"The Face of a Hidden Banana Brain"

By 

Mia

Mia is 11 year's old and has dyslexia, dysgraphia and dysgraphia.

Mia is a bright and bubbly 11 year old who loves using her teapot and dressing up in old fashioned clothes.  She has a great singing voice, a good little dancer and also isn't too bad at gymnastics!  

Mia struggled at school from day one often throwing sickies at school and even putting on makeup around her eyes to make her look sick enough not to go to school.  After many years of the school blaming us and Mia for not doing homework or not completing school work, it wasn't until year 4 that her school finally started the conversation with us believing that there may be a problem.  However they couldn't tell us what they thought the problem was and what avenues to take. Meanwhile her teacher told her in front of the whole class that as she couldn't spell, she was no longer allowed to represent her class on the school leadership council that they had just voted her into. 

 She changed school the following year which proved to be life changing for her. The school immediately picked up the problem and had her tested within the first week of her starting. Before the diagnosis came through the school immediately placed accommodations around her learning, returning Mia's confidence within a term and, she was finally learning to read.  The icing on the cake was at the end of the year where her teachers and other students strongly encouraged her to be on that school's leadership team. Her mid year report this year described her as an exemplary leader! She now even gets up and reads prayers or even bible passages to her whole school with the teachers allowing her to have a support person with her to help where necessary. Whilst she still has down days and finds learning very difficult, she has pretty much accepted her Dyslexia calling her brain a banana brain!