Living and working with dyslexia - Sally Chesterfield

Early Years

• Diagnosed when I was 8-9 (over 30 years ago)
• Diagnosis focused on the negative – how I didn’t fit what was considered normal.
• Not well understood
• Not a lot of support around
• Biggest support was my SPELD tutor who helped with extra tuition
• Fumbled my way through school

 
I had one particular teacher who treated me differently, unfortunately I let her inability to understand dyslexia make me feel bad about it and that is my biggest memory of primary school
Even though lots of good things happened as well.
I’m sure you have all had an experience like that too
 
Supportive parents

I have parents that wanted to see me do well and understood I was intelligent, I just struggled to use conventional tools like reading and writing to communicate.
When I was diagnosed as a child it was so my parents could understand and help me learn.
My mother was great she tried lots of different things to help me learn.  Not all of them worked but there are 2 things that I do know worked.

• Silent reading an article and explaining it to her
• Instilling a love of reading – escaping into stories, other peoples live and struggles.

 
What to do for work?

• I got through secondary school, repeated some subjects twice and came out with an average grade
• I would find information would go in and get scrambled. 
• I didn’t know what to do with myself
• I didn’t think I would be able to keep up with university
• I thought I would only be good as a labour (nothing wrong with that)
• I didn’t value myself, my skills
• I didn’t understand that dyslexia gave me an advantage other people don’t have.

 
I worked for a number of years then and found my passion – Mana Island
Then I got to a point I couldn’t progress my career without further education
I had a bit of crisis – lived on an island with one other person, wasn’t very healthy…..frustrated by work
 
How I helped myself.

I decided I needed to change things in my life if I wanted things to change. 
The first place I started was with me, I had to change how I thought about me

• Counselling – confronting myself, grief with dyslexia
• Got tested for Dyslexia (again) – why because I needed to understand my brain –This diagnosis focused on what my brain could do

I believed my brain wasn’t very good
But what I learnt was something else
 
"What I noticed what that all diagnoses focus on the negative autism, ADHD
How they are not ‘normal’
But there are a lot of strengths with all of these" – Temple Grandin
 
I have an awesome brain!

• I use both sides of my brain – AT THE SAME TIME!
• I quickly grasp concepts and understand things that require strategic thinking
• I am good at organising and planning complex events
• I can think through problems and come up with solutions other people don’t think of
• I can understand different sides to arguments and find common ground

 
My brain isn’t broken, dumb or doesn’t work.  It just works differently
Works differently from what? – everyone’s brain works differently
We are lucky, our ‘thing’ has a name and people understand how our brains work
 
What I did

• I decided to go back to school
• Moved to Southland
• Did a 3 year degree – 1 year by correspondence

I own my dyslexia – it doesn’t own me
I think of it now as my super power
Like all super powers they take a bit to master, but they are powerful
 
In the workplace

When I go for a new job and they ask me is there anything else they should know about me I say yes, I am dyslexia and these are the benefits to you

• I know my limitations and ask for help
• I know I need people to proof read my work
• I know I need to have a pen and paper in my hand
• I know my work is better when I use a computer

But my colleague needs help with computer stuff so we all have things we need help with 
I currently work in a job I would struggle to do without dyslexia, it gives me an advantage.
My job involves

• Understanding complex and technical information
• Developing strategies and processes for engaging the community this information
• Engaging with communities that have their own complexities and needs and marrying up this information to get a result.

 
Here are a few skills I have picked up along the way

• Love of reading – how I wanted to read (silently)
• Touch typing
  • Allows me to type as fast as I think
  • Allows me to get my thoughts out an and then reorganise them to make sense.
  • Allows other people be able to read my writing
• Reading about other people with learning difficulties
• People who had much more difficulty than me. For example, Temple Grandan

What I now know

• Be honest with myself
• I’ll never be a journalist or an accountant
• Find what you love
• Fake it till you make it
• Have a go – I hold yourself back
• The more you try – the more you succeed the more you will succeed – give it a go!
• Know your parents love you and are trying to do the best for you.
• It’s frustrating and difficult but so is harnessing any super power.

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