Journal of Psychology & Psychotherapy
Open Access

Abstract

The School's Role in Creating Successful and Unsuccessful Dyslexics

Neil Alexander-Passe

Introduction: This paper investigates school-based trauma and the life-long post-school effects of such trauma, creating successful/unsuccessful individuals in society.

Method: Three studies were investigated: (1) A study of N=20 successful dyslexics, many in business and the charity sectors, (2) A study of N=29 dyslexic adults, many indicating depressive symptoms; (3) A study of N=88 adults using a screening measure to indicate severity, looking at gender, degree-education, with profiles created to aid understanding.

Results: School-trauma was a found in all. Successful individuals enjoyed higher parental-child support, sports and non-academic subject success. As adults they were more willing to take risks, saw failure in a positive light, and frequently were self-employed, allowing a focus on strengths rather than weaknesses. Unsuccessful adults were prone to doubt their own abilities, self-blaming, pessimistic and getting upset when things go wrong.

Conclusion: School is a crucial environment that is the melting point of a young dyslexic’s life, an environment in which they learn how society works and whether they can succeed or fail, setting them on a path for life. Both successful/unsuccessful dyslexics agree that their educational experiences were mostly terrible and in most cases traumatic, but each have taken different lessons from their time at school.