Dyslexia Awareness Week 2020

On Monday, a peculiar thing happened at BIS. Signs around the school became harder to read. Decoding and taking meaning from everyday words was more difficult. Something as simple as reading took a longer amount of time and it was more challenging.

“Some of my classmates asked about the signs around the school, with the usual announcements (such as, "Please Keep a 1 Meter Distance"), but the letters were jumbled up for Dyslexia Awareness Week. They told me that it drew their eyes to the poster because from the corner of their eye they thought they saw some spelling errors, they ended up reading the whole poster and learning a bit more about Dyslexia.” - Phi Phi Leung 12B

This past week, Students at BIS learned more about Dyslexia and how it affects between 5-10% of the world’s population. But, not only did they learn about the challenges that people with Dyslexia face, but also the many strengths that people with Dyslexia develop out of their disability. This is why the theme for the week was “Focus on Ability”, which was delivered through assemblies, challenges and activities created by our Year 12 Events Committee students.

“While researching about Dyslexia and planning our form time activities, I was amazed by the strengths and abilities of Dyslexic people. I also found the experience meaningful, because by organising these activities, I knew that I would help others learn more about Dyslexia and encourage them to have the same realisation that I had.”  - SoYoung Park 12V

Students of all year groups participated in different activities in their forms that were designed to put them in the shoes of people with Dyslexia through experiences that challenged their own reading and decoding abilities. Often times, students had to come up with new and innovative ways of addressing problems that were created by simulated difficulties in reading.

“This experience has provided other students with a similar experience as a person who is Dyslexic. I feel that this experience had benefitted other students because, by physically putting themselves into the situation where they actually have to solve a problem with similar issues as a Dyslexic person, they can understand what having Dyslexia feels like, how these problems can be overcome and how techniques used to solve problems with reading can be applied to other situations.” - Lavender Yang 12N

Student engagement this week was excellent and, most importantly, we were able to build greater empathy and understanding in our school community. In the end, the feeling was that we changed students views on ability and that, even what is often seen as a weakness, can lead to strength, and that these strengths contribute greatly to the diversity of ability that we have across our global society.

“From participating in this experience, I was able to build a deeper understanding of Dyslexia, and how being Dyslexic isn't a weakness, but is something that people should be proud of. I personally think one of the takeaways of this experience was that we, as a group, have played a part in making a change in the student's perception of Dyslexia.” - YooMin Cho 12M

The week will finish with the Decoding Challenge this Friday, October 2nd. We thank everyone who participated: the LS Team for organising the week, the MAC team for their tireless efforts in developing posters and resources, and our Year 12 students from the Events Committee for helping their fellow students to develop their awareness of Dyslexia.

Ian Young
Head of Learning Support