DYSLEXIA ADULT
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The amount of paperwork seems to be growing in all jobs. You may find some of these techniques helpful (with acknowledgments to the excellent ‘Dyslexia in the Workplace’ by Diana Bartlett and Sylvia Moody, and to the Employers' Forum Briefing paper No. 6 on Dyslexia):

Overall strategies.

1. Break tasks down into small chunks that you can manage.

2. Keep a ‘Jobs to do’ list, and cross off things when you have done. them.

3. Always ask for help if you are confused. You will find that other people like to be asked for advice, and it lets them see that you want to do your job properly.

4. Use any equipment that can make tasks easier, for example:

• a small tape-recorder or dictating machine to help remember things that have to be done later, or to dictate a report into, which can be typed later on.
  
  

• a word processor that you can speak into - e.g. Dragon Dictate and others - which will do the typing for you. Reports indicate that, although the technology is still developing, these programs can be made to work successfully provided that a lot of time is spent in the initial stage of training the program to become familiar with the sound patterns of your individual speech.
  
  

• TextHelp Read & Write (www.texthelp.com) provides a small box on your word-processing screen which tries to guess the next word you are going to type. It suggests words that you can click on without having to spell them, and reads out loud what you have written so that you can hear if any words have been missed out or written inaccurately. This program gets better and better if you remember to save your TextHelp session each time, as it can then begin to build up a list of the words you use a lot: for example, if you use the word ‘computer’ a lot, it will put that word at the top of the list every time you start to type ‘com’.
  
  

• Use a Spellchecker with a large, clear display screen.
  
  

• A ‘reading pen’ is available from www.dyslexic.com which you can run over a word you cannot read. The pen will then say the word out loud or through a small ear-piece. (The pen can be helpful for reading a single word that you cannot read, but not a whole passage.)
  
  

• Other technical aids are also available from www.dyslexic.com.

5. Tiredness can affect a dyslexic person’s ability to read, spell and do number work accurately. Try to arrange your day so that you take care of regular paperwork first thing in the morning rather than later in the day when your brain is tired and is less able to deal with visual and sequencing tasks.

6. Take regular short breaks to refresh your concentration and improve your performance.

7. Slowing down your paperwork tasks can improve your accuracy, and will take you less time in the long run.

8. Use your creativity: as a dyslexic person, you have creative abilities which others do not possess. These can be used to help you come up with new ways to organize your work, or to improve the service given by your company.

9. Ask for instructions to be given in writing if possible. Your ‘hearing’ memory may be weak, and directions in writing can provide a clear framework for you to refer to. If you are speaking on the telephone, just say that you will write down exactly what the person requires while they are on the phone, and read it back to them. People like this, as it reassures them that their request has been clearly understood.

10. Try to delegate tasks which you really find difficult to another member of staff (if you are in a position to do so). For example, in some small businesses it may be possible to employ someone for one day, or half a day, each week to take care of the paperwork, which will free you to develop other sides of the business (as well as saving money on headache pills!).

Organizing your work.

Many dyslexic adults find it difficult to be well organized, and need some kinds of techniques to help. Some of these may be helpful:

• use a diary and a calendar to mark meetings, deadlines, etc.

• make a ‘To do’ list of jobs to be done. This will give you control over your work. It will ensure that things are not forgotten, and ticking things off as they are completed can give a sense of satisfaction!

• Keep your diary, calendar and ‘To do’ list in a place where they can be clearly seen.

• Make a point of checking your key lists first thing each morning, before lunch, and at the end of the day.

• Use a highlighter pen to mark important items or dates.

• Make a plan for each day, showing when you will do writing and number tasks, make telephone calls, go to a meeting, etc. Try to vary your tasks: half an hour’s writing might be followed by a change of activity - some work that involves moving around or telephoning people.

Organizing your workspace.

A tidy (or half-tidy!) desk can ensure that things are not forgotten because they are covered up by other papers.

• Collect together papers which relate to one kind of task, e.g. invoices to be paid, orders to be processed.

• Use colors to make it easier to remember which files are which. Put colored stickers on trays, drawers, boxes and files. Red often stands for ‘Danger’, so this color could be used for things which are really important. Green stands for ‘Go’, so this could be used for things which need to go out today. And so on. Use your personal connections with colors, like using your favorite color for jobs you enjoy.

• Although it will take a while to set up, this will give you a feeling of being in control of your job.

Working methods.

With a little thought, you may find that there are daily tasks that can be made a lot easier for you:

• If you have to use complex sets of figures, use a ruler or highlighter to mark lines across or up and down the list to make it easier to follow along a column of figures.

• Break up long numbers. For example, 06285619937 is much easier to deal with if you mark it with breaks as 062|856|199|37.

• Break up text and numbers into lines that you can read more easily. For example, the following list of invoices:

is much easier to read across if lines or highlighter is added:

Sometimes vertical lines can make a block of figures easier to read.

• Filing can be made easier by having a card with the letters of the alphabet near the filing cabinet. The card can be marked (as suggested by Bartlett and Moody):

• At the start of a new project, it helps to brainstorm. This involved writing ideas on a large sheet of paper and linking them by lines. As more ideas grow, they can be linked to ideas that they connect with.

• As work piles up, it can help to be assertive with your manager and point out that extra help may be needed to deal with the overload. Assertiveness does not come easily to most people, and it may be helpful to attend a course in learning to be assertive. It does not mean that that you should be rude to, or angry with, people, but that you should learn how to be clear, rational and firm about explaining the situation.

• Set your priorities: your diary and calendar will tell you which deadlines are coming up, and those jobs need to be dealt with first.

• Stress reduction: any dyslexic person will experience stress when dealing with paperwork. It is important to know how to deal with this so that you can avoid headaches, depression, and worse. You can attend a course on stress reduction which will teach you how to:

• relax your shoulders while you are working,
  
  

• become aware of your breathing,
  
  

• adapt your physical working environment so that you are not suffering discomfort for long hours of work. Examples include adjusting the brightness of your computer monitor, the height of your chair, the angle of your keyboard, the positioning of papers that you are copying from, the removal of reflected glare from your computer screen, and the provision of proper lighting on your desk.
  
  

• learn a relaxation exercise,
  
  

• adopt a healthy body posture,
  
  

• visualize a relaxing scene, such as a sandy beach to help you unwind for a few moments.

With acknowledgments to ‘Dyslexia in the Workplace’ by Diana Bartlett and Sylvia Moody, published by Whurr, and to the Employers' Forum on Disability.

CONTRIBUTIONS.

• Flower Remedies
Before and during stressful situations use Bach's 'Orginal Flower Remedies' called 'Rescue Remedy'. It helps to comfort and reasure. Dyslexic minds are usually very active, and this helps dyslexics focus their energy with more direction. I took some before a job interview and was successful. It comes in a small bottle, and is taken four drops at a time. It can be taken in a glass of water or directly. I am sure there are other products out there of a similar nature also. (Stephen, UK - spilditch@hotmail.com).

• Repeating the directions back
If I am asked to complete a task at work I have found that repeating the directions back (in my own words) really helps... i.e. "So you want me to do x,y and z by 12:00, is that correct?"
Before I started doing this I would waste a lot of time going over the directions in my head wondering if I heard them correctly. I have had jobs where I noticed right away that the boss had dyslexic traits also. Sometimes this works out well because I often feel as though I am speaking in code and other dyslexics speak my language.

• Doing the payroll
In my usually hands-on job, I sometimes have to do the payroll, my most hated task. This requires copying information from the time cards to a work sheet, making calculations on the worksheet, then transferring this information onto a wide spreadsheet with many rectangular fields behind each person's name. I use a carpenter's square to help me keep my place across the spreadsheet, horizontally and vertically, so I don't end up writing one person's overtime hours in someone else's overtime space, and so forth. I don't care if it looks silly. It's low-tech but it works. Also, I don't completely trust the spell checker on the computer, because it doesn't always correct words in context, so I get the student worker to proof-read before I send my work along. For example, this saved me from announcing that our company polo "shits" (shirts) were still available for $20. (Zonata, USA).

• Dyslexia and the Workplace - Debra Brooks is a business consultant specializing in helping companies create environments that bring out the best in their employees with dyslexia or attention deficit disorder. Successful companies, such as IBM, are finding that the dyslexic brain is able to think in ways that others do not think. Dyslexic staff are able to think creatively, outside the box, and see the entire picture in a way that a sucessful business needs to be competitive in today's market.

• Organization and Time Management Strategies.

• Self-advocacy skills - how to request accommodations or services in the workplace.

• UK Policeman's Dyslexia Ruled a Disability - A police inspector who claims he was discriminated against when taking promotion exams because he suffers from dyslexia has won a landmark legal ruling that the problem can now be classed as a disability. The Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled yesterday that in the eyes of the law Chief Insp David Paterson was "a disabled person".

• Dyslexia: Speaking and Listening Skills
If you are dyslexic, you may be aware that you have a poor short-term memory. This may well affect your speaking and listening skills, since we need short-term memory to remember where we are in a conversation - what has been said, what still needs to be said. You may also find you often forget names, or can't find the right words to express your meaning. Perhaps you have a tendency to 'ramble' when you are speaking, and easily lose the thread of your thoughts when you are trying to relate or explain something to other people. You may constantly go off on tangents and get lost in detail ...
Speaking and Listening Skills
Dyslexia Assessment and Consultancy Information Sheets

EMPLOYERS.

• An Employer's Guide to Dyslexia - offers organizations and companies advice on how to make reasonable work adjustments for a dyslexic employee.

Can you help?

If you know of any other techniques which might be helpful to other dyslexic adults, please add them to the Dyslexic Adults Discussion Forum. Thanks!