CritiCal refleCtion

AbstrAct

I have decided to take Dyslexia as my final major project topic.

Dyslexia is a specific difficulty in reading, Writing, and spelling. It is not caused by a lack of intelligence or a lack of opportunity to learn. It is a unique mindset that is often gifted and productive but learns differently than other minds. But many people believe that Dyslexia occurs when people of high or moderate I.Q. are unable to develop literacy skills that reflect their intelligence. But the fact is Dyslexics are bright, highly intelligent, and articulate but unable to read, write, or spell at grade level. They are high in I.Q., yet may not test well academically; tests well orally, but not written.

The purpose behind taking this as my final project topic is to spread awareness about Dyslexia and help the audience to understand dyslexia better. After doing my research, I found out that there is a serious educational gap particularly among Indian audience about dyslexia, as compared to the UK audience.

Thus, this led me to start a campaign that would help people understand what Dyslexia really is.

2

INtrODUctION

The campaign will focus onto educate teachers and parents residing in (but not limited to) India about the disorder and sharing ways to help them understand and manage it better. The idea behind focusing teachers and parents as my target audience is if they are sensitive and share a bond of trust, there is a greater likelihood of problems com-ing to the fore. Possible solutions can be explored. Parent’s and teacher’s attitude often determines the outcome.

In order to make the audience understand what dyslexia actually is, I created a Club called ‘Discover Dyslexia Club’ and a Campaign called ‘Discover Dyslexia’ an initiative by the club. The campaign will focus onto educated parents and teachers about the disorder.

The Campaign will make them feel how a child feels and tell them how they can help the child cope with it. I carried out various researches and created a book that would help the target audience in joining to the cause. I went through various online and offline resources and got in touch with families where child suffered from the disorder and inter-viewed few Dyslexics.

3

LItErAtUrE rEVIEW

Before starting with my campaign, I carried out a literature review which consisted of scrutinizing and extracting information from books, websites, blogs, journals, online case studies, interviews, online videos and some existing campaigns in order to understand about dyslexia in depth.

‘Dyslexia- A Parents’ Survival Guide’ by Christine Ostler was a great help for me as it ex-plains in depth about how parents should deal with their Dyslexic childern. This book was appropriate for me to refer before and while doing my project as the target audience for my project are both teachers and parents.

Another book which I referred was ‘100 Ideas for Supporting Children with Dyslexia’ by Gavin Reid & Shannon Green. This book helped me a lot in understanding different ways in which one can teach Dyslexic children in a friendly and comfertable environment.

the video called ‘Left from Write’ (www.leftfromwrite.ne) is also a great inspiration for me as gives a very good overview of dyslexia. It recognises the strengths that people with dyslexia can have, while also the challenges it can pose in education, work and life. It gives a very positive and balanced message about dyslexia.

4

MEtHODOLOGY

Once the literature review was completed, I realise that there is a lot being done on spreading awareness about Dyslexia in the west as compared to India. So, on the bases of my research I targeted Indian teachers and parents as my target audience.

But, in order to understand the scenario on a first hand basis and to create the cam-paign, I carried out the following steps:

1. Primary research: A primary research was carried out to understand Dyslexia in depth and how various families are reacting to the disorder. I included the following under my Primary research -

Understanding of Dyslexia - both the positive and negative aspects of Dyslexia • through online and ofline sources.Interviews with few Dyslexic childern to understand their experiences.• Contacted few Dyslexic Organisations for further suggestions and quarries.• Gather information about other organisations working for Dyslexia both in India and • United Kingdom through online and ofline sources.

2. Secondary Research - Attitude and Reactions of Indian parents towards Dyslexia.• Inspirations.• Literature Review (case studies)•

3. Discussions with BDA: I got in conversation with British Dyslexia Association (BDA) and asked them for a set of questions that helped me in gaining more knowledge about the disorder.

Once I received all the points, I set out to work on the creatives. The Discover Dyslexia Campaign is an initiative by a ‘Discover Dyslexia Club’. The campaign includes a ‘Book – Discover Dyslexia A Complete Toolkit, an ‘Idea Book - Discover Dyslexia Ideas and a ‘Brand and Style Guide’. The campaign also includes. ‘Discover Dyslexia Essentials’ sponsored by the Discover Dyslexia Club. The promotion of the campaign is done with the help of the direct mailers and brochures as the target audience is restricted.

5

There are many cases of the sort where children go into depression as they feel incom-petent and do not find their parents around them for support. Thus, the Discover Dyslexia Campaign gets the parents and teachers acquainted with the facts about Dyslexia and teach them on how to handle it.

The Club aims at providing all kinds of consistencies and motivational efforts to children and parents that will help bring out the best in them. The Discover Dyslexia Club aims to draw attention to the high creative potential of the many visually-dominant dyslexic minds. It encourages dyslexic pupils to explore their exceptional ability in the field of vi-sual arts. Discover Dyslexia Club also provides an advisory service for all those concerned with the dyslexia related questions, most particularly in the field of education. The club also offers practical help to students and adults in their training and careers. The club also organizes workshops in association with corporate brands for dyslexic children.

In order to bring the campaign to life, I created a book by the name Discover Dyslexia – A Complete Toolkit. This book not only creates a sense of dyslexia in people, helping them empathize with the children, but also shares with them various steps that can be taken in order to help a child grow with Dyslexia. The book is aimed at both parents and teachers, thus, I have also taken care that the book stays sensitive to both children and adults.

People need to understand that Dyslexia is not an illness that can be cured by medi-cines, and our campaign helps them understand what Dyslexia actually is. I have taken special care of the fonts, colours, and the format while creating the Campaign making it as Dyslexia friendly as possible.

In order to make people understand how dyslexic children experience, I have created direct mailers that give a near dyslexic experience. I plan to use these mailers by sending them to a select audience who we expect will respond and share their experiences with us. With the help of these interactions, we plan to share our thoughts and ideas with the people who take care of dyslexic children in one way or the other. By these mailers, we help them empathize with children and make their interactions with children better.

In future, if the campaign turns out to be exceptionally successful, we can scale it up for the mass audience and use mainstream media to reach out to people.

6

ANALYsIs

Once the project was created, I presented the beta version of the book and ideas to eight people. The response received was positive in nature and five out of eight people said they would like to take the book and avail consultancy, though discreetly. The people to whom the documents were shown consisted of teachers and parents who spent a lot of time with dyslexic kids. They were happy to receive something that would help them interact better and understand the problems better. They said that the chil-dren who were dyslexic were good in visual arts, but lacked in curricular based classes. Thus, they were happy to find a way through which they could enhance both creative and technical mind of a dyslexic child.

Discover Dyslexic a success: I can proudly say that because of this campaign one of the parents detected some Dyslexic symptoms in their child. Their child took the test which I have included in my campaign and now they are planning to meet the Dyslexic con-cerned authorities in Delhi, India.

7

DIscUssION

Over the period of last 3 months, I have carried out a lot of primary and secondary research on the topic of Dyslexia, and have found out that the Indian psyche not only stalls the growth of children suffering from this disorder but also hurts them emotionally. Teachers and parents are not aware of how to handle children, which creates a gap between the two.

Through the Discover Dyslexia Campaign, my target is to share resources with people which will help them understand the situation of the children and cope with them better. 1 in every 10 children is a Dyslexic, and this campaign, with its resources and elements, helps parents and teachers in empathizing with the child.

8

cONcLUsION

In order to conclude the critical reflection, I would like state that through my research over the last 3 months of children suffering from Dyslexia, attitude of people towards them and Dyslexia itself, I have come to understand that there is a huge difference between the reaction of people living in London and India. In Indian scenario, we see more over-protective, over-cautious parents who are either not willing to accept that their child is suffering from Dyslexia or are indifferent to it in one way or the other. We have seen parents sending their children to boarding schools thinking that they do not concentrate on technical subjects on purpose, not knowing that children suffering from dyslexia have a creative bend of mind which is also an advantage in a way.

With the help of research, I have created a campaign which will help the parents and teachers in understanding how a dyslexic child feels and how they can support him through the disorder. These documents, which received a good response from select audience, have been created in a way that, if need be, they can get scaled up for mass production.

9

bIbLIOGrAPHY

Books

Christine Ostler (1999). Dyslexia A Parent’s Survival Guide. Surrey: Ammonite Books.•Elizabeth Franks, Myra Nicholson, Celia Stone (2007). Beat Dyslexia. 2nd ed. China: •LDA. Gavin Reid, Shannon Green (2012). 100+ Ideas for Supporting children with Dyslexia. •2nd ed. London: Continuum.

WEBSITES

Abigail Marshall. (2012). Understanding and Recognizing Dyslexia. Available: http://• www.dyslexia.com/library/information.htm.Akanksha Saxena. (2009). Positive attitude can help dyslexic kids: Experts. Available: • http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-10-03/ahmedabad/28059881_1_dys-lexia-disorders-children.British Dyslexia Association. About Dyslexia. Available: http://www.bdadyslexia.org.• uk/about-dyslexia.html.CovStudent. (2008). What is it like to have dyslexia?. Available: http://www.youtube.• com/watch?v=gwZLFTW4OGY&feature=related.Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide. (2009). Dyslexic Advantage. Available: https://www.• facebook.com/DyslexicAdvantage.Dyslexia Association of India. (2011). Role of a Teacher. Available: http://dyslexiain-•dia.org.in/A%20Parents%20Responsibility.html.dyslexiamom. (2011). Spelling Technique for Dyslexic. Available: http://www. youtube.•com/watch?v=-CpZAH6elIc&feature=related.Dyslexia My Life. (1999). Signs Of Dyslexia, Dyslexia Symptoms, Early signs of Dys-•lexia. Available: http://dyslexiamylife.org/signs_dsy.htm.Dyslexia Victoria Online. (2011). DYSLEXIC PROBLEMS & TRAITS IN CHILDREN & ADULTS. • Available: http://www.dyslexiavictoriaonline.com/inofdy.html.

Disabled World. (1999). Dyslexia In Children and Adults. Available: http://www.dis-•

abled-world.com/disability/types/cognitive/dyslexia/.

10

Feargal O Lideadha. (2012). Left from Right. Available: http://www.youtube.com/•

watch?v=GPhV9SyVmwA.

Happy Dyslexic. What does a dyslexic experience?. Available: http://www.happy-•

dyslexic.com/node/9.

Irlen Institute. (1987). Sample Distortions. Available: http://irlen.com/distortioneffects.•

php.

KarenHope.(2011).Atten:Dyslexics–fiyuocnaraedtihs,yuohvaeasgtranemnid•

too.Available:http://dyslexiavictoria.wordpress.com/2011/01/28/atten-dyslexics-fi-

yuo-cna-raed-tihs-yuo-hvae-a-sgtrane-mnid-too/.

Karen Hope. (2009). Dyslexics don’t See Words in their Minds, they See Pictures. Avail-•

able: http://dyslexiavictoria.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/dyslexics-dont-see-words-in-

their-minds-they-see-pictures/.

Persatuan Dyslexia Malaysia. (2010). Teaching a Dyslexic child. Available: http://•

www.dyslexiamalaysia.org.my/Teaching+a+Dyslexic+child_26_1.html.

PIXELMATTE. (2007). The Power Of Dyslexia about Famous Dyslexics. Available: http://•

www. youtube.com/watch?v=l_qGJ9svUbM.

Rama Lakshmi. (2008). The Pain of Dyslexia, As Told by Bollywood. Available: http://•

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/03/AR2008060303201.

htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/03/

AR2008060303201.html.

Various Artist. Dyslexia. Available: http://pinterest.com/dyslexicadv/dyslexia/.•

Various. (2011). CASE STUDIES. Available: http://www.dyslexia-teacher.com/t4.html.•

11