A creative writing student from Goodrich, 22-year-old Nellie Owens, has spoken out about her own personal struggles with dyslexia, in support of Dyslexia Awareness week, which commences nationally on October 1st.

With approximately 6.3 million people in the UK with dyslexia, it is becoming a consistently more important subject for discussion, particularly how dyslexia affects the lives of young people, and how we might aid them as the world evolves along with new challenges and technological advances.

Nellie Owens has a positive outlook on the wonderful things she believes her dyslexia makes possible, one being the gift of an exceptional imagination. And as an aspiring writer, she is interested in how technological advances can help her utilise her imagination while making the crucial planning and writing process less daunting.

Nellie told the Ross Gazette:?“I think dyslexia has meant I have had to work hard, not only to overcome the hurdles of my dyslexia but to learn to utilise the lesser-discussed benefits that dyslexia brings. Not enough conversation is being had about the research surrounding dyslexia, and the beneficial qualities it can give people.

“For me, it has gifted me with a really good imagination, which is important for me to pursue my passion of writing. I think schools could do more to encourage dyslexic students to see the positive sides to their condition.”

Although Nellie has overcome her dyslexia, she is especially concerned with the importance of early diagnosis and proper teacher training for all stages to ensure flexible aid for individual experiences. So that the mistakes she herself experienced in her early educational years, that caused long-term self-confidence problems, can be avoided in the future.

Nellie added: “I would say that my school might have been accused of providing me with blanketed and outdated solutions. While the effort was made to assist me, the patronising and exclusive treatment tended to alienate me further by making me so obviously different to my peers. This alienation gave me anxiety issues and fuelled the self-doubt that I wasn’t as intelligent as my peers.”

She feels that more children and students with dyslexia should be equipped with technological solutions, like speech recognition, and properly thought out learning experiences that focus on using their strengths rather than making them feel pushed to fix their weaknesses.See this week’s paper for more stories like this, available in shops and as a Digital Edition now