QLDC Libraries hosted a community kōrero about thriving with dyslexia and neurodiversity on Thursday 13 October. The event was a great success and we have some handy information as well as the recording of the live stream available for anybody to watch.
In celebration of Dyslexia Awareness Week (5 – 11 October), QLDC Libraries brought together six guest speakers for this FREE community event to encourage the conversation around neurodiversity and dyslexia.
We took time to connect with our community, gain tools and knowledge from professionals within the field and hear personal experiences of dyslexia as well as those parenting children with the neurological condition. This event was all about getting the conversation started and raising awareness!
Our guest speakers generously donated their time to share information and personal accounts of navigating life with dyslexia and neurodiversity followed by an opportunity for Q&A.
Meet the guest speakers
*Click on their images for links to their websites.
Recording of the event
If you'd like to watch the recording of this fantastic event, click here.
Suggested reading
Freaks, Geeks and Asperger Syndrome by Luke Jackson
Drawing from his own experiences and gaining information from his teenage brother and sisters, he wrote this enlightening, honest and witty book in an attempt to address difficult topics such as bullying, friendships, when and how to tell others about AS, school problems, dating and relationships, and morality.
Divergent mind : thriving in a world that wasn't designed for you by Jenara Nerenberg
A paradigm-shifting study of neurodivergent women—those with ADHD, autism, synesthesia, high sensitivity, and sensory processing disorder—exploring why these traits are overlooked in women and how society benefits from allowing their unique strengths to flourish.
The New Zealand dyslexia handbook by Tom Nicholson
This is an up-to-date resource written with the aim of improving the literacy of dyslexic students. The authors are experienced university teachers and researchers with expertise in literacy. In putting the book together, they consulted with other university researchers, students with dyslexia, their parents, classroom teachers and principals. The results is a book that de-mystifies dyslexia and shows that there are many practical things classroom teachers can do about it. Dyslexia is mysterious to many people, yet it becomes easy to understand once you have some information about it. It is commonly ignored by schools and the community because of a lack of understanding, and people have taken on ideas that are not backed by research. This book aims to address this.
The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan examines the emotional, social, and practical aspects that accompany a diagnosis of dyslexia. The book seeks to shift the mindset of parents of individuals with dyslexia, and individuals with dyslexia themselves, away from a perspective of being handicapped by deficits to that of being empowered by strengths through information, accommodation, and advocacy. Foss recounts his own journey in the book’s introduction, laying the foundation for the remainder of the book. He was identified as having dyslexia as a young child, and the belief that he was somehow defective created such a powerful sense of shame that he hid his dyslexia through much of his academic career. He eventually recognized the strengths his “disability” brought, and he earned a JD/MBA from Stanford Law School, worked in the Clinton White House, and invented technology for the Intel Corporation. Today he is an entrepreneur, activist, and founder of Headstrong Nation.
Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
Fish in a Tree is a 2015 novel about Ally, who has dyslexia. She's smart and talented but can't read due to her disability. Her family moves around because of her father's military job, so she transfers schools often.