Finding Your Voice with Dyslexia and other SpLDs

Finding Your Voice with Dyslexia and other SpLDs is an essential guide to living with dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties (SpLDs). The book provides readers with a practical guide to expressing and developing ideas and feelings.

Uniquely designed for dyslexic/ SpLD readers, this book discusses how individual people function and will help readers to:

• understand how they think
• know what they can do to maintain clear thinking
• know how they can positively contribute to any situation in which they find themselves.

When people with SpLD find their voice, they gain the self-esteem and confidence to tackle all elements of life (study, employment, general living) and to negotiate sucessfully with those around them. The book contains stories, insights, examples, tips and exercises, presented in a user-friendly way throughout. The book has also been designed for non-linear reading and each chapter includes a ‘dipping-in’ section to guide the reader.

The book does not have to be read as solid, continuous text from start to finish: it can be read more like a travel guide.

As well as providing vital assistance to people with dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties, this book will benefit anyone supporting, living or working with dyslexic/ SpLD people by helping them to understand more about the dyslexic/ SpLD world.

Table of Contents

Useful Preface

1 Living Confidently

2 About the Mind

3 Using the Mind

4 Thinking Preferences

5 Thinking Clearly

Appendix 1 Resources

Appendix 2 Individual, Personal Profile of Dyslexia/SpLD and Regime for Managing Dyslexia/SpLD

Appendix 3 Key Concepts

Appendix 4 Group Work

Glossary

List of Templates on the Website

Addendum A Role for Neurons

Index

"'Know yourself' - that's the key message from this book. Images, both visual and written, analogies from maps to gardening, insights and movement ideas are used to understand dyslexia and other SpLDs. The layout helps us: clear font; text boxes; short blocks of text; mind maps; use of colour; glossary notes and clear routes or 'pathways' through the different chapters which can be individualised. Lots of ideas here, so this book will help both dyslexic individuals and anyone who comes into contact with them - that is, all of us!"
- Sally Daunt, SpLD support tutor, Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (UK)

"Finding Your Voice with Dyslexia is practical, personal and positive about dyslexic strengths, as well as providing ways to overcome the pitfalls. It offers a valuable balance of ideas, anecdotes and theory to enable the reader to work out the best ways to use their own individual thinking patterns. It has given me new insights into strategies to help my dyslexic students and I will be referring to it whenever I need inspiration in my teaching."
- Alex Brown, Specialist SpLD Support Tutor & Dyslexia Assessor, Member of Oxford SpLD Tutor Group

"Understanding the impact that dyslexia/SpLD has on our lives is an incredibly challenging undertaking which is wonderfully executed by Stacey and Fowler. They go beyond this by providing an intuitive guide for dyslexic individuals to help across all aspects of our lives, be it in everyday life or when applied to academic study. The design of the book enables any reader to choose their own path through the book with exercises, strategies, and suggestions helping facilitate understanding of how dyslexia and SpLDs affect us all."
- Thomas Hird, PhD candidate in Physics at University College London and Oxford University (UK), and former SpLD student of Ginny Stacey

"What an amazing book! Ginny Stacey has been extraordinarily productive during lockdown with her series of 4 books. Here we have everything you could possibly need to find your voice as a dyslexic/ SpLD; impeccably organised in a series of mind maps and boxes to dip into. My dyslexic husband loved the plan!"
- Angela Fawcett, Swansea University, UK