It was an absolute honour to engage in a conversation with Heather about her Chapter, Love Literacy Mount Maunganui. Heather discusses the following points: - Her child's diagnoses - dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia
- the course of these diagnoses and how they impacted Heather's career decision
- Her career paths from Insurance to early childhood teaching to becoming a Structured Literacy Practitioner
- Heather's key takeaways included:
1. Trust your gut - if you think or know your child is experiencing learning difficulties at school, don’t delay, go and get help. Be that parent.
2. The understanding that Dyslexia is not an issue of intelligence, it is neurological in nature, and the brain is wired differently to read, write and spell.
3. In NZ, there are several resource sites, but the one with the most information is the Dyslexia Evidence-Based Website, which also has a Facebook group.
4. Failure with Dyslexia follows students into adulthood, it's important to find something they are really really good at to focus on.
5. In terms of business - or myself, avoid the could have, should have, and would have, and don’t be afraid to try. If it doesn’t work out, at least you can say you tried and gave it a go, and I think that’s something hopefully my kids will see and I can role model. My favourite saying is "Do the best you can until you know better, then when you know better, do better" This is by Maya Angelou. One of my favorite phrases is from a Mentor - "The best way to learn something is to teach it".
Heather can be found on Instagram & Facebook @loveliteracymountmaunganui and on YouTube @loveliteracymountmaunganui9388 Heather's website is - https://www.loveliteracymountmaunganui.com/
An enormous thanks to Heather for taking the time to share this Chapter and to everyone else for listening to this conversation on Human Chapters YouTube, Podcast, and/or Facebook. Please share it with those that may connect.
