Small Beginnings for Waipa Dyslexia Advocacy group

The recently founded Waipa Dyslexia Advocacy group has held its first meeting as part of Dyslexia advocacy week 2014.

The event, which was at Walton Street Coffee in Te Awamutu, had a small but strong turnout of 11 women.

The group was founded by Carla McNeil and Nikki Otto, who both have a dyslexic child.

McNeil said “It’s that journey that we’ve shared as well that’s kind of instigated this evening.”

They started the group about three weeks ago and created a page on Facebook.

After talking about it for a while they thought the national advocacy week, March 17-23, was a good opportunity to launch their group.

The group was made up of mothers, grandmothers and teachers.

Their aim is to build awareness and support surrounding dyslexia while also acting as a place where people can share ideas.

During the evening many of the women told their stories sharing information on what had worked for them.

The teachers in the group identified that there was a lack of information and support available from the Ministry of education.

“One thing that’s really clear is that if we don’t stand up and say what are we going to do for these kids, it will not happen,” said McNeil.

Dyslexia is a general term for disorders that involve difficulty in learning to read or interpret words, letters, and other symbols, but that do not affect general intelligence.

Much like autism it is a spectrum disorder where no two cases are the same.

“Dyslexia is a big umbrella, so everyone’s going to have different takes on it. So that’s what we’re here for, to share and learn,” Otto said.

McNeil also said it’s rare these days just for a child to have dyslexia, that they will often have another learning disorder.

The Dyslexia Foundation of New Zealand says conservative estimates put one in ten New Zealanders as dyslexic, which translates to at least 70,000 school children.

Dyslexia can often go unnoticed with students thought of as slow learners or unintelligent.

While there is support from the Ministry of Education, responsibility for the children is placed upon the individual schools to manage.

McNeil said while there is no clear guide on how to deal with it, the foundation has put together a lot of information to help families.

Those who can afford it often move overseas to get access to better education for their children.

The Group plans to meet next month but is yet to confirm the date.

For more information about dyslexia you can check out the Dyslexia Foundation of New Zealand Webpage.