Case Study: Tonya McKinleyIt was only when Tonya McKinley from Cabra, Dublin started an access course to gain entry to third-level education at the age of 25 that she was diagnosed with dyslexia. Now aged 26 she is starting her second year of psychology in Trinity College Dublin and hooked on crosswords.
When she was first diagnosed, Tonya "didn't know what to think." It shed a lot of light on her decision to leave school at the age of 15, she said.
"I ended up walking out of school over Irish classes. I was good at school and I was interested. It proved to me that I didn't have a bad attitude in school but just that I needed help. The type of learning enforced on people in Irish schools doesn't suit people with dyslexia, in fact it doesn't suit a lot of people."
When she left school she didn't read very well, but, like many adults who have dyslexia but don't know about it, Tonya learned to overcome her problem herself. "I'm very good at sussing things out. I learnt how to work around it."
Soon after leaving school, a friend's sister was really into Mills and Boons books and Tonya was keen to read them too. "It took me two and half months to read the first one, but within two years I was able to read big Jilly Cooper books in a week."
Tonya also kept a diary of words she didn't understand. She still finds it very useful for the new vocabulary she comes across in her psychological studies.
she is given extra time for written exams and is allowed to borrow more books for longer from the college library.