Word on the street with dyslexia awareness in Durban North

REFLECTING on International Dyslexia Awareness Month in October, the Northglen News chats to parents and teachers in Durban North to find out how the community can support those with dyslexia.

The annual awareness campaign aims to create a platform to share knowledge and resources around dyslexia.

For mother and Durban North resident, Suraya King addressing anxiety around learning is key as the schooling system is centred around reading. Her daughter, Zia Bahadur (11) has been gaining confidence in the classroom through extra lessons.

“She has dyslexia and she struggles with it. You want to help your child and make sure they have the best opportunities. It’s very difficult to change a child’s mindset when they feel they are not doing something the right way, and you need to build their confidence first,” said King.

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Raising awareness about dyslexia is important because society is not inclusive of those who struggle with reading, added King.

“Society doesn’t make it easy for people with dyslexia. There’s an expectation that everyone needs to behave a certain way and when you don’t fit in you get picked on. In the classroom, my daughter is expected to read a page and she feels scared to read. In general I think people should be compassionate about another persons’ needs and not assume or judge. You don’t know what someone else is going through. When you have a disability you are definitely judged – from my child’s perspective it’s in the classroom and even around friends and family members when everyone is comparing achievements,” she said.

Susan du Plessis, director of Educational Programmes at specialised learning centre, Edublox said dyslexia can make it difficult for a person to learn in the traditional sense.

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“Symptoms include reversals (confusing b and d); mirror writing (reading ‘was’ as ‘saw’); putting letters in the wrong order (reading ‘felt’ as ‘left’); elisions (reading ‘cat’ for ‘cart’); reading very slowly and hesitantly; and reading with poor comprehension. But it is not a disease or something that needs a cure. With appropriate teaching methods, people with dyslexia can learn successfully,” said du Plessis.

Kameshni Munien, an educational practitioner from Edublox in Durban North and Umhlanga said they joined the international #GoRedForDyslexia campaign to highlight the impact dyslexia has on a child at school.

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