A few years ago I was lucky to meet a wonderful therapist who as a dyslexic herself and mother of a dyslexic child now in her 20’s, had specialized in providing counseling to adult dyslexics coming to terms with the effects of dyslexia on their lives.

She shared with me a brilliantly informative essay she wrote about the emotional repercussions of dyslexia -the basis for much of the therapy she offers to her patients. For me as a parent of a dyslexic child, I found it a sobering and cautionary read.

Essentially, the suggestion put forward in the essay is that teachers and parents are very good at noticing problems in their children with reading, writing, spelling and even maths. What they can miss is the growing element of lack of motivation, low self-esteem and upset which can develop due to dyslexia as the child goes through school and the pressures grow greater and greater. This can have ongoing effects throughout the whole life course as one does not grow out of dyslexia – if you are dyslexic you will be so for life.

If nobody tells the person that there is a reason for their difficulties, there is a tendency to label themselves as dumb and stupid. The difficulties can become harder to manage in secondary school and when children begin to fail they can become very vulnerable and on edge. The frustration of prolonged failure on a range of curriculum subjects at school, resulting in feelings of insecurity and lack of confidence, can have profound effects upon social status, friendship patterns, and acceptance and adjustment in new settings.

She talks about the resentment that can grow in families born out of a lack of understanding of the real challenges faced by the dyslexic; about the frustration of employers who are baffled by the inefficiency of the dyslexic ; but what I found most sobering were the mix of emotions reported by many dyslexics many years into adulthood (particularly pronounced in those patients who were diagnosed late or had no intervention as a child). These include:

• anxiety
• depression and despondency
• intense fear (of rejection, of criticism, of being “found out”)
• Panic attacks
• Shame, embarrassment and guilt
• PTSD
• Self image issues

Early intervention is critical. Identifying that your child is struggling is step one, getting a proper diagnosis is crucial. Many of us are given poor advice by untrained professionals: “it will resolve itself”, “she will grow out if it”, “hold her back a year” etc etc leading us to waste time intervening and putting in appropriate levels of additional support.

But again, as I started off saying at the beginning of this post, its not just about the academic intervention. Let’s not forget the emotional challenges that our children are facing too… how can we boost their confidence in other non-academic ways? how can we support any anxieties they may be facing with good old fashioned love and professional help if required? how can we address their self-image and lack of confidence?

I’ve written about many of these issues previously and won’t re-hash them but will simply say, its not straight forward, but each child will have something – some nugget of amazing that you can latch on to, to help boost their confidence, to give them opportunities to be stand up and be proud and to help balance out the emotional roller coaster of academia that dyslexia will ultimately bring. Find it. Harness it. Use it.

For the full article, please visit this link:

https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/memberarticles/dyslexia-counselling-addressing-the-emotional-repercussions-12385