LearnDifferent @LearnDif

I will be starting a series of posts to highlight how Local Authorities try their best to dissuade UK Citizens from enforcing their rights, due to ignorance of the law or abuse of process. The responses will be real, the law will be real and the outcome will be real. I hope you be able to use the correct response and the law to help you get ahead. I am not a solicitor, this is not legal advice. This is what happened to me. I hope it does not happen to you. You can reach me on leave a message below or on Twitter @LearnDif

My life has been shaped by my neurodiversity. Diagnosed Dyslexic, ADHD inattentive and going through ASD diagnosis. I discovered this diagram shortly after I was made homeless in 2013. I started this disability blog  you are reading and my Twitter , to help others with their disabilities. The neurodiverse and design It is the visual nature and compartmentalization, which make this picture so attractive to me. In my underemployed days, I have been chiefly in the design arena. I worked for an architecture firm designing Tesco carparks. As a web designer and marketing manager for a PPE company. I have been an email designer for many sales companies. And all through those and others, I have loved design. And this simple design says a lot, all described below. Dyspraxia DCD What is dyspraxia? Difficulties with planning movements, co-ordination and practical tasks as well as tracking and balance, poor spatial awareness and muscle tone What is DCD? Also known as dyspraxia, Development Coo...

If you have dyslexia, reading and structuring text - you could also have problems in other areas. Dyslexia's boss in Executive functioning. Executive functioning works as a manager in the front of the brain. He decides what should and should not happen. Often he is out to lunch and only comes in and organised stuff when someone gets excited. He also has a few other related reports; Dyspraxia, ADHD, Anxiety and Depression. He also has an overseas report call ASD, who checks in every now and again. Dyslexia and ADHD are like twins. ADHD and Dyslexia have trouble reading. But when ADHD gets excited he reads pretty well. At least he thinks he does. They often get distracted and decide to do something else less boring. They tend to come up with a lot of ideas but don't tend to follow through. ADHD also has a really good relationship with ASD. They share similar interests and together with they get a lot done but only if the conditions are just right and it's interesting.....

What to do when waiting approximately 2 years for an autism diagnosis in the UK By now you have convinced someone that you are a bit "not normal" when it comes to social engagements. That is you have marked deficiencies in: Social Imagination - you cannot tell what someone will do next. Social Interaction -  Social Communication - You are a little quite rude The Kindness of Strangers Well, now the phrase having to rely on the kindness of stranger seems very apt. From now on you will have to rely on the kindness of strangers, because if you a man with Aspergers you may only have you or a friend to get on with. If you think that someone with Aspergers should not be able to be humourous; ask Dan Akroyd <<Aspergian comedian. So here is my list of amazing things to do whilst you are waiting for an autism assessment in the UK. I will write somewhere else how to go about getting an Autism assessment somewhere else. Approaching child social services is s...

Learning difficulty Vs Learning Difficulty I came across this "difference" when first talking about my dyslexia to the DWP. It seemed that during the application for access to work on working tax credits, my dyslexia was not a disability, but a difficulty. Access to work is a secret UK government working disability program were once employed, either self-employed or otherwise, the government looks at ways to reduce the stress of working. During my email assessment in 2017; I was hard for the assessor to convince me that my dyslexia was not disabling enough, to be called a disability. Because the access to work part of the DWP does not think like the rest of the DWP. After repeating this statement below several times, access to work then accepted my(rest of DWP and world) explanation of dyslexia as a disability. 1) Are you disabled as defined under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995? Yes. Dyslexia is a recognised difficulty under Equality Act 2010, replacin...

Dyslexics Entrepreneurs excel at big picture thinking, leadership and communication . These traits are perfect for Leadership positions, like CEOs, Directors, etc. However, promotion to these roles is only likely through achievement or attrition. Signs of achievement are often based on linear strengths some dyslexics do not have. People with linear skills excel in corporate structures and other institutions, including school.  However having dyslexia means that some weaknesses, like lack of detail, structuring reports, nonlinear thinking will never see you being promoted to jobs you would naturally excel at. It makes no sense to me to recruit a leader base on non-leadership skills. Here is your Dyslexia Entrepreneurial Playbook. Dyslexia —difficulty with organisation, learning, working memory, Parker C. (1998). British Dyslexia Association handbook. Reading. 1. Delegate! This may also be linked to the trend reported in this study that dyslexics are more ...

Often fast food is only the food available for those on a low income, especially when there are no or little cooking facilities at home/work. But why it is so appealing, is probably down to its addictive nature. Fast food had been bioengineered to be addictive. And even though that sounds scary we wonder why are we allowed to buy it. 40 years of research and lobbying by food companies has reduced the bar for what we call food. Coke can dissolve a tooth left in it overnight Coke can clean a toilet Ketchup can clean a coin A burger left to it’s all one never rots Twinkies don't rot There are many other scare stories that mean that what we eat isn’t actually food out even natural. Yes there are food guidelines: Laughably they are produced with the help of food companies. One such pregnancy NHS caffeine guide says: Five cans of cola (up to 40mg each) But the pregnancy NHS sugar guide means you shouldn’t even have one can of coke. ...

For a while, I suffered from persistent, recurrent headaches that only taking Nurofen could shift. I found my headaches came down to a few things. Eyestrain Lack of rest, especially the eyes, Dirty glasses Lighting coming from behind the tv/monitor, a bit like an eclipse The brain Lack of water, drink water without crap in it. Crap = flavours, additives etc. Caffeine withdrawal, caffeine pills Alcohol dries out the brain, drink more water The body Poor posture, sit upright adjust your keyboard monitor, seat properly, and foot rest Take regular breaks, from working Get the right amount of sleep for you. Varies between 6 - 10 hours because of age, gender, and recent activity It took me months to clear all the crap out of the system. The biggest threat to my brain was my favourite fizzy orange drink. When I really had a look at the back I was surprised to see so many e numbers it made my head spin. I now don’t use Nurofen or g...

In dyslexia, frontal brain trauma, and depression, working memory is reduced. Working memory is the short-term memory we use to hold a list, a conversation and remember what to do when we go upstairs. Tony Buzan the great memory scientist, inventor of Mind Mapping and expert on the brain, memory, speed reading, creativity, and innovation says that there is really no limit to how much we can store in our minds. This is because the mind can form as many as 30 times the population of the world, in as many connections. We just need a way to train it. With poor working memory, we need to " Improvise, adapt and overcome ” (US Marine Corps motto). Improvise : do we as dyslexics get our creativity from constantly having to rewrite the book on what we do. Improvisation is certain my core strength. As a person with dyslexia, I have learned that we must make sure our outputs equal our desired outcome. are alligned with our outcome. Adapt : With self-development...

How can you easily structure any written content Did you know W. B. Yeats is one of the most famous poets of all time, winning the  Nobel Prize for literature in 1923 , but few people know about his personal struggle with dyslexia. I want to continue telling you about my personal struggle and how I achieving success with dyslexia. My daughter at 7 was and still is a prolific reader. And she reads books above her age group. Well she has an advanced vocabulary too, partly because of this and also she liked to talk "at" adults. She is dyslexic. I was struggling with her daughter to help her complete her homework about a year ago. It was to complete a nocturnal animals report. She had read 6 books and could tell me all about the animals in detail. But she did not know where to start. It seems strange to me that kids are not shown how to plan and make the homework. And of course without structure, she began to fail. Homework When I brough...

Cure dyslexia Hi, Neurodiverse. I'm looking into how I can improve dyslexia for free. I'm not a qualified in anything that makes a current different to the diagnosis and assistance given to dyslexics in the UK. But i'd like to change that. And I hope to give it a good try, as people notice what works. Dyslexics can bend it like Beckham , and not everything written is a sign of intelligence, or value. I am doing this for myself and the dyslexic community. In the UK there is not enough done to help dyslexics succeed. The hidden disability is protected and you can't discriminate openly for have the disability. But it's not easy to get and keep a job. I don't have £2000 for the Dore program, which is closed. But I have a Personal training level 3 qualification, and dyslexia diagnosed on my postgraduate course. I am pretty good at putting things together, all be it slowly, and it helps to have a dyslexia blog . But I have found that others do make consider...