12 minute read
Dyslexia Empowerment
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Dyslexia and Me
Onyinye Udokporo
Throughout my life I have been told directly and indirectly that dyslexia is found in particular people... [In fact] dyslexia can be found in someone like me. It isn’t just ‘okay’ but something to be proud of. This book has been written because I want people to know that dyslexia can be found in people of every colour, creed, or circumstance.
In this book, rising star entrepreneur Onyinye Udokporo shares her story of growing up dyslexic in a society where neurodivergence was always presented as a white male issue.
Onyinye discusses her experience of being diagnosed at 11 years old, starting a business the following year, gaining a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school and going on to complete two degrees by the age of 22, while also being honest about the difficulties she faced throughout including with bullying and anxiety. She shares the tips she picked up over the years for thriving with dyslexia and the strategies she used to overcome her difficulties in reading and writing well, staying organised and speaking with confidence.
Illuminating wider issues of systemic racism in the educational sector and providing a timely reminder that dyslexia can be found in any community and culture, this is an empowering story of surviving and thriving in the face of adversity.
sep 2022 | £12.99 | 12–99 yeArs | 224pp | pB | isBn-9781787759442
Mission Dyslexia
Find Your Superpower and Be Your Brilliant Self Julie McNeill, Rossie Stone and Paul McNeill
Illustrated by Rossie Stone
Fun interactive book with three superhero characters representing dyslexic strengths (Creatia, Willforce and Persisto) for dyslexic kids aged 7–11. Mission Dyslexia gently empowers children to develop strategies suited to their own unique strengths. This positive fully illustrated book, with draw-in pages, will encourage children to use their own strengths and talents to build their self-esteem and develop the self understanding and coping mechanisms to thrive at home and school.
mAr 2021 | £14.99 | 7–12 yeArs | 128pp | pB | illustrAted WitH cOlOurFul cArtOOns And pAges FOr tHe cHild tO drAW And Write in. | isBn-9781787752962
CHAPTER 3
Mr D! Mr D!
I’ll let Creatia, Willforce and Persisto tell you a bit more about him. Don’t forget to look out for him in each of the chapters and see if you can work out what is happening to him as the book progresses.
Don’t say it, Persisto… Don’t do it!
We called the chapter a er him; we have to tell them.
Copyright © Julie McNeill, Rossie Stone and Paul McNeill – Mission Dyslexia 2021Now that we have identifi ed all of your fabulous strengths and know where to go if we need to ask for help, I suppose it might be time to introduce this guy. You might have spotted him lurking on the pages of the previous chapters.
I doubt they’ve even read that bit. It’s ne, honestly – we can just miss him out. just miss him out.
Copyright © Julie McNeill, Rossie Stone and Paul McNeill – Mission Dyslexia 202133
Dyslexia is My Superpower (Most of the Time)
Margaret Rooke
Foreword by Catherine Drennan and Loyle Carner
Containing over 100 in-depth interviews with school children and young adults living with dyslexia, this collection depicts the significance of confidence and self-esteem in propelling children with dyslexia to achieve personal success. The children supply their own illustrations, a handy hints guide, and their own advice to educators.
sep 2017 | £13.99 | 8+ yeArs | 240pp | pB | WOrld rigHts AvAilABle | isBn-9781785922992
The Bigger Picture Book of Amazing Dyslexics and the Jobs They Do
Kathy Iwanczak Forsyth and Kate Power
Foreword by Paul Smith
Funny and beautifully designed, packed with photos, this book puts amazing dyslexics and the jobs they do under the spotlight. The reader draws inspiration and insight from the stories which highlight the dyslexics’ low and high points, people who inspired them, their coping strategies, strengths, eureka moments and advice to younger selves.
– Kate Stanners, Chairwoman & Global Chief Creative Officer, Saatchi & Saatchi
sep 2020 | £15.99 | 12+ yeArs | 200pp | pB | BeAutiillustrAted in cOlOur WitH pHOtOs OF tHe AmAzing dysleXics At WOrk | isBn-9781785925849
The Illustrated Guide to Dyslexia and Its Amazing People
Kate Power & Kathy Iwanczak Forsyth
Foreword by Richard Rogers
An engaging visual explanation of dyslexia, what it means, and how to embrace it. Vibrant images and simple text depict what dyslexia is, along with helpful tools for learning and examples of skills and professions best suited for people with dyslexia. Includes tips for success, additional games and learning resources.
– Shirley Cramer, CEO of Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) & Ex-CEO of Dyslexia Action
sep 2017 | £14.99 | 7–15 yeArs | 96pp | HB | 96 cOlOur illustrAted pAges | WOrld rigHts AvAilABle | isBn-9781785923302
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Wired Differently – 30 Neurodivergent People You Should Know
Joe Wells
Illustrated by Tim Stringer
This collection of illustrated portraits celebrates the lives of influential neurodivergent figures who have achieved amazing things in recent times.
Showcasing these 30 incredible people, the extraordinary stories in this book show that the things they’ve achieved, created and inspired they did not despite being different but because they are different. From politicians, activists and journalists to YouTubers, DJs and poets, this book highlights a wide range of exciting career paths for neurodivergent readers.
mAy 2022 | £14.99 | 12+ yeArs | 192pp | pB | 30 B&W illustrAted pOrtrAits | isBn-9781787758421
Wired Differently One in seven people are neurodivergent. Which makes it odd that of the thousands of novels published every year only a few will have neurodivergent characters. When I do get to read a novel with one of us in, I often feel that something’s not quite right. The character might tick all of the boxes for a diagnosis but they don’t feel like the neurodivergent people I know in real life. It’s a bit like when you buy supermarket own-brand versions of your favourite cereal; it’s hard to say exactly what’s wrong but it’s just not the real thing. Growing up, Elle McNicoll had these same frustrations. She wanted to read books about people like her but couldn’t find any. So, when she was able to, she got a job in publishing, hoping that if she could be in the room where decisions about books were being made, then she could change things. Convincing publishers that neurodiversity was important was difficult. People thought that there wasn’t a market for books with neurodivergent characters. Elle knew this wasn’t true, so she wrote a book to prove them wrong. A small publisher who specialized in children’s books written by people from diverse backgrounds agreed to print Elle’s book and in 2020 A Kind of Spark was published. It sold out immediately. A Kind of Spark is about a young autistic girl called Addie who campaigns to have a memorial in her small town for the women who were murdered after being falsely accused of witchcraft. Addie isn’t like autistic characters I’ve met in other books. She feels like a real person, one who you really care about. I was obviously not the only one who enjoyed A Kind of Spark. My social media feeds were full of people saying how great it was, and the reviews and awards kept coming in. Autistic adults like me had grown up looking for characters in books who were like us and we’d finally found one. Actually, we’d found two, because Addie’s sister, Keedie, is also autistic. I’d never read a book with two Elle McNicoll neurodivergent characters! I guess when writers only have one idea of how an autistic character would act, there’s no point in having more than one in a story. Elle’s follow-up, Show Us Who You Are, has more great neurodivergent characters but this time they’re in a science fiction setting, navigating a creepy organization that is making holograms of dead people. The day my copy arrived in the post, Elle was on TV winning a Blue Peter Book Award for A Kind of Spark and proudly telling the world that she was a neurodivergent author. What makes Elle’s books so good? I think that as a neurodivergent writer she has a head start coming up with good neurodivergent characters. All authors draw on their own experiences when writing. They might not have been through the exact same things as their characters (otherwise fantasy novels would be very dangerous to write), but they try to put themselves in the minds of their characters to guess how they would behave. Elle’s lived experience means that her neurodivergent characters act in a way that is so much more real than similar characters in other books. I believe that she is the start of a new age of great neurodivergent people telling incredible stories. Discussion questions for your school, college or book club → Why is it important that the books we read reflect the neurodiversity of the world we live in? → What fictional neurodivergent characters can you think of from books, television or film? → Do these characters reflect the diversity of neurodivergent people you know and those in this book?134
Wired Differently production’. Co-production literally means making stuff together. It’s been shown that when people with lived experience and people with professional experience work together designing schools, health services and support for neurodivergent people, they make better decisions than if people with professional expertise did the work on their own. All around the world people are waking up to the importance of co-production. In the UK they’ve even introduced laws to make sure that it happens. If you’re a young neurodivergent person, then I’d urge you to look for opportunities to take part in co-production and share your lived expertise. I can’t promise that you’ll gain a YouTube following like Jessica’s, but you will be sharing valuable expertise that no neurotypical person has. 18 HANNAH GADSBY Autistic Comedian
Discussion questions for your school, college or book club → In groups, each think of an experience that you have had which no one else in your group has had. It could be a place you’ve visited, a ride at a theme park or a live show that you → have seen. Each spend some time sharing that experience with the rest of → the group. When you have an experience explained to you, think about whether this is the same as having the experience for real. What is the difference between having the experience and hearing about it second-hand?
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The Kids’ Guide to Staying Awesome and In Control
Simple Stuff to Help Children Regulate their Emotions and Senses Lauren Brukner
From breathing exercises and pressure holds to noise-reducing headphones and gum, this illustrated book is packed with simple strategies and tools to help children with emotional and sensory regulation difficulties aged approximately 7 to 14 years to stay cool, calm and in control.
Jul 2014 | £13.99 | 7–14 yeArs | 112pp | HB | 35 B&W cArtOOn illustrAtiOns | rigHts sOld: cHinese (simpliFied), turkisH | isBn-9781849059978
My Special Alphabet Book
A Green-Themed Story and Workbook for Developing Speech Sound Awareness for Children aged 3+ at Risk of Dyslexia or Language Difficulties Valerie Muter and Helen Likierman
Illustrated by Jane Dorner Foreword by Andrea Street
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This green-themed workbook is designed for children aged 3+ who have dyslexia in their families and who may struggle with learning to read and write. The Alphabet Recycle Story and accompanying tailored activities have been written by expert psychologists to support young children to build crucial literacy skills that will set them up for being more confident readers in the future.
– Dr Kevin Smith, Professional Development Co-ordinator of the Professional Association of Teachers of Students with Specific Learning Difficulties (PATOSS)
Oct 2021 | £19.99 | 3–10 yeArs | 128pp | pB | Fully cOlOur illustrAted tHrOugHOut | isBn-9781787757790
dis for dump
Oh dear! We live in a dump.
MY SPECIAL ALPHABET BOOK
Activity 18: Asking How Questions Practise asking ‘how’ questions either with pictures or when you are on the move. Here are some examples: How do we keep dry in the rain? How do we make the soup hot? and d is for dinaroo
How do we keep food fresh? How do we keep the floor/our hands/our clothes clean?
How do we keep ourselves warm? How do we know what time it is? Hi there! I’m Dina. Dina Dinaroo. I like helping.
My flowers can’t grow in all this mess.
How do we fix this broken toy? How can we get to see things when it’s dark? How do we keep safe when crossing the road? How do we keep ourselves fit and healthy?
Hello, Dina. Why don’t we all clean it up?
fOunDaTIOn SkILLS acTIvITIeS
Activity 19: Developing Narrative This activity is based on telling stories through pictures. It aims to get children to develop the basics for written stories at school. They need to think of things happening in a particular order or sequence, the notion of consequences and the idea of a beginning, middle and end of a story. On this and the next page are examples with pictures that the child can talk about. Prompt the child by asking ‘wh’ and ‘how’ questions (as above). You could also ask them questions that help them with sequencing or ordering the story: ‘What happens first?’, ‘What happens next?’, ‘And then what?’, ‘How does it end?’
For example:
Having a picnic Say: ‘Let’s tell a story about you going on a picnic.’ Ask: ‘Who else is at the picnic? Where are you? How did you get there? What are you having to eat and drink? What are you taking home (suggest your rubbish)? How did you get home?’
Growing things in a garden (or in a tub) Ask: ‘What do you want to grow? How do you start? What do you need to help you? What insects might you see when the flowers have grown?’
