I am delighted to introduce to you our latest guest blogger, Zoe Joseph-Pennant.
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| Zoe Joseph-Pennant - CEO Dyslexia For The Wise |
Zoe runs her own charity supporting young people with dyslexia, is a life coach and a foster parent and knows how to help young people to engage with what is important to them and putting strategies in place for making sure that dyslexia doesn't get in the way.
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| Click here to visit the website for Zoe's charity. |
In the article below Zoe tells us about a strategy that she has developed, that dyslexic young people at school can use to increase engagement and be more productive.
Zoe writes...
I am the
founder and Creative Managing Director for Dyslexia for the Wise. I decided to
set up this charity for young people and adults as I felt there was still a
negative stigma of what Dyslexia actually is.
Dyslexia is
a condition that affects the brain which means Dyslexic people use the right
side of the brain (the creative side) more of the time and find the left side (the
academic side) challenging at times. Understanding
this and doing research started to make me think....
I am a Life Coach, Mentor and Foster Parent, while
working with young people I found that the Dyslexic children I was working with
were finding it very difficult to complete work, take in and store information and
having to remember things was a great pain.
I woke up
one morning and it came to me, to create a goal setting target just like the
SMART targets but one for Dyslexic people. This goal setting target would be to
support with completing school work, ways to stop the brain racing, taking time
and focusing on confidence and motivation, I thought to myself “ YES now let’s
get all these ideas down on paper” that was the first step.
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| July 7th , Leek, Staffordshire |
Here I would
like to share with you the STOP targets, each letter is a word that is very
important when having this condition Dyslexia as at times a Dyslexic person can
find their brain racing, when this happens errors can be made:
Strategies
With each home work or essay, make sure strategies are
put in place, making them clear and short, sometimes long pieces of work can be
too much for a Dyslexic person who has challenges with their attention span.
Time
Take your time when completing work. The quicker you try
and rush, the more errors will be made.
Organise
Organisation is key. The more organise you are the more
your mind is clear and has the room for peace, focus and then completion.
Patience
Be patient. There are going to be time when frustration
arises, take deep breaths, go for a walk or leave it all together until later,
this way your mind is fresh again to continue.
So here you have it, the STOP targets, what will you do
with it? How will you integrate it into your work at school or university? Why
not give it a try and see if it works for you.
Here are a couple tips on how you can include this
technique for your school/college work:
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Each work you have to do, create a Mind map
first to get all your ideas down on paper – this is good structure to have when
you want to be organised.
·
Have a vision board in your room – post stick
notes or pictures of things placed on your vision board so you can remember
what you want to do and put in, regarding your school work.
·
Set a time/goal of when you want to complete
your work (this can be stuck on your vision board also)
·
Put the STOP TARGET up in your room so you
remember the steps
I hope this will help you just that little bit more when
doing your school or college work.
By the way I would like to share with you my gift in
life.......................I am also Dyslexic.
Zoe Joseph-Pennant
C.M.D
Dyslexia for the Wise
“Nothing is impossible once
you put that unique mind to it”