Dyslexic students tackle global problems at specialist workshops

It's like Dragons' Den with a different kind of dragons.

Kiwi students with dyslexia got the chance to develop their entrepreneurial skills in tailor-made workshops this week, from developing the initial idea to pitching it to a tough audience - their parents.

Many notable change-makers throughout history had dyslexia, and it has been estimated that 35 percent of entrepreneurs in the US have the learning disorder.

The workshops are run by Dean Bragonier, a dyslexic entrepreneur from the US.

He said that while dyslexia was a challenge it also provided a unique set of skills invaluable for starting a business and possibly changing the world.

The students, aged between 12 and 14, were tasked with identifying and describing a problem and dreaming up a product to fix it.

Adelaide Middlemiss and her group took on the problem of packaging waste and pollution.

"We made 'Renew-it'. It was like recycling rubbish. Your packaging has a little section of seeds in it, so when you throw it away it can grow more trees and plants."

The workshop was "10 times better" than her normal schoolwork, Middlemiss said.

"In the classroom, I'm always like 'yeah I'm not going to write' I sit in the corner.

"But here I can actually do what I wanted and be open and share my ideas."

The students' final pitches were met with applause from their proud parents.

Dyslexics are natural problem solvers, Bragonier said, making them great at starting and running businesses.

"When you are essentially living as a left-handed person in a right-handed person's world you are forced to find solutions to everyday problems.

"These are sort of the ninjas of problem solvers in order to survive."

Emerging neuroscience research supported the idea that being dyslexic had advantages for certain types of thinking, he said.

A University of Cambridge study in 2022 found that people with dyslexia may have specific strengths when exploring the unknown.

"So this goes back historically from Thomas Edison who created the telephone and the light bulb to Henry Ford and the assembly line.

"The idea is that there's neuroscientific underpinnings on how this perspective lends itself to innovation," Bragonier said.

The New Zealand Dyslexia Foundation hosted the workshops. Trustee Shelley McMeeken said she had been blown away by the students' change in attitude.

"So a group of kids who don't know each other - they come in, they're looking very hesitant, very anxious and for some of them within minutes they're smiling. You can just see their faces lighten up."

Bragonier's nonprofit organisation 'NoticeAbility' ran programmes like this in 33 countries.

In some places, it was integrated into the school curriculum, others worked with private tutors.

McMeeken hoped these workshops would spark change in the way educators in New Zealand thought about dyslexia and other neurodiversity.

"This is some little breadcrumbs that have been sown. We've been having observers - teachers and other educators in these two workshops and the two that are still to come."

Middlemiss said the workshop helped her develop skills she hoped to use to start her own business.

"I would own my own restaurant or something like that. It'd be by the beach, and like so cool. Everyone would come."

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