she hoped I would wow the examiners with my unusual fashion sense; the colour of my glasses reduces the effects of the visual stress associated with my dyslexia. In natural light,

The invisible superhero

Dyslexia is hardly a superpower – in fact it’s a ‘specific learning difficulty’. But this ‘difficulty’ seems to have a strange way of making people better at some things. Dyslexia often co-exists with high levels of: creativity intuition interpersonal skills perseverance and determination. Look at Pablo Picasso, who never amounted to much in school but