THE S.T.O.P TARGETS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

Hi,

I’m the founder and Creative Managing Director for Dyslexia for the Wise. I decided to set up this charity for Young People and Adults as I felt there was still a negative stigma of what Dyslexia actually was.

Dyslexia is a condition that affects the brain which means Dyslexic people use the right side of the brain (the creative side) more of the time and find the left side (the academic side) challenging at times.  Understanding this and doing research started to make me think....

I am a Dyslexia Practitioner, Life Coach, Mentor and Foster Carer, while working with young people I found that the Dyslexic children I was working with were finding it very difficult to complete work, take in and store information and having to remember things was a great pain.

I woke up one morning and it came to me, to create a goal setting target just like the SMART targets but one for Dyslexic people. This goal setting target would be for completing school work, ways to stop the brain racing, taking time and focusing on confidence and motivation. I thought to myself “ YES now let’s get all these ideas down on paper” that was the first step.

 Here I would like to share with you the S.T.O.P targets, each letter is a word that is very important when having this condition Dyslexia.

Strategies

With each home work or essay, make sure strategies are put in place, making them clear and short, sometimes long pieces of work can be too much for a Dyslexic person who has challenges with their attention span.

Time

Take your time when completing work. The quicker you try and rush, the more errors will be made.

Organise

Organisation is key. The more organise you are the more your mind is clear and has the room for peace, focus and then completion.

Patience

Be patient. There are going to be times when frustration arises, take deep breaths, go for a walk or leave it all together until later, this way your mind is fresh again to continue.

So here you have it, the STOP targets, what will you do with it? How will you integrate it into your Work at school or University? Why not give it a try and see if it works for you.

FOR YOUNG PEOPLE:

Here are a couple tips on how you can include this technique for your school/college work:

·         Each work you have to do, create a Mind map first to get all your ideas down on paper – this is good structure to have when you want to be organised.

·         Have a vision board in your room – post stick notes or pictures of things placed on your vision board so you can remember what you want to do and put in, regarding your school work.

·         Set a time/goal of when you want to complete your work (this can be stuck on your vision board also)

·         Put the STOP TARGET up in your room so you remember the steps

I hope this will help you just that little bit more when doing your school or college work.

By the way I would like to share with you my gift in life.......................I am also Dyslexic.

Zoe Joseph-Pennant

Website: dyslexiaforthewise.org

“Nothing is impossible once you put that unique mind to it”