1) You’re not stupid: For a long time, I thought I was stupid. No matter how much I learned. How well I could read or speak I believed I was stupid. By second grade I had been tested and told I had what I am told is called core Dyslexia. Reading, Writing, Verbal, Auditory, and Numeric. By 4th grade, I was in full-time special ed classes. And that was the way it was for the next 3 1/2 to 4 years. 
2) People don’t understand: People who aren’t Dyslexic even a little bit will never fully understand how reading one book every few months is an achievement.
3) You can learn anything: Once you figure out how your Dyslexia works and how you best learn there is nothing that you can’t achieve.
4) Some of the greatest minds in history could have been Dyslexic: Most Dyslexic people have an average if not above average IQ. And it is believed some people in history could have been Dyslexic. Our learning difference doesn’t limit us once we understand that we are just wired differently a whole new world opens up to us. Some places I have looked give the odds at roughly 1 in 10 people are dyslexic. So we aren’t as alone as we might feel sometimes.
5) I can do the Impossible: This one is hard to swallow but as an adult, I recently got retested I had the doctor look me right in the eyes and say the fact you can read is a miracle and no test will ever accurately show my true IQ. I scored on paper a 101. But I CAN”T is a state of mind that will hold you back. When you start to find ways to say I CAN then boom the world starts opening up to you.
7) I have to be okay I can’t do it like everyone else: Somethings I can do like everyone else others I can’t. I use to come down on myself because I couldn’t do things like most people. But I am really good at others that most people struggle with. It is excepting myself as I am and seeing I am not stupid because of my Difference I am just different and that is okay.
8) Don’t see the Problem for the Problem see the Problem for the Solution: My Dad taught me this one. But Dyslexic people as a whole are really good at thinking outside the box when solving problems and our minds go first on how to fix an issue not dwelling on the problem. A lot of this is a defense meconium from trying to compensate for how we are wired and dealing with people who don’t understand the differences.
9) Books are amazing: My Mom drove this one home. She uses to read to me growing up but there was this one part of one of my favorite books she wouldn’t read to me. I would beg and Beg finally she said you want to know what happens then read it yourself. So I asked for hooked on phonics when I was in 8th grade. I got it for Christmas that year. By the time I went back to school after the break I had gone from a 4th-grade reading level to a 10th-grade level. Yes, I still struggle with my dyslexia and I have to hyper-focus on whatever book I am reading. But I learned the love of the written word for myself because of that move on my mom’s part.
10) Just because you can’t spell doesn’t mean you can’t write: I am not the best speller and my Grammer usually leaves one with a migraine, but I am a good writer and have a lot of stories to share. The only person who has ever put limits on me is myself because I didn’t understand how to move forward with my Learning Difference.
I am a curious person by nature and this has worked in my favor in most ways. I have also been blessed even when it seemed like someone was working against me it made me want to work harder to prove I could do. Especially when that person was me. I have also had some very enthusiastic fan in my corner some are still with me some have gone to the other side, and a large part of why I can’t give up now is the faith of those who have passed on, put in me.
Ask Miss. Dee 