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In case you missed it, below is the post I wrote for the Student Social Work Hub.
I am in my second year of practice as a social worker working with children and families. Over the past 5 years of studying and practising social work I have found it difficult managing my diagnosis of dyslexia and have fiercely worked to overcome the challenges that it has entailed.
Having sat back and reflected on my journey with social work peers, it made me ask
Is the Dyslexia workforce hidden? If not, where is the support and recognition?
The answers to these questions I realise will differ for everyone, however I felt the dyslexic workforce is hidden and I felt the support was near minimal. Therefore, I sought to fill the perceived gap by creating a website and blog which would specifically host content in relation to dyslexia and social work, and which I hope will spark conversations between individuals and within organisations about how we can be supported and recognised.
I additionally hope this post will enable you to reflect on the support you have received, and you afford to your dyslexic peers, colleagues, or students. In addition to empowering those social workers who are dyslexic.
Facts, Figures, and Impact
The British Dyslexia Association (2018) gives the following definition for dyslexia:
Dyslexia is a cognitive learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling.
The first description of dyslexia appeared in 1896 by Dr. W. Pringle Morgan in Sussex, England. In identifying dyslexia, he wrote ‘Percy F.,... aged 14,... has always been a bright and intelligent boy, quick at games, and in no way inferior to others of his age. His great difficulty has been—and is now—his inability to learn to read’ (emphasis added Thorn, 2011)
Dyslexia is estimated to affect 10% -17% of the general population in the UK, of course there is under recording and a lack of resources for assessments, thus this figure could be much higher (Sprenger-Charolles and Siegel, 2016; Legg and Brazier, 2020). However, 25% of health and social care workers, including social workers, appear somewhere on the Dyslexia spectrum. Yet despite a quarter of the workforce experiencing dyslexia and its well associated challenges, there is a significant lack of specialised support for students studying social work, no practical support for students to fill up their dyslexia tool kit before entering the workplace, and a lack of support for and recognition of dyslexia within organisations. This has a significant impact on learning, performance, and confidence.
As well as the well associated challenges of dyslexia- such as difficulties with memory, organisation, writing, reading and time management (Bishop and Snowling, 2004; Legg and Brazier, 2020; Cunningham 2011)- dyslexic individuals have immense strengths such as increased empathy; abstract thinking; excellent thinking skills in the areas of conceptualisation, reason, imagination, and abstraction; strong ability to see concepts with a "big picture" perspective; and have an increased spoken vocabulary (Thorn, 2011; Butcher, 2020).
‘Dyslexia is a unique mindset that is often gifted and productive but learns differently than other minds’ (Thorn, 2011).
Some of the most brilliant minds of our time have been known to have dyslexia: Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and John Lennon, to mention only a few.
However, these strengths are rarely spoken about and are not identified within needs assessments due to a hyper focus on the challenges and perceived deficits that dyslexia brings. This means that as dyslexic individuals, we are not actively aware of our individual strengths and are acutely aware of challenges with our memory, writing, reading, and spelling.
Individuals with a diagnosis of Dyslexia, more often than not, also have average or above average IQ and intelligence (Thorn, 2011). Moreover, the aforementioned strengths also provide individuals with Dyslexia a ‘head start’ in certain areas of employment and practice due to holding deep characteristics such as empathy and abstract thinking (Fink, nd, p.4). For example, we often pursue careers which are a passionate interest for us, we develop persistence, and we are acutely empathetic (Fink nd, p.4). Fink (nd, P.6) states that these characteristics make us ideal candidates for careers in ‘education, special education, psychology, social work… fields in which the ability to empathize with others is an important asset’.
Thus, despite the associated challenges of memory retention, reading and writing, Social Work can be an ideal career path for us. We can hone in on our natural skills in empathy and compassion to build meaningful relationships with those that we work with, and adopt strategies to help us pick up the slack with the rest.
My Experience
As a student and social worker with dyslexia, the lack of support and recognition, in addition to the hyper focus on deficit as opposed to strength has been very present and has impacted my practice, confidence and perception of self. Not only did it lead me to question my suitability in a profession which is notoriously paperwork and jargon heavy in the beginning of my studies and career, but the predominantly negative connotations of dyslexia that I had been exposed to made me worry about peers and colleagues finding out about my diagnosis. Creating a perceived stigma as well as weighty feelings of shame around the dyslexia diagnosis.
Unfortunately, these anxieties were reinforced by a practice educator who after reading my needs assessment and first piece of work for the student practice portfolio said I would not be a suitable candidate for their service due to needing forewarning about reading reports and assistance in applying theory to practice. This was crushing as no reasonable adjustments were made to support me in the first instance, and my individual needs and strengths were not considered.
However, my dyslexia tutor worked had to change this, they supported me in developing tools and always reinforced that dyslexia was our strength, not our downfall.
I additionally met several other dyslexic practitioners during the ASYE, and I could see they were relationally focussed within their practice demonstrating compassion and empathy in every interaction, and they were able to place themselves in other’s shoes to achieve this. Moreover, our tinted screens brightened up the office (when we were working on site) and sparked conversations- those who noticed were respectfully curious and this felt empowering.
What Does Social Work Education and Employment Need?
You may be asking what is needed for social work students and practitioners? I will provide a few ideas below:
Support groups within universities and employment so practitioners can share tips and tricks with one another.
Employers to actively assess for the strengths that accommodate dyslexia to enable individuals to use this strength in their practices.
Have open conversations with colleagues and students.
Explicit recognition of the high proportion of dyslexic and neurodiverse workforce.
Begin to assess for dyslexia strength instead of deficits once diagnosed.
What Are You Doing to Help?
Creating a platform which specifically looks at how dyslexic social work students and practitioners can manage the challenges of dyslexia through the provision of resources and tips I have developed and accumulated along the way.
Creating a platform where dyslexic social work students and practitioners can read about and identify the strengths that their neurodiversity brings them (such as abstract thinking). Enabling them to reflect on how they can bring these strengths into practice and compliment the amazing work they do.
Creating a platform for dyslexic social work students and practitioners to speak to one another, share their o stories and journeys, and share their resources and strategies that they have developed along the way.
Openly conversing with colleagues about dyslexia to increase curiosity, meet other dyslexia practitioners, and to break the stigma by being dyslexic and proud.
You are not alone in your social work journey with dyslexia and please reach out to and help one another.
Thank you for reading!
Reference List:
Bishop., D., V., M. & Snowling., M., J. (2004). Developmental Dyslexia and Specific Language Impairment: Same or Different?. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 6, 858-886.
British Dyslexia Association (2018). Cited on - https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/
Butches.H (2020). Strengths Versus Weaknesses. Dyslexia the Gift Blog. Available at: https://blog.dyslexia.com/strengths-versus-weaknesses/
Cunningham., R., T. (2011). Understanding Synthetic Speech and Language Processing of Students With and Without a Reading Disability (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Toronto, Toronto.
Fink. R (nd). Successful Careers: The Secrets of Adults with Dyslexia. Career Planning and Adult Development Network. Available at: http://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/sites/default/files/SuccessfulCareersDyslexiaFink.pdf
Legg. T and Brazier. Y (2020). What to Know About Dyslexia. Medical News Today. Available at: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/186787
Sprenger-Charolles., L., L., S. and Siegel., B. (2016) “Prevalence and Reliability of Phonological, Surface, and Mixed Profiles in Dyslexia: A Review of Studies Conducted in Languages Varying in Orthographic Depth,”. Scientific Studies of Reading, 15(6): 498-521.
Thorn. A (2011) 50 Interesting Facts About Dyslexia. Reading Horizons. Available at: https://athome.readinghorizons.com/blog/50-interesting-facts-about-dyslexia
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