Hi I'm Aimee!

Hi my name is Aimeé. I have dyslexia. I was diagnosed in primary 5 but I had noticed I was struggling with learning since primary 3. My mum noticed my spelling and numbers were usually written back to front then one night I went through to her crying and said I couldn’t read and that I was dumb.

So we started researching dyslexia and found lots of celebrities who had it too. Jennifer Anniston (Rachel in friends), Albert Einstein, Richard Branson, Walt Disney, just mentioning a few. And I have 2 other friends who have dyslexia also. In primary 5 when I was diagnosed by my teacher, I started going to school an hour earlier for extra help. I think it helped a lot. I started Toe by Toe which is starting to go over the basics again and reading sentences. I really enjoy Toe by Toe.

I was given extra help in and out of class with support teachers and learning. I started to realise I wasn’t dumb, I just learn differently. It’s just like people who are right handed find it easier to do things. Left handed people need special things like scissors to help. So normal people are right handed brains and dyslexic people are the left handed brains. We aren’t dumb, we are slightly different. 

Apparently it’s been scientifically proved that people with dyslexia can actually do better in learning different languages than others. I learn Mandarin in school and pick it up easier than some others. I also have a great memory if something is spoken to me. 

I started to enjoy school a lot more and used my learning support to my advantage. I stopped worrying about my learning and was a lot more open about my dyslexia in primary 6. When people asked I was happy to talk about it. 1 in 10 people have dyslexia although it’s thought that it could be as much as 1 in 5. 

During lock down I had time with my mum to work on things I struggled with. TIME! It was the main thing I struggled to learn. We spent about 2 weeks on it. I got the hang of it eventually. 6 months later and I have forgotten again. But I’m ok with that. I know digital time on my phone. I have learned that I need to adapt the world around me. I use voice notes to text, my chromebook, yellow slides to read, spell check, and I ask for help when I need to. I take a bit longer than other people to finish things but that’s ok too. My brain is working harder, I get tired and lose concentration sometimes but I get there in the end. 

Now I’m in primary 7 and had the chance to write a speech for house captain. I worked really hard and won. It was a big achievement to me, I have wanted to be house captain since primary 1. I always knew it was possible if I worked hard enough. I then wrote in my jitter about dyslexia and how it makes me unique. In class we read a book on dyslexia on the first term and my teacher asked me some questions about it for the class to understand better. We started a new thing called tech team where the dyslexic pupils work on the chrome books to see what works best for us to improve our learning. I really enjoy that as I find it so much easier to work on the chromebook. It uses autocorrect so I don’t worry about my spelling and waste time. I get things done faster. 

Recently my head teacher and learning support teacher asked me to support a primary 4 girl who has just been diagnosed with dyslexia. I answer any questions she has and plays games to help with her reading. I try to show her confidence and positively towards dyslexia. I was given a leading light award for being a good positive role model. 

I think I have a lot more imagination than some others as my mind likes to wander. (I blame dyslexia haha) people call me Luna lovegood (Harry Potter). Dyslexia is not a bad thing it just means to you have to work a bit harder and have a positive spin on things. 

I want to thank all my mum & dad teachers and everyone who has supported me through my learning.