I've thought about this blog post for a long time, searching for the right words, and how to express my personal journey with reading, and there's only one place to start really...
Hey I'm Sam (you might already know that bit) and I'm dyslexic! Reading has been a HUGE struggle in my life, for most of my life. When I was in Primary school, I think it was discovered pretty quickly that I was a slow learner, once I hit age 7 or 8 I was tested for dyslexia and I think, it came as no great surprise to anyone that I was in fact dyslexic.
In case you didn't know dyslexia is...
'Dyslexia is a learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling. Characteristic features of dyslexia are difficulties in phonological awareness, verbal memory and verbal processing speed.'
I had to work a lot harder in school than others my age, and my reading age was much much younger than my actual age! When I was 8/9 I had the reading age of a 5 year old. (that huge at that age.) I hated reading because I took so long to decode the words, I never really understand the story or what I was reading.
I was thankfully incredibly lucky to get amazing help in school, and in fact went to a school that focused on teaching dyslexic children for 2 years. This school was the turning point for me in my life and I couldn't be more thankful for the time I got to spend their, to understand my brain the way it worked and why it was different! It changed my life and my dyslexia soon became my driving force, my super power! My brain didn't work the same as my peers and that was fine, it was a little slower at times but It was still super powerful!
But I still couldn't find the joy in reading, I still dreaded English as a subject, but one really good teacher can make a world of difference! My English teacher in high school, helped me find some joy in books and at the age of 14 I read a novel for a book review and BOOM! Something clicked and I enjoyed a book, a novel! 'A child called it' by Dave Pelzer. I read that book and loved it and went on to read the other 2 books in this true life series. That is the 1st time ever I read books purely for pleasure!
Sadly however it didn't last through my teen years and I didn't find the joy in reading again until my late 20s! Then I fell out of love again, but recently I've found my way back to books through my small business! It's funny how things work out sometimes! I'm so thankful to have found my joy in reading again! I am still painfully slow at reading sometimes, but thats fine because at least I'm reading again!!!
If you've read that whole thing, thank you for taking the time to read it, if you have any questions please do get in touch!
Happy reading!!!