“Millions have dyslexia, few understand it” (Emanuel, 2016)
In my previous post The Dyslexic Social Worker I listed the number of advantages dyslexia can provide us due to differences in neurodevelopment and cognitive functions. See the list below:
The Yale Centre for Dyslexia and Creativity (2017) advocates that “while those with dyslexia are slow readers, they also, paradoxically, are often very fast and creative thinkers...We should recognize and embrace those with dyslexia as often among the most intelligent and creative members of society” (pp. 2-3).
However, a lot of dyslexia literature and support focuses on supporting the deficits in our reading and/or writing. Nevertheless, there is emerging literature seeking to raise the profile of dyslexia and its associated advantages. For example, there are blogs and books now discussing the M.I.N.D advantages dyslexic people have. M.I.N.D stands for:
Material Reasoning- Great spatial or 3-D reasoning
Interconnected Reasoning- Seeing unique connections that others often miss. Using different perspectives and approaches to create a big-picture view.
Narrative Reasoning- Being able to create vivid mental scenes to display important ideas and concepts from the past, present and future. Having a great personal memory (a.k.a episodic memory). Being able to write so vividly that others imagine it clearly.
Dynamic Reasoning- Taking information and accurately making predictions about the past and the future. The ability to notice patterns, even where some information is missing, and correctly make predictions. Understanding how to deal with change and uncertainty from looking at qualitative data. Having and following insight.
Therefore, this post aims to highlight how the dyslexic advantage presents in my day-to-day practice, and it aims to trigger your exploration and understanding of yours and others dyslexia advantages.
It is firstly important to remember that ‘strengths’ and ‘weaknesses’ mean something only in a given context. For example, take the task of reading: a ‘strength’ here would be the ability to focus on details. You look at a word and then rapidly shift focus to the next word and so on till you finish the sentence. So, it’s a ‘weakness’ if you can’t quickly and accurately follow that sequence.
Now, let’s switch tasks. This time you need to find a logical flaw in a complex figure, quickly. Here, you need the opposite skill. Focussing on details is a ‘weakness.’ You’ll waste too much time if you examine each piece of the figure in turn. Instead, you need to zoom out and take in everything at once.
If we think about social work, so many of the dyslexia advantages and weaknesses we possess are interconnected and interchangeable during our day to day working life. For example, when working with a family to complete an assessment, social workers need to identify why the family are in need of support and find a creative support plan to meet the child’s need/mitigate risk (often using the dyslexic advantages patterns/predictions and creative thinking).
However, in order to complete and inform our support plans, we need to complete a written assessment, which will include reading past chronologies, assessments and support plans and relaying in a linear way how this has informed our thinking. We will write up the assessment and support plan to be submitted on the computer system (encountering weaknesses in reading a writing). Therefore, as social workers we are drifting to and from contexts where our advantages and weaknesses are heightened.
But first, let us look at the advantage of being visual thinkers.
Visual thinking
I like to think of visual thinking as not only an advantage but as a positive buffer. This is because visual thinking is an advantage that I can bring into any context to help me mitigate the barriers of dyslexia. Thus, I do not see it as a stand-alone advantage, but an advantage that is interwoven and interconnected with the challenges.
Firstly, for example, I often employ visual methods to working where I struggle with my working memory, organisation and reading (and keeping track of information) in day-to-day practice. This helps me overcome and lessen the barriers.
My go to visual tool when completing assessments is creating a mind map which helps me unpick family needs, organise what’s happening for each individual family member, map family member’s voice, map risk. This does not have to be a pretty or tidy mind map; it is somewhere I can go to make sense of all of the information/documents I have collected and where I can physically and visually reflect on verbal information from the family.
I have also used this visual map within supervision to assist the oversight of support planning and to evidence my decision making.
Every map is different, just like every family. However, some questions I consider within the map are (this is not an exhaustive list):
What are the risks/needs?
What are the children experience in relation to risk/need?
What is the child/ren’s voice?
Is there trauma?
What is the impact of trauma on the (child/parent’s) PCS networks?
What is the parent or carer’s perspective on what is happening to the child?
What evidence do we have for risk/need?
How reliable is the evidence of risk/need?
Is there previous involvement?
Has anything changed from the perspective of the family and professionals? (Positive or negative)
What support has been suggested in the past?
Was past support successful unsuccessful? And why?
Who in the family can support?
Can you identify peer support (friends)?
What are the PCS considerations (barriers and advantages)?
What support services are in place now?
Physically triangulating past risks/needs, support and changes with the family’s present day becomes easier as one can physically map out these connections and patterns.
What I find important in completing this exercise is to have a massive piece of paper and lots of different coloured pens- ideally one for each family member.
If there is a high risk of harm to the child or a complex family situation, I have asked my assistant team manager to support me in creating these mind maps. This has then been uploaded to supervision as supporting supervision evidence where appropriate.
I additionally employ visual methods to support my day-to-day organisation where I can often struggle. This is something I know I have discussed previously; however, I cannot overemphasise the importance of finding a strategy to support organisational skills as this can significantly decrease the anxiety of missing something or feeling overwhelmed with tasks to complete.
I firstly colour coordinate my work calendar. I assign different colours to different tasks. For example:
- Light green= Visits
- Red= uncomplete task
- Dark green= complete task
- Light blue= supervision
- Yellow= writing time
- Orange= time off/toil/lunch/travel
- Dark blue= training
See an example calendar below:
By creating a colourful diary, I can visually see what I have planned to do for the day, without feeling overwhelmed at a full diary. A colour coordinated diary has also helped me lessen my feelings of overwhelm when I can see my day is broken up between writing, reading and visits… I know I am not going to be reading and writing all day.
Creating a visual outlook calendar also helps me prioritise my day and organise my day based on my capacity to complete certain tasks- making each day more manageable.
For example, If I know I do not have the energy to write assessments, update chronologies, write case notes or send emails, I will prioritise phone calls and visits and organise to write these the next day. I have learnt that there is nothing better than seeing a sea of green in your calendar, contrastingly, there is nothing worse than seeing blocks of red and yellow, therefore it is important to plan your day and colours in a smart and manageable way.
As alluded to within the list above, I create a to do list on my outlook calendar too. I have previously lost a paper to do list and this caused me to become very overwhelmed and worried that I was going to miss something for a family. Therefore, I added a red and dark green to my calendar to create an online to do list.
Creating an online to do list enables me to keep track of what tasks need doing (and by when), facilitates the prioritisation of tasks based on the family’s needs and provides me with the satisfaction of turning a red job into a green job.
Finally, I will use visual tools when working with children and families to help map and unpick what is happening for them. I also use visual tools to explain the assessment process and what will be considered during the assessment. An example of I tool I use is the assessment bubbles which I found on the social work tool box website:
Working with children and families through diagrams and drawing enables us to actively engage children and families in interventions, support their learning in an alternative way, facilitates their creative thinking and supports the communication of information in a visual and jargon-free way.
Tell a friend: do you know any visual thinkers in your life? Forward this their way and let them know you see their superpower!
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