July 2023

Happy month of July! 

HAPPY CANADA DAY – hoping you all had a wonderful long weekend and your summer holidays are on the horizon! We are taking a little break from Board meetings but there is still plenty for us to do. The sad news is that we didn’t get any funding from the Government’s Community Services Recovery Fund, which is hard to take when there was $400M on offer!

OUTREACH

HOWEVER – the good news is that we rattled off an application for the Telus StoryHive grant of $20,000 for a 25 min documentary – and we got it ! Ironic that we spent weeks on the one we didn’t get and a couple of days on the one we did get. There must be a message in there somewhere? Laura created this ‘pitch’ video which helped us to get the award! Watch HERE. The project’s current title is ‘The Need for NeuroInclusivity in Education and How.’ They give us a mentor, suggest film crew, editors etc. and then launch the film on Telus Optik ! Very exciting ! We could choose our own film crew if anyone has any contacts, we’d love to hear from you.

COME TO THE DYSLEXIC TABLE Live Chat will be on August 1 (missing July 1) – the article crafted by Sharon Roberts is: Resilience – What’s Change Got to do with it? Our clients typically are not comfortable with change… so come and join us – you can register HERE and will receive a Zoom link.

EMERGING AUTHORS, Victoria, BC – Sue was grateful to have her book accepted for the Greater Victoria Library’s Emerging Author event. She wasn’t able to go but her book had a great time HERE.

DYSLEXIA IN THE WORKPLACE: When we talk about dyslexia, we tend to focus on children and their struggles in the education system. Recently ‘Made by Dyslexia’ came out with these interesting statistics:

Although 66% of HR leaders say they understand the value of Dyslexic Thinking - only 14% of dyslexic employees agree, and while 64% of employers feel their recruitment processes identify Dyslexic Thinking - only 4% of dyslexics agree. We think it would be worthwhile to contact the CPHRBC organisation to see if they would be interested in the information we can share. There is HR in all large corporations, and they might decide to donate to us ! Read the research document HERE. On a personal note (Sue) I think its so sad that Made by Dyslexia know about the talents, and yet have no idea, or do not embrace, why both the challenges and talents exist… heyho, one day!

ICE CREAM FUNDRAISER:

Ongoing… details re: the Ice Cream Fundraiser are still in the works… keep thinking of a really great dyslexic ice cream flavour!

COMMUNITY

Nadine has kept our Community Objective alive with a wonderful pottery event. She says “the pottery event on the weekend was a hit! Everyone had such a great time. We had two moms and four kids, along with myself, making a total of seven participants. We all agreed that we would love to go again. Currently, we don't have the final mugs as they need to dry first. After that, they will be dipped in the colors of our choice and then fired to be ready for use. I will be picking them up in five weeks.”

Next time she’s organising some improv ! Sounds loads of fun!

FACILITATING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES:

I find it interesting that your brain wires itself to match your native language. Wiring patterns seem to reflect grammatical characteristics specific to different languages, so looking at their brain scans, are there certain languages that would be easier for us right-brain dominant folk? I know Spanish is the language most likely to sound how it is spelt, but it would be interesting to know if it lights up the right brain more than the left. Read the article HERE.

Come to The Dyslexic Table Live Chat

Sharon Roberts has penned another excellent article for us - this month it is 'Resilience - What’s Change Got To Do With It?'.
We will be talking about this at our next Come to the Dyslexic Table Live Chat on Tuesday August 1st at 4.30pm (Pacific Time). To read more and RSVP visit our page HERE.

Resilience - What’s Change Got to Do With It? Sharon Roberts, Davis Dyslexia Correction Facilitator, Kitchener, ON

Good mental health is often linked to being resilient.  Resiliency is the ability to bounce back from difficult life experiences or challenges, otherwise known as change. The idea of change is something that is often unwelcome by many experiencing dyslexia. Change simply means ‘something becoming something else’ and can be found in both the external and inner worlds. Knowing the difference is the key. Experts believe that resiliency is a taught skill requiring qualities such as confidence, competence, and control.

Some of these qualities can be absent in a dyslexic’s repertoire. The gift of altering your perceptions readily, without the ability to control when needed, undermines one’s confidence as mistakes are a common occurrence. Dyslexia isn’t just a reading problem; it can affect how we follow instructions and conversations and getting along with others. These misperceptions undermine our confidence and competence and without tools to control our imaginations, we can easily let our minds wander to a place filled with anxiety and /or depression. This can be even more magnified because we have that ability to experience our imagination as reality. Meanwhile this ability helps us in other areas such as creative endeavors or sports but is detrimental to bouncing back from unexpected changes.

Confusion is commonplace with a dyslexic person, so structure provides a sense of security or grounding. Changes in their orderliness of environment such as furniture rearrangement, moving households, scheduling changes, feeling rushed or any kind of loss or strife will further lower their threshold of confusion.  This is why parents often see emotional outbursts associated with change in their dyslexic child. Being able to “roll with the punches” is a great life skill and a Davis concept program tailored to this need can provide someone with tools to manage themselves while facing a change.

These concepts, often meaningless to a picture thinker, are necessary to acquire some of the ingredients for resiliency such as: viewing change as a challenge or opportunity, relying on past successes, seeing their choices, having patience, confidence, and competence. This helps one adapt to change and become more resilient.

In addition, the Davis Method offers tools to relax and control the perceptual abilities when needed.  In addition, we model the concepts of change, consequence, time, sequence and order, to place these abstract concepts into the real world. It goes beyond memorization or understanding.

Ron Davis’s book, The Gift of Dyslexia, says “When someone masters something, it becomes a part of that person. It becomes part of the individual’s thought and creative process. It adds the quality of its essence to all subsequent thought and creativity of the individual”

For example, riding a bike involves more than understanding. It’s the experience of riding it that provides the mastery. The same principle applies to mastering these concepts. Mastery inputs the meaning in a concrete way and provides the experience to fall back upon. Repeated experiences using and applying these tools builds confidence to manage changes and increase resilience. Life is unpredictable and riding the wave makes those ups and downs more manageable.

Sharon Roberts, Davis Facilitator, Ontario https://dyslexia.ca/

CALENDAR

We thought you might like to see what we are up to:

August 1 - Live Chat – Resilience: What’s Change Got to Do With it?

We have #1 Time Blindness, #2 The Invisible Dyslexic, #3 Keyboarding and Cursive Writing on Podbean, Spotify & YouTube

August 23, Creator Info Session #1: Welcome to Telus StoryHive

September 7, Creator Info Session #2 - The Business of Screen Media

September 19,26, October 3,10,17,24 Why Ty Parent Support Course – Online live with Sue Hall

In the Fall – Nadine is hosting an Improv Class with Theatre Sports – unlocking more creative potential !

November 9-12 - DDAI Conference - San Francisco - Sue has been invited to be part of a non-profit session.

January 13, 2024 Creator Info Session #3: Meet Your NSI Mentor

AND FINALLY – A LITTLE OUT OF SEASON – BUT SIMPLY HILARIOUS – thank you to Matt Watson, Vancouver Island for recording RINDERCELLA for us !

Enjoy and have a fabulous summer !! your Board….Sue, Laura, Julie, Nadine, Sharon, Paddy, Gisa, Tristan.

Nadine and Sue continue to offer the Why Ty Parent Support Courses.

For more information click on the button below. View a parent’s testimonial on our YouTube Channel HERE.

WE’VE GONE INTERNATIONAL !  The Kakamega Project.

The WDS & The Kakamega Project team are on a mission ! To provide effective dyslexia education training to developing remedial tutors and supporting parents in Kakamega County, Kenya. We are very excited and honoured to be part of this initiative and look forward to telling you how it is unfolding. Visit our Campaign page HERE.

Nadine Schumont from Picture Perfect Learning Solutions in Stratford, Ontario is happy to announce the release of her new “Neurodiversity" T-shirts and merchandise.

With every t-shirt sold, $5 will be donated to the Whole Dyslexic Society to use towards the many services offered. Click this LINK to see, and buy her exciting products.

Our Giving Guide: 

Picture Perfect Learning Solutions Neurodiversity Shirts & Merchandise. Nadine Schumont has create a line of shirts and merchandise celebrating neurodiversity. You can view the range of styles and the image on the back through her store. For every shirt sold Nadine is donating $5.00 to The Whole Dyslexic Society. Check out her shop page HERE.

Purchase our Gifted with Dyslexia Pins.  Purchase our Pins Here

TruEarth Eco-Friendly Laundry Soap and Products.  20% of all sales go to our Society.  Please follow the link to our Tru-Earth product page to purchase.  Tru-Earth Eco-Friendly Products Here

Donate a Car Canada. Looking for simple and free car removal? Donate a Car Canada accepts Vehicle Donations for The Whole Dyslexic Society. When you donate your car, truck, RV, boat, or motorcycle to The Whole Dyslexic Society through Donate A Car Canada, it will either be recycled or sold at auction (depending on its condition, age and location). Read more about Donate a Car Canada…….

See how donations can result in tax credits by reading the article below. Read More…Tax Benefits of Charitable Donations

Partial proceeds go to The WDS from sales and rentals of Ed Roman’s highly acclaimed “Red Omen” video. For more information on renting or buying Red Omen click here 

We gratefully accept donations through our Canada helps charity page. We have a variety of donor options. Thank you !

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