FEATURE NEURODIVERSITY
Dyslexia : both a challenge and a gift
Victoria Broom reflects on her experience transitioning from student to practitioner with the ‘ label ’ dyslexic , and how with the support of her team , she has become proud of the occupational therapist she is today
Just imagine that you have just got back from a social skills group , you are late to a oneto-one , about which your patient is getting increasingly frustrated while they wait for your arrival , the office telephones are ringing and then the Pitt alarms start going off .
This is what I like to call organised chaos . Although this should be in the timeframe of moments , with dyslexia these moments of organised chaos are pretty much permanent . And I ’ ve had to accept and run with that .
I have had to use the skills of my profession , such as adapting , prioritising and problem solving , to be able to thrive rather than merely manage , but finally I feel like I am confidently succeeding in my nowpermanent band five job role working with women in the inpatient forensic services .
While I feel a level of success , that is not to say that it hasn ’ t been a bit of a bumpy road . Accepting a dyslexia diagnosis at university was initially great for me , knowing there was a reason for my difficulties with articulating or remembering what I wanted to say , my atrocious spelling and grammar , or even my difficulties with organisation . It definitely was a big relief .
However , I also felt that I had now had this label stuck on me , which I felt at times did knock my confidence . Yet growing up surrounded by my family members that worked in health and social care settings , I had been exposed to disability early on , and in some perverse way wondered why I fitted into this world so well .
The resilience of these individuals and their different ways of thinking was always engrained in me as a strength – something different , but all the same important , which is what inspired me to do the job I do today . Just as I got the hang of all the support I could tap into at university as a result of my dyslexia , I graduated after an agonising final year of writing my dissertation – having friends and family read and then re-read it an endless number of times to make sure it made sense .
This was alongside a horrid
10-hour exam , as a result of a humongous four hours ’ extra time , while simultaneously boring my family to death practising my dissertation presentation day and night to make sure it didn ’ t all just come out as ‘ blahhhhh ’. It is definitely to this day one of my proudest moments .
After the support of university had stopped it was time for the real world , where the clinical jump from student to fully qualified practitioner was hugely daunting , especially when I didn ’ t know what would be available to support me in navigating the world of work .
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20 OTnews November 2021