• last year
Angus Lange, 18, with his mum Sarah Lange talks about his struggle with dyslexia in school.
Transcript
00:00 Hi, my name is Angus Lang, I'm 18, I have ADHD and dyslexia.
00:05 It's been a bit of a struggle through my younger years to learn how to read and write sort
00:11 of a thing, but after you find a tutor that's suitable for you then it's a lot easier because
00:18 they break everything down for you, it makes more sense and you kind of get a hook onto
00:23 it.
00:24 Before I had my diagnosis I was a bit of an adventurous kid.
00:28 I would get up out of my seat all the time, I'd get quite a lot of trouble because I was
00:32 out of my seat, I was getting in trouble because I was not doing my work and because I was
00:37 like running around and my teachers would have no idea why and I was just like really
00:43 wanting to help everyone else but help myself.
00:46 I was getting in quite a lot of trouble for that and yeah.
00:50 I didn't really like reading aloud until about year 7 because every time I'd try and read
00:55 aloud I would get words mixed up, letters would be placed into words that don't actually
00:59 exist or I would start reading and as I'm reading another word would be put in that's
01:05 not even in the book to make it make sense in my own brain.
01:08 My own mind would read sentences, I'd read sentences ahead of it and there'd be words
01:12 that aren't even in there that I'd put in to make it sound and go much better than what
01:15 you would read on a piece of paper.
01:18 So there'd be a lot of 'ands', 'that', 'it', 'what', all that kind of stuff would be in
01:23 the sentences that aren't actually there and my brain wouldn't comprehend that and would
01:28 just put it in there and make it so it flows a lot easier for me or if there was big words
01:32 my brain would completely skip it and just try and figure out another word that would
01:35 go for it or I'd try and sound it out and just completely give up on it.
01:39 And then after I started tutoring at about year 7 is when I started to realise that I
01:45 can actually read out loud, I can actually read properly, I can properly learn and I
01:49 can probably contribute to my classes.
01:51 It's something that can be picked up early on and for it to be picked up and flagged
01:55 early on the educators have to be, have those, the tools themselves to know what the flags
02:02 are for kids that have got learning disabilities.
02:05 So basically it comes down to the university level where teachers, educators, I mean at
02:10 TAFE are being, who look after children especially even in daycares and sort of preschool settings
02:20 to have the flags of what to look for and how to teach in pure phonics because that's
02:27 what dyslexic kids need and everyone can learn with pure phonics, breakdown of phonics.
02:33 Teacher education is really important so at the university level so not only do they need
02:37 to learn about the specific learning disorders including dyslexia which is the main disorder
02:43 in that group but also other neurodiverse conditions as well.
02:49 I think it's really important because every single teacher will come across children with
02:53 these conditions throughout their, you know, throughout their whole schooling.
02:57 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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