Jay Blades

I had a boss who owned a Nursing Home. He used to complain some staff didn't bother to read his notices. He didn't know that at least 3 of the carers he employed didn't have reading and writing skills. He was horrified when he was told this..

I have met quite a few people who cannot read and I am amazed at how they got through life, and I admire them because they use other skills to compensate. I blame the teachers for letting them slip through the net, and creating this situation. They just label the pupil lazy which then stigmatises them for life.

I used to work with someone that, quite honestly , we took the mickey out of because his writing was so bad .
Very intelligent guy who could explain technical things in such a nice, simple but not patronising way that you could understand.
He also used to teach other staff in his own field.
We had a new owner for the company who preferred all of his staff to have letters after their names or degrees even if they weren't relevant to their jobs!
He pushed this guy to retake the exams that he had failed and it was only then that in his forties he got classed as dyslexic. He retook the exams again with someone to do the typing for him and only failed by two marks, due to the typist making a mistake!
Sadly he was moved to another branch and when his appeal failed , decided to leave the company. Great loss to the company.
There are probably hundreds, if not thousands in a similar situation and hopefully Jay will help those to stand up and get some help at long last.

trisher

*I am very cynical about the claims of a university qualification. No university I have been connected with would award degrees to people who can’t read. There is a lot of reading to do that isn’t a ‘set text’. I know technology is a great help, but still*

Would you say the same about someone who is blind? Dyslexia is a disability. People with disabilities get degrees. In order to do so they need a whole range of support, in the case of a blind student texts in braille, in the case of a dyslexic student a range of audio-visual information, computers, and programs for reading and writing text.
My DS has BA and an MA.

I agree.

My 23yo has learning disabilities. He has very limited reading ability (although better than he lets on!!) and has poor fine motor skills so can't write. He's been using assistive technology since he was at school.

Well done Jay. It takes courage to admit to being dyslexic. Many children miss out on specialist support for dyslexia and dyslexia and go on to struggle throughout life. Being able to read opens so many doors and windows. If you cannot it is not surprising that so many enter the world of crime as a result.
Our eldest son was diagnosed aged 7 with both disabilities, and has on to get a Masters degree and roles involving strategic thinking and problem solving.

I do know the correct there, their, they're. If I was still at school I would rewrite the whole page.

trisher Thank you so much for posting on here and explaining about dyslexia. So many, including sadly many teachers simply have no idea how hard it is for those affected.

My brother was called word blind by a very forward thinking teacher back in the 1960s. All the others just said he was thick/lazy. I also struggled to learn to read and still really struggle with spelling. Everything takes soooo long.

Things weren't much better for my own four sons. Teacher speak......Don't worry they are summer birthdays, they are boys, they are lazy, they weren't read too as babies, there are no books at home, just look/write /spell 20 times and they will get them right. They just keep repeating this until the school year ends and then it's another teacher's problem. Then at the end of year six it's another school's problem!

Well my boys were read to as babies and had more books than the local library children's section. Their school years were hell really. But we got their with lots of private tuition with teachers who understood dyslexia and many, many hours of work at home. Once they were post 16 things got much better.

Thanks again trisher.

I watched him on another program where he was helping a young (20s) trainee carpenter who was also dyslexic but didn't know Jay Blades was. Jay told him to let people know he had a problem so they could help him instead of a life of pretending everything was okay. The young man was concerned people wouldn't give him a chance. But he went back to work, told his workmate he had a problem with numbers and needed help and she showed him how to do his calculations. He was number dyslexic, whereas Jay is word dyslexic - he admitted to never reading texts and emails because he couldn't manage to focus on more than a couple of lines.

trisher

I haven't watched it. I might, but I do have problems with programmes about dyslexia that imagine you can teach a dyslexic to read and the whole problem goes away. It reinforces the beliefs so prevalent in schools and general society that reading is some sort of measure of intelligence and is essential. My severley dyslexic DS can read but says it isn't a pleasure and it is difficult especially whan he is tired. He has a whole range of technological aids that help him out and have enabled him to have the career he wanted which actually involves writing. We need to equip dyslexics with all the aids available and realise that the appreciation and the use of language is not dependent on the process of reading.

Excellent post, trisher.
In my career I have worked with so many pupils with dyslexia. Breaking down those barriers to learning, became a passion. In the early days, many were undiagnosed and regarded as having low intelligence. Thank goodness, we have moved on from that discrimination.

I worked with two brothers who were severely dyslexic and can recall one parents' evening when their father broke down in tears, explaining that he too was severely dyslexic and had spent his whole career feeling ashamed of his disability and covering up.
He was so grateful for all the technology, which we had put in place for his boys to help his sons. It had given him the courage to speak to his employers and ask for support.

I enjoyed the programme as both DH and DD2 are dyslexic. DH was branded "lazy" at school but found coping mechanisms and went on to have a successful career. DD was diagnosed at school at about age 6 and had help from then on.
Neither are happy to embrace the new technology but I love the speak to type software.
Jay Blades has led an interesting life. I read that his philandering father had about 25 kids! Jay himself has 3 all with different mothers.

He is a remarkable man. I am glad he made the programme as I am sure this will help a lot of people come forward with the same problems. My youngest son got to University before it was discovered he was dyslexic! How i missed it I do not know and I blame myself so much.

M0nica

*Grandma70s*. How he got his degree was explained, his dyslexia was diagnosed early in his course and he got all the technological and personal help he needed. Including someone reading texts and in other cases audio readers that read text aloud. He 'read' for his degree alright, but not in a way, we would normally recognise.

His Uni Tutor also explained that he didn't look at the subjects studied like other students, but from a different, but in many ways more complex, deeper, way- that made his essays and responses not only very interesting, but in many ways at a higher level.

PinkCosmos do get your DH to look at computer spelling programmes that recognise words from context and not the letters you have put in. My DS found that transformed his ability to write as some of his letter suggestions were not recognisable. Computers can also read back what you have written which helps and cuts down the strain of writing.

There seems to be a bit of a blurred line between dyslexia and not learning to read at school - for whatever reason. I don't think it is the same thing necessarily.

My DH has dyslexia and has used many coping strategies over the years, including having a secretary, 'losing' his glasses etc. He has also developed a fantastic memory as he struggles to write things down.

He can read but gets very little pleasure from it and struggles with some words. His main problem is writing as he cannot 'see' words.

I do think that Jay Blades was very brave to admit to being unable to read.

I love to read and could not imagine my life without books

The only thing I didn’t understand was that when he went to university he was said to have a reading age of 11. I was very surprised because he didn’t seem able to read at all.

Grandma70s. How he got his degree was explained, his dyslexia was diagnosed early in his course and he got all the technological and personal help he needed. Including someone reading texts and in other cases audio readers that read text aloud. He 'read' for his degree alright, but not in a way, we would normally recognise.

Calendargirl

I didn’t watch the programme, but as someone who loves reading, I cannot imagine not being able to. How sad, and how many pleasures in life you must miss out on.

So, so important for children to be able to read adequately.

Sorry Calendargirl but you have expressed exactly what is wrong with our attitude towards dyslexia. It is a disability. Would you say to a blind person "It's so important to see?" or to a paraplegic, "It's so important to walk"? Accepting that dyslexics may read, but they will not necessarily do so easily or confidently (much as a partly sighted person may manage),and the disability remains, is what is needed.
Given the help of technology children can and do learn to live with that disability but their ability to read may never be the same as someone who is not dyslexic, just as a partly sighted child will not see as much.
I hope you don't take this as an attack. It is still in many places the assumed norm and reading is often seen as a sign of a child's intelligence when it is no such thing. I'm just passionate about recognising hidden disabilities

I didn’t watch the programme, but as someone who loves reading, I cannot imagine not being able to. How sad, and how many pleasures in life you must miss out on.

So, so important for children to be able to read adequately.

It was a very moving programme. I admire him for his effort and his determination to succeed and to try to overcome the many difficulties he has faced. He says that learning to read is a difficult process for him, but he is going to continue. I really believe he will succeed, but I also understand him when he says the process of disentangling symbols (ie letters) into sounds and groups of sounds to make meaningful words will always be difficult for him.

I think he is very brave for going public about his dyslexia, and I admire him tremendously for doing so, as I’m sure it will help others.

It was also pointed out that not everyone who struggles to learn to read are dyslexic, but need extra help to progress, and for some, this help was just not available for many reasons - funding, staffing, understanding, attitudes at the time they were at school are just a few of them.

Very moving. Amazing that he managed to fool everyone all his life.

Grandma 70- did you watch the programme. His University tutor explained how he achieved this- with the help of technology that would scan texts and 'speak' them to him, and he could dictate essays to his computer that would type and print them.

I taught at the RNIB in the late 80's teaching audio typing on old golf ball electric typewriters. We did have a few word processors with a programme called Frank Audiodata, a horribly robotic voice. Only some students learnt braille, some learnt Moon.

I'm sure visually impaired students now have far superior access to the written word.

He did go to university and apparently graduated. There was technological assistance available to enable him to hear books being read and to dictate essays. As regards blind people, I was privileged to work with a blind solicitor years ago. He had some technological help to convert the written word to Braille and a very good secretary. I wish such technology was available when my Dad went blind in his teens in the 1930s.

Grandma70s

trisher

I am very cynical about the claims of a university qualification. No university I have been connected with would award degrees to people who can’t read. There is a lot of reading to do that isn’t a ‘set text’. I know technology is a great help, but still

Would you say the same about someone who is blind? Dyslexia is a disability. People with disabilities get degrees. In order to do so they need a whole range of support, in the case of a blind student texts in braille, in the case of a dyslexic student a range of audio-visual information, computers, and programs for reading and writing text.
My DS has BA and an MA.

Good point. Indeed I have known blind students. Not thinking, sorry.

Thanks Grandma70s I'm afraid it is one of my bugbears that people don't realise dyslexia is a disability. It's history means it is often overlooked and the people who are dyslexic never get the consideration others do. I also don't like this idea that it can be "cured". Dyslexics can learn to read, but as my son eventually got through to me for many it is always hard work and not the great pleasure some of us know it as.

Grandma70s

I was quite shocked. I don’t think I really believed there were still adults who couldn’t read. I was also puzzled. He was said to have the reading level of an 11-year-old, and yet appeared to be at the c-a-t stage, sounding out letters. How many 11 year olds still do that?

I am very cynical about the claims of a university qualification. No university I have been connected with would award degrees to people who can’t read. There is a lot of reading to do that isn’t a ‘set text’. I know technology is a great help, but still…….

Then I remembered that at school I had a friend whose mother could neither read nor write. My friend wrote her own absence and excuse notes. There must have been some arrangement with the school.

My DN went to University, dyslexic, obtained two degrees, a friend dyslexic got an MSc. Why should they not. .

trisher

*I am very cynical about the claims of a university qualification. No university I have been connected with would award degrees to people who can’t read. There is a lot of reading to do that isn’t a ‘set text’. I know technology is a great help, but still*

Would you say the same about someone who is blind? Dyslexia is a disability. People with disabilities get degrees. In order to do so they need a whole range of support, in the case of a blind student texts in braille, in the case of a dyslexic student a range of audio-visual information, computers, and programs for reading and writing text.
My DS has BA and an MA.

Good point. Indeed I have known blind students. Not thinking, sorry.