The First UK’s National Exhibition dedicated to the field of dyslexia and associated conditions, supporting education, parents and the workplace at the NEC 25 – 26 March 2022

Yesterday I had the long-awaited call from Aaron Smith, who has been interested in my work on dyslexia for a while.  With both of us living with dyslexia we have found we have many friends who are on the same path to make a radical change in the education system for the teaching of dyslexia. Because of this, Aaron had contacted Sue Whiting to see if it was appropriate for him to contact me.

I started to prepare myself, my make-up was on, my hair done, my top half dressed, whilst still wearing pj bottoms.  I am now sitting in front of my laptop waiting for our first team meeting to begin, hoping I have set it up right and waiting.  The phone rings, it’s Aaron who is running late and decided a call would be easier.

He introduced himself as a dyslexia entrepreneur with specialism in dyslexia, SEND, Microsoft, M365 and Digital transformation.  He wanted to produce the first U.K.’s national expedition on dyslexia and he invited me to be a speaker.  How amazing, I have continuous phone calls asking me to help with television programmes, producers, parents, schools.  People seem so shocked when I give as much advice and help as I can.  Due to the lockdown, we have had no funding and our donations are now depleted, so I am now feeling sorry for myself.  In spite of this everybody is still talking about our work and our projects, so it was a wonderful feeling to be asked to be a part of the first show on Dyslexia at the NEC.

Aaron, like myself is severely dyslexic.  I later learnt more about him from the phone call I had with Sue, who had taught him when he was 14 years old.  I asked Sue was he a mover or a shaker, or just a promise of everything.  Over the years I found so many people who had been interested in our work and asked myself is this man different, does he have potential to move mountains to make people see that if we help children in schools then our prisons will be far less crowded with people with learning difficulties in the coming years.  After researching him on LinkedIn and other various sites it was clear that he had a lot of energy and enthusiasm together with a wealth of knowledge of dyslexia so this would be good fit.

My dilemma is do I give a presentation to the education system, or do I relay to parents what I observed in the prison system of our young children?

For the last 20 years I have been travelling across the country and abroad to places such as Sweden, Holland, Australia and Ireland giving talks on my educational program.  We have changed the SEN system in Gothenburg prison Sweden & Sittingbourne College through a TV programme Teachers TV: Literacy Behind Bars, which was aired in 2007.  In spite of this people are still afraid of change.  Teachers were realising that their handouts and other resources were not user friendly for a dyslexic student.  Some of the assessments/check lists used were more about tick box exercises rather than helping the learners understand their own individual learning difficulties.

Being a parent myself of two boys, I understand the frustration of not getting the help needed.  Both boys were unable to complete their last year in school.  Richard, my eldest son has suffered for many years with severe eczema all over his body and Stuart had been involved in the car accident leaving him with a head injury and other physical injuries.  I was paying for teachers to teach my boys.  My own learning difficulties had not been diagnosed at this time.

Richard went into full time work on The Open University courses which led him to move to Glamorgan Uni to study law.  He was diagnosed with dyslexia and Dyspraxia in 2004.

Stuart went on to try 6th form college but was let down as the tutors had no idea how to work with him.  He began to take part in my projects with the training providers and prisons.  His passion was to travel across the world and expand his love of technology which helped me to share in his journey.

I worked hard for my children to have an education and not be like me.  I had to wait until I was 40 years old to understand my own issues.  This led me to gaining my qualifications and to set up our own charity, travelling the world to support and help as many children, adults and prisoners as possible.

During our projects within the prisons and security units, it was frustrating seeing the children who had dyslexia, head injuries or ADHD.  Our ‘Dyslexia Behind Bars part I/II’ report shows that during our research we found 53% of our prisoners had dyslexia, many had been told from school age, but had been left not really understanding how to move forward with their learning difficulties.  Records show that in June 2021 the population of the secure estate for children and young offenders for under 18 was 497, over the age of 18 was 554.  The overall occupancy rate for children & young people was 60%, compared to 58% from the previous month

I believe that by mentoring and supporting parents and sharing our techniques could help other children in the families be prevented from going into prison.

By putting my dilemma into words and remembering the children who I have spoken to over the years within the prison system it has become clear that there is a need for my presentation to be addressed towards parents at the NEC 25 -26 March 2022.  Please feel free to come and take part in the first dedicated Dyslexic show!

https://dyslexiashow.co.uk/