Introduction

In secondary schools, creative subjects like music, craft and cookery occupy only a small part of the curriculum and there is unlikely to be enough time spent on the subjects dyslexic people often succeed at best such as technology, 'hands-on' science, art and design. Also, the constant demands to participate are repeated chances for the teenager to appear inadequate.

Many very intelligent, young people remain unaware of their dyslexia or are able to conceal the difficulties whilst they do not experience any academic problems. This situation can change rapidly at the secondary school stage, but sometimes it will not be until they are taking advanced courses that the problems begin to emerge, their high intelligence having acted as a mask up to that point. Once they have to do much more reading; write extensively using more specialised words; deal with the organisation necessary for writing essays and face a large amount of work under time pressure, they will inevitably find it difficult to cope. Researchers in Oxford pointed to the existence of ...a group of pupils whose academic problems only began to show once they have reached their teens. The scientists hypothesised that these were children who had learned to read by looking and guessing without having the ability to sound out unfamiliar words.'(Robertson. p163)

Dyslexic teenagers who are withdrawn from school as a result of feeling unsupported and unable to cope with the language-based environment may need time to relax at first, in order to find emotional equilibrium. During this period they may prefer to do soothing, practical activities like animal care, gardening, cooking or crafts, the parent keeping a comprehensive record of all activities, in order to satisfy the LEA Visitor. Later, they may feel able to begin the important task of revising any of the foundation skills that they may have missed. For those with severe difficulties a functional level of literacy and numeracy should be the aim. If the task seems overwhelming then a sympathetic dyslexia tutor may be the answer. 'Older poor readers have the same basic problems as younger poor readers and need to learn the same skills.Their problems, however, are complicted by years of frustration and failure.(Hall/Moats p213) As, at the root of their problems is usually a weakness in accessing and utilising the alphabet code, a tutor specifically trained in teaching synthetic phonics would be a good choice.

Life Skills

Extra practice in important life skills and proficiencies may be necessary for the dyslexic teenager in order to foster self-confidence and independence. These include:

- Shopping for, preparing and cooking meals using fresh ingredients.
- Time management and self-organisation
- Information Technology and keyboard skills
- Form filling and letter writing using a word processor if necessary
- Financial literacy including organising a bank account
- Reading travel timetables
- Telling the time -digital, analogue and 24hrs.
- Using maps.
- Using study skills and memory joggers
- Learning relaxation techniques for stress reduction
- Estimating and using a calculator.
- But above all staying cheerful and optimistic, thinking positively!

Self-esteem is the vital characteristic that dyslexic teenagers need, but often lack and home is usually the best place to provide the help and support that will allow this to develop. Freedom from pressure is very important, and a stress-free environment is normally easier to maintain at home. Parents can build up their child's confidence by giving them lots of praise and showing they enjoy and value their child's company. Home education can help with concentration problems and more time may be spent on the young person's special interests, giving opportunities for them to experience success.

There comes a time when, in order to become successful adults, dyslexic teenagers must recognise and accept their unique combination of strengths and difficulties. Until this is done they will not take responsibility for themselves and act to overcome the obstacles and problems the syndrome creates. Successful adult dyslexics have invariably succeeded by concentrating on their own particular gifts and not focusing on their difficulties (West 1997 p264) It is worth pointing out that dyslexic adults in successful businesses and occupations where they need to use the written word, often have a helpful, non-dyslexic partner, employ secretaries to deal with all their writing, or may simply use computer technology.

www.bbc.co.uk/health/confidence/ Exercises to improve confidence and self-esteem.

www.moneymatterstome.co.uk Financial Skills.

www.practicalmoneyskills.com/ Visa's money skills learning centre for all ages.

Further Education

Dyslexics are usually talented, creative individuals who can succeed in a range of careers. Some architectural firms and computer programming companies actually prefer to recruit them rather than 'ordinary' people but GCSEs and other exam courses leading to 'paper qualifications' are often hurdles too difficult for dyslexics to leap. 'The situation is a disaster for the creative dyslexics and late bloomers because these qualifications depend so much on just those qualities where they are the weakest, because so much relies on primarily academic skills such as rapid reading, ease of assimilation and recall, reliability, and organisation…' (West 1997 p)