Direct Talk

Dyslexia is the most common cause of

reading, writing, and spelling difficulties
around the world.

It affects males and females equally,

as well as people from different ethnic
and socio-economic backgrounds.

British social entrepreneur,

and CEO of global charity, Made By Dyslexia,

Kate Griggs has been shifting the narrative
on dyslexia and educating people

on its strengths for over 20 years.

Her mission is to change the
world's thinking around dyslexia,

which she believes is vital
for the workplace of the future.

Kate is the author of two
best-selling books about dyslexia.

Direct Talk met her in London

to hear why she is passionate

about redefining and reshaping
what it means to be dyslexic.

The Power of Dyslexic Thinking

Dyslexic challenges are

almost all of the things that we measure
as a measure of success at school.

So literacy,
getting your thoughts on paper, spelling,

we tend to have amazing ideas

but really struggle to get them on paper,

so technology can empower that hugely,

we're not great at remembering
lots of facts and figures

and regurgitating them in timed exams,

that's hell for most dyslexics.

In the UK,

latest research indicates

that 1 in 5 people
may have some form of dyslexia.

And there are variations
across different languages.

In the English language,

dyslexics may struggle
to spell or learn to read fluently.

So most of education is

based on a very linear
sequential approach to learning

and a lot of rote learning and memorization,

those are all the areas
that dyslexics have challenges with.

I think for any parent or
any teacher watching this,

a mismatch between
what a child seems capable of verbally

and just gets and then
how they're translating into their schoolwork

is a really, really important flag to,

to say this child is dyslexic,

and it's really important to pick
those kids up as soon as you see that.

Some teachers don't understand that
people are dyslexic,

they just seen them as people
who are messing around.

My spelling makes people laugh.

It makes me laugh actually.

I get a lot distracted

because other things can be
much more interesting sometimes.

And my reading if I am sightreading
is a complete joke.

It's really, really frustrating

that the world tends to see
dyslexia just for the negatives,

and all of our challenges feed into a lot of
the things that we measure in school,

so it is very frustrating for dyslexic people

because we have all these incredible skills

that are not being measured in school
and therefore we tend to leave school

either with our dyslexia unidentified because
there's a lack of knowledge with teachers,

or certainly our strengths
not being recognised and championed.

And that's such a waste of human potential.

So if we look across history,

a lot of the greatest inventions
of all time come from a dyslexic mind,

and then if you look into
current-day innovations:

Apple, both Steve Jobs and
Jonny Ives were dyslexic.

We have Richard Branson who's disrupted
lots of industries with the Virgin brand,

and IKEA, who completely transformed
the way we buy furniture.

It isn't a difficulty or disability,

it's a different way of thinking and
it's so important that we embrace that.

Kate grew up in a family
who were all dyslexic.

She struggled at school,

and it is her personal experience
of the education system

that still drives her today.

Well,, my whole family are dyslexic,

I mean, literally my whole family,

my brother, myself, my father,

my dad was one of six,

five out of six of the siblings are dyslexic,

so there are dyslexic cousins.

I have two dyslexic children,

my husband's dyslexic,

so literally everywhere,

we're all dyslexic thinkers,
which is amazing.

I think 30 or 40 years ago

it was just beginning to be something
that people talked about,

although we have known for
over a hundred years about dyslexia.

And to start off with,
I think my family,

we just thought we were all creative
or scientific, or thought differently,

and it wasn't until we started school
that we realised that

we, all of us started to struggle,
my brother and I both started to struggle,

and it was then that
we were identified as being dyslexic.

When Ted, my eldest son, started school,

I just assumed things would be OK,

and I actually went into his class
when he started proper school

at sort of three and a half and said,

"It's very clear that my son's dyslexic,

because he's creative and
he's good at this and that."

I was met with a sort of,
a very strange expression of,

why are they looking at this as a positive,
I think they thought I was completely loopy.

and basically said that

well, if he is dyslexic
we'll pick it up and we'll deal with it,

but they didn't,

and Ted wasn't supported.

And he became a very unhappy little child
because he was so scared of going to school,

and that's what drove me to start campaigning
and do the work that I do.

Ted actually said to me, he came home from
school one day and I was putting him to bed

and he said to me,

mummy, what do I do to
not wake up in the morning?,

because he hated school so much

he just wanted to stay asleep

and that's really heart-breaking.

In 2015,

Kate founded the global charity
Made By Dyslexia

with support from Sir Richard Branson
who is a well-known dyslexic.

The charity's purpose is to help the world
properly understand and support dyslexia;

working with experts, psychologists,

and successful dyslexics
to develop campaigns and tools

which explain dyslexic thinking.

I just thought I was maybe stupid.

I would look at an IQ test
and have a complete blank.

I just could not fill in anything.

Slowly I was put to the back of the class

and forgotten about.

My motivation definitely
comes from the fact that

there was such a lack
of understanding for Ted

and I knew it shouldn't be like that,

I knew that it was about
teachers being trained

and understanding how to support kids.

So in 2015 is when we set up Made By Dyslexia,

and the mission is to use technology

to create free tools for
every single teacher to be trained,

and to really highlight that
dyslexic thinking

is a really important and valuable skill.

So that's the mission of the charity
which we set up in 2015.

I met Richard Branson through my brother,

Richard still says that

it's really important to have
a dyslexic thinker on any board

because we bring a
different dimension to business,

he's super-passionate about dyslexia
and the power of dyslexic thinking.

At the heart of the debate
about dyslexia is education

and how to train teachers to
recognise children who may have dyslexia.

In 2022,

Kate initiated a worldwide campaign

in partnership with Microsoft
called "Learn Dyslexia."

It is an online free course

to be taken by schools across the world

and aims to train teachers to empower
the dyslexic learners in the classroom.

It was important to Kate
that this was a global campaign.

It is recognised that Dyslexia manifests
differently in different languages.

We do know that in other languages if you
have a language that is based on pictures,

that it's a lot easier to learn to read

than it is if you're looking at
an English-based language

or European-based language

that's based on the sounds in the words,

because that's where phonologically
dyslexics tend to struggle.

And that whilst there
might be more of a stigma

in some of the Japanese
or Chinese or Singapore,

institutions and education systems,

dyslexia still exists

and it's still important to recognise
dyslexia not just about reading

but as a whole spectrum
of the way that we think.

So the strengths are still there,

and they'll still be challenges
within those countries

with children learning how to learn,
rote learning, take exams,

all of those things still apply.

We're a global charity

and we operate in
all sorts of different countries,

and there are different dilemmas
in different countries,

for instance we do a lot
in the United Arab Emirates.

There is a huge stigma around dyslexia
and disability in that region

and we're doing a lot of work
with the governments there to try

and train teachers and to make sure
that we remove that stigma.

But dyslexia is a problem
in schools across the world,

there isn't any one country that is doing it
any better than others, to be honest,

which is why we are

really focused on making sure with
our "Learn Dyslexia" campaign

that we create free training

in every different language
we can possibly need it in,

to make sure that
we're teaching teachers globally.

All schools in New York City

will be taking part in free training
from Made By Dyslexia.

Starting right now.

New York city have become the first city
in the world to use LEARN DYSLEXIA,

so they have used our training to train
every single teacher, all 100,000 of them,

which is a massive step forward,

and we now have cities
around the world following suit,

and countries coming on board as well.

So we are one very big step forward
in training every single teacher.

Kate believes

that the world of work also needs to be more
aware of the value of dyslexic employees,

who have different strengths.

In an era of automation,

where facts can be googled,

and spelling, punctuation and grammar
can be corrected at the touch of a button,

it is creativity, imagination and
intuition that flourishes in business

The advent of technology
has been a game-changer for dyslexics,

spellcheck, the fact that
you can do speech to text

or text to speech is phenomenal,

but what's happening now with AI

is going to be the absolute
game-changer for dyslexic people.

Because all of the things
that we struggle with

are all going to be provided by technology,

this massive wealth of information
is going to be delivered to us.

And we are masters at
looking across lots of information

and getting to the bits
that are really, really important,

simplifying things,

adding that creative human element
to what machines are providing,

is going to be an absolute game-changer for
dyslexic people but also for organizations

and it's so important we recognise that

the skills we need in a workplace
to live alongside this incredible technology

are dyslexic thinking skills.

In 2022,

Made By Dyslexia made
an important step forward

in changing perception about dyslexia.

LinkedIn is the biggest social media work app

under the skill "HEADINGS" a new skill
has been added "Dyslexic Thinking."

I am Richard Branson

and I am Made By Dyslexia.

From today you can join me

in adding "Dyslexic Thinking"
to the list of skills

on your LinkedIn Profile.

The global recruitment platform LinkedIn,

which is the biggest recruitment platform
and talent platform in the world,

actually added dyslexic thinking as a skill,

so it's now something that
you can put onto your profile

and it's something that companies are now
starting to use to recruit dyslexic thinkers,

so it's a huge moment in time
for the dyslexic movement.

And also as a result of all of the research
that we've done and the Linked In campaign,

dictionary.com now have added
dyslexic thinking as a noun,

so it officially is a thing
in the dictionary.

And in the United States,
the Mayor of New York, Eric Adams,

has joined forces with Kate's charity.

Many young offenders and
prison inmates have issues with literacy

which may be linked to undiagnosed dyslexia.

We know that

wherever you look,
in whatever country,

if there is research
around dyslexia and prisons,

there is a huge percentage
of people in prisons

who can't read and write
and are unsupported dyslexics.

And I think what's really amazing
about the work

that we've done with the Mayor of New York

is that being dyslexic himself,

he's looked at the problem that
they have with literacy in New York city,

particularly with black and brown kids.

And he's really looked at
the root cause of that problem

and looked at the statistics of prison
and children who are out of school

and found that incredible link

and really gone upstream to say,
OK, we know this is the problem,

we now know how to put it right.

It's a very visionary dyslexic
thinking way of solving a problem.

There are a lot of programmes
that go into prisons

and teach dyslexic prisoners to read,
which is fantastic

We also know that technology can be a
massive, massive support for dyslexic people.

I think the most important thing is

allowing those people
to have the understanding

that this is why they've struggled -

can be a complete and utter game-changer.

When you know that it is not your fault
that you can't do these things

but it's because
you haven't been taught properly,

Kate has a busy schedule
of talks around the world,

and a global conference
in New York to arrange,

attended by royalty,
and leading dyslexic entrepreneurs.

It will present the very
latest research into dyslexia.

I think I am surprised at
how much we've achieved,

but it isn't just me, this is a
movement of dyslexic people

and now is our time.

Technology is helping us to be able
to support the things we are not good at

and allowing us to focus on our strengths,

so I think it's, we have a global movement
that's on a mission at speed,

and our mission is to not exist.

Because if we can help to make sure
every single teacher is trained

and every single workplace is empowered
to understand and support dyslexia,

then we don't need to be here.

Let's unlock the limitless power
of dyslexic thinking around the world.