How to explain dyslexia to a 10year old

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DC1 has recently been diagnosed with dyslexia. Please could I have some help with how best to explain it to him?

He is very bright and will remember exactly what he is told so I feel i’ve got one shot at this and want to get it right.

No idea! Same here with a 12 year old.

Can I ask what suppprt school are giving your child please?

Have you read Dyslexia is a gift?

Full if good information about how the brain works and how a lot of genius people have it

Thanks I have I’ll have i a look. School have been no help to date. This may change now he has a diagnosis but I somehow doubt it.

Facebook page Madebydyslexia and YouTube Likeadyslexic

I've described it in the following ways to my 8 year old. She has big issues with confidence and thinking she's "stupid" , which she isn't. Most of the discussions I've had with her have been trying to overcome this.

1. I've drawn a hundred stickmen in a line ( yes ,it took awhile!) and asked her to mark where she thinks she is, intelligence wise with clever at the top , not so clever at the bottom. Naturally, she put herself about ten from the bottom. I showed her her report and marked where she actually is ( nine from the top).

2. I asked her to picture in her mind , the two brightest kids in her class and said that she's up there with them. I've said they get to walk on a pavement and she's got a tough muddier assault course. That's why they get there quicker. The tough muddier is character building in the end though. Who wants a boring pavement !

3. I've said that she shouldn't compare herself to others because it's not comparing like for like. They have boring apple brains and she has an exotic mango brain! You might be able to choose between two apples or two mangos but you can't choose between the perfect mango and perfect apple because they're completely different things.

4. I've said that if you look inside most people's heads they have logical calculator brains. They work down the list. Tick off their to do's. If you look inside her head it's like a box of fireworks going off and at the end of every spark there's an ingenious idea, amazing picture or fantastic song and it's bloody amazing.

5. When she's kicking off about times tables or spellings or how crap she is my husband pretends to be a young Einstein, fecks up his hair, puts on an Austrian accent and acts out moaning to his mum, Mrs Einstein about how everyone else can do it at school but he can't. She finds it hilarious !

I share lots of stories about famous and successful dyslexics. Einstein, Picasso, Jamie Oliver, Kiera knightly, Richard Branson, there are hundreds. Her grandfather and uncle are both successful and bright dyslexics too so we talk about them too.

I also reiterate that we're a team and we're going to get there together, even if we fail lots along the way. I tell her that there are somethings that she just has to be good enough at, no more and that if she can't be good enough, they don't matter anyway because chances are there's a computer, device, Alexa somewhere that can do it for her!

That is a fantastic explanation thank you so much.

Nells: Wow! Brilliant, creative, uplifting - your daughter is lucky to have you both. If there was a "nominate for best post" button, I would be clicking it.

Absolutely brilliant ideas, Nellsbells11. Thanks for sharing. DC thinks dyslexia is a synonym for being dumb, which is soul crushing. I've shown examples of very successful people in different areas so to show they do get there, even though the road might be muddier and at times, steeper. A work in progress...

This book was invaluable to us as our children are the only dyslexic ones in our family: www.amazon.co.uk/My-Dyslexia-Philip-Schultz/dp/0393343421?tag=mumsnetforum-21. Schultz tells us about his own struggles with dyslexia and how he faced his own son's diagnosis. Brilliant book.