Being Dyslexic: How a learning disability influences the psychological development of an individual

By Theodora Papadopoulou, PhD.
(C5 - Rm. 211)

Presentation or Workshop Description:

1. Being dyslexic influences many aspects of a person’s live.
2. Dyslexic students often experience failure and disappointment at home and school.
3. Their learning problems make them easy targets for negative comments coming from parents, teachers and peers.
4. Dyslexics often develop a negative attitude towards both learning and any educational system that does not accept his/her difference in learning.

The aim of this speech is to present how a learning difficulty influences the psychological development of an individual starting from early childhood until adulthood.

Family-member relationships, teacher- student relationships, student-student relationships and work relationships will be analyzed. Educational methods will be introduced and new approaches will be discussed.

It is worth discussing how dyslexic students progress in various fields and to what extent they manage to overcome the labels of  « bad student, lazy or unmotivated» that they may have received in their childhood.

Every person needs motivation and support.  Methods that can reverse  negative school experiences will be presented and discussed. The aim of these methods is to increase these students’ intrinsic motivation and help them develop a better self-concept based on their strengths.

Presentation or Workshop Learning Objectives (what participants should learn/take away from the presentation or workshop):

1. The profile –educational and psychological of dyslexic people.
2. Teaching methods that boost self-esteem and increase cognitive abilities of students, including  dyslexic students.
3. Techniques aiming at the creation of strong bonds between peers.
4. Reconstruction of self-concept based on strengths.
5. Family-member relationships, teacher- student relationships, student-student relationships and work relationships will be analyzed.