Merlin John Online

For me, dyslexia held me back in primary school until my final year, when an understanding teacher helped me learn some coping techniques because I would "read things differently to others" ... never mentioning or giving me a label as to what it was. In secondary school I struggled with some areas but most notably music. I have extreme difficulty reading musical notation. When I finally got out into work it was in the army I was finally diagnosed by a friend who needed a guinea pig for testing a programme before going out to other garrisons and working with recruits. (interestingly, during my police training in the army I would regularly be harangued for untidiness in my writing and was not offered any help) The reason why the programme was being run int eh army (by ETS) was to try to help identify the future NCOs and SNCOs who might be being held back due to poor literacy skills and / or dyslexia ... and to dispel the negative connotations around the label of dyslexia. Nowadays, I like to extract the urine out of my situation. I use a variety of signatures in my emails such as 'Slypexia Stirkes', 'Dyslexia, not a condition but a way of loaf' and 'Sax! the perfect cure for dyslexia' ... I would rather break down the negative feelings with humour before getting conversation about how we can change those feelings.