Thread by @ElenskiHA

I thought I would share my personal experience of how I realized I was dyslexic. Everything started when I first came to UK to do my A-levels. I always struggled with writing but never understood why. In Russia back in 2007-2009 dyslexia wasn’t recognized as widely.

So when I came to UK, teachers in my school assumed all my struggles were due to the English language barrier. I couldn’t understand why my spoken English was so good but my writing English didn’t match it. It was so strange for me.

Then my school provided me with English tutor, who couldn’t recognize my dyslexia either. I do understand why not because I was only in UK for a year at this point and as international student chances of me being dyslexic were low.

This had a sever impact on my mental health. I used to suffer from panic attacks late at night, especially before an exam or an essay.

Well, I survived school and got into university. First year I struggled with my writing and again no one would even consider me being dyslexic. It’s a language barrier they all said. I used to jokingly agree and pretend I wasn’t upset about my low grades.

Came 2nd year of my university and I finally had a lecturer, who after reading my essay, called me into her office and said I think you are dyslexic. You need to get a test and see. This was a turning point for me. I’m grateful someone recognized it wasn’t a language thing.

Now I had to get assessment from university for dyslexia, and blimey it was one difficult process. The university wouldn’t provide testing for me for free as they never had to do it for an international student. And I couldn’t afford to pay thousands of pounds for a test.

Finally, after almost 2-3 months from the point of going to the student offices and requesting a test, I was put on the waiting list. Few weeks after that I had my test, and I must admit it was eye opening.

During the test I found out I had strong sound memory, but slow speed of reading. So I used that knowledge to my advantage. I started to prep for exams by talking to someone and I got extra time for reading. This helped me to get my grades up from mid 50s to mid 60s.

For people who study in the UK, you know that this means taking my grades to mid 60s means I have better chances to get into masters and then PhD.

Fast forward few years. I have completed 2 masters and now doing my PhD, my dyslexia test helped me to save my future academic career. For anyone out here who will actually read this thread, dyslexia doesn’t have to be a burden, it can also be your strength.

If you have any questions please message me or reply to this thread, I would love to hear from you #phdchat #academicWriting #AcademicChatter #phdchat #AcademicMentalHealth #Dyslexia #research #education #THREAD #AcademicTwitter #Reading #FridayThoughts @AcademicsSay @PhDVoice