Long battle to be understood

JOHN BISSET/ The Timaru Herald

BETTER UNDERSTANDING: Celebrating Dyslexia Action Week in Geraldine are nine-year-old Zettlin , sister Savannah, 13, and mum Carolyn McAtamney-Rasch, all of whom have dyslexia.

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For Geraldine opera singer Carolyn McAtamney-Rasch, dyslexia is a lot more than not being able to read and write.

When she is out driving, she has to stop to think about which side of the road she should be on. And when she sends a text message to someone, they usually have no idea what her jumbled sentences mean. Mrs McAtamney-Rasch has severe dyslexia and hopes Dyslexia Action Week will raise awareness of what she calls a "thinking difference''.

Her children, nine-year-old Zettlin and 13-year-old Savannah, also have dyslexia, though Savannah's was not as severe, thanks to years of fighting the education system, Mrs McAtamney-Rasch said.

Savannah used a reader-writer during school tests and was trying to get back the use of a Government-provided laptop with a programme made specially for children with dyslexia.

But Zettlin has not been as lucky. His dyslexia was severe like his mum's, meaning school was a struggle every day. He attended mainstream class as well as specialist classes and has already been held back a year. Every year he fell more behind, Mrs McAtamney-Rasch said.

Earlier this year she and her husband Andrew were advised they should pull Zettlin out of school because "the system would fail him'' and he would end up a street kid the age of nine. A lot of people with dyslexia found life too difficult because everyone mistook them as being "dumb'', she said.

Until she was 35, she had no idea why her ways of learning were different to everyone else. Now at 43, she is fighting for her children to stay, learn and be happy in school, so they don't give up on life like she almost did.

She said she wanted schools to "sit up and listen'', get the resources, knowledge, tools and most importantly money to assist dyslexic students.

"It's not fighting the schools, it's fighting the system. We are continuously proving we are not insane. With Zettlin, one day he'll tell you how to spell 'the', the next day it's not there. He can drive a digger better than a 21-year-old, but he can't read.

We think faster than we can write.'' Did that mean dyslexic people couldn't do normal things? "We can, but we can't do it your way.''

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