Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / Autism & Dyslexia In Modern Times
Transcript
- 0:00You have arrived. Welcome to the Aspy world.
- 0:04Here's where we talk about anything and everything ASD in
- 0:07an upbeat and informative way. And now here's your man on the
- 0:11spectrum, your autism ambassador, Daniel Morgan Jones.
- 0:19Hey guys, welcome back to another Aspy World podcast.
- 0:22So pumped. Hope you're enjoying these daily
- 0:23episodes. I am joined today by a new
- 0:26guest, somebody who I'd met. I'm not on Tai sure of either
- 0:28social media or e-mail. Anyway, we're going to get into
- 0:30all that right now. But before we do, I know that
- 0:33you're listening and some of you haven't subscribed yet.
- 0:36So make sure you subscribe. And if you're really enjoying
- 0:38this podcast, can you go to the review section on your podcast
- 0:41app and just be like, Hey, Dan, love the app, It's so cool.
- 0:44Or whatever you think is cool. That'd be really awesome.
- 0:46Really help me out. And if you want to leave a
- 0:48review here on YouTube, that would also be dope.
- 0:50OK, Aria, how how are you, man? Like, explain to us who you are,
- 0:54what you do and and everything in between.
- 0:57OK, Yeah, I'm good. Thank you, Dan for having me on.
- 1:00And it's, well, I have been doing my MA in Education studies
- 1:07and I wrote about media education for dyslexics and then
- 1:10started my journey from there to start basically implementing
- 1:16what I learned in university through on this topic and
- 1:21started my journey on YouTube. And through that, my channel was
- 1:27kind of boring. One of the first videos where
- 1:30actually a oral exam that I had on the topic of neurodiversity
- 1:36and university. And I wasn't able to schedule a,
- 1:39an appointment with my professor.
- 1:41And that way I got my first videos up was super nervous and
- 1:47yeah, but I got them out. So that was good.
- 1:49And that just grew, grew a lot. And now people are reaching out
- 1:55to me and I've been starting offering coachings for dyslexic
- 2:00adults, and that is going well. And yeah, overall it has been
- 2:06just really, really gratifying work because I'm dyslexic
- 2:10myself, so my heart is really in it.
- 2:12And that's kind of how this developed, really.
- 2:19Yeah. So that so those are the first
- 2:22things about me really. So, so I want to talk about
- 2:25dyslexia really quickly. Like so I'm dyslexic.
- 2:27It was my first diagnosis with was dyslexia.
- 2:31And my gosh, it's probably one of the most interesting
- 2:36conditions I have because it's not only debilitating in certain
- 2:38areas of your life, it also it also has a a secondary impact of
- 2:45feeling kind of inferior in certain situations, you know,
- 2:50because if you can't read, you know, you're a full grown adult
- 2:53and you can't read a word properly.
- 2:54People are like, dude, come on. And that and everyone has an
- 2:57opinion on it, right? They're like, you need to learn
- 2:59more at school and you're lazy or one of those crap.
- 3:02And so how do you have you felt like this as well?
- 3:06I mean, look, I, yeah, for for the longest time, I really tried
- 3:12to prove those people wrong that were saying these negative
- 3:16things about me. We're saying, well, you know,
- 3:18you cannot do it. And, you know, you want to go to
- 3:21university, Well, that's not going to happen.
- 3:23Those kind of things came up. And of course, yeah.
- 3:28Every time you're in in class or in some kind of situation where
- 3:33things are read out loud, you know, you kind of see the line
- 3:36and it's coming closer to you and OK, now, now I need to read.
- 3:40And it's like, you know, you're kind of nervous and just kind of
- 3:45sweating and yeah, of course makes a difference.
- 3:49And you know, it's super difficult.
- 3:52So when I was in university, we had, there was a, we had an
- 3:56award-winning dyslexia centre called the Myles Dyslexia Centre
- 3:59here in Bangor, Wales, in the University of Wales in Bangor.
- 4:04And it's a fantastic facility. One of the things they did was
- 4:08they had these, like when I was handing in, like my
- 4:10dissertation, I had like a yellow form that I put on the
- 4:14front of it. And this yellow slip just
- 4:16basically said, you know, this person's dyslexic, bear this in
- 4:19mind whilst grading this paper. And that was really interesting.
- 4:25Yeah. That that, that's great.
- 4:27We did not really have that me in Germany.
- 4:31I basically had to, you know, tell them and then they had a a
- 4:37meeting where they then decided if they wanted to give these
- 4:40kind of things to me and wanted to actually, yeah, yeah.
- 4:47Basically give me some more time and also consider it while
- 4:50grading. So that that was done and I was
- 4:53given that. But it's it seems like it wasn't
- 4:56really an automatic process even though I did get the help then
- 4:59eventually. Dude, that's crazy.
- 5:01Like, you know, I, another thing was what they call reasonable
- 5:06adjustments, right? So they give you extra time or
- 5:10they do something like give you access to use a computer because
- 5:13obviously handwriting may be quite difficult for you.
- 5:15And I think that like having those things, having those
- 5:19little, those little pieces kind of injected into your, your
- 5:22journey. I've been a dyslexic student or
- 5:26a dyslexic learner really helped kind of give you a level playing
- 5:30field with the other students, right?
- 5:31Or the other kind of like people, you know, learners in
- 5:34that environment, how do you feel like on a whole, how do you
- 5:40feel the world's attitude towards the sex series now?
- 5:45Well, you know, I feel it really depends on the country you're
- 5:50in. So for example, I had some, some
- 5:54people from South Africa and I feel like, you know, she was
- 6:00telling me, I mean, of course these are anecdotal stories that
- 6:04are marrying, but I hear about physical abuse around that.
- 6:08And that is something that is that was really heavy.
- 6:13And actually, you know, if you look into the studies around
- 6:15that, dyslexics are like around 7 times higher.
- 6:19There's a 7 times higher likelihood of us experiencing
- 6:22that as a kid as a form of punishment.
- 6:27And listen. Yes, Why?
- 6:29Why? Why?
- 6:30Why? How would that even happen?
- 6:32Like, look, physical abuse is something that should never be
- 6:34tolerated anyway. But I mean, like, how does that
- 6:36even happen? How did somebody say, you know,
- 6:38you know what? This person's struggling, So
- 6:40what we used to do is make them struggle even more.
- 6:42Let's give a girl a slap, you know, like, how does that make
- 6:44any sense? What was the?
- 6:45I, I mean it, it does not. I, I could have said like, you
- 6:50know, she was actually, you know, what I've heard from her
- 6:53is that she was like really beaten with a book.
- 6:55So that is that's like the extent to where it go, where it
- 7:00can go and it is absolutely. Nonsensical, right?
- 7:05Yeah, it's, it's nonsensical and, and I have not heard of
- 7:09anything like that, for example, in Europe.
- 7:14But you know, the, the, these things do happen.
- 7:18And it is also, I think a big part of why, why mental health
- 7:22is such a main topic in dyslexic community, you know, because we,
- 7:29you know, you're kind of, if you think about us as a group, you
- 7:33know, we're, we're missing these fundamental skills to do reading
- 7:36and writing right, to do that properly.
- 7:39But then you're giving the test as if you were neurotypical.
- 7:44Yeah, right. So basically in a way, you could
- 7:47argue that we're set up to fail in a way.
- 7:50And through then people are like, well, you know, we're
- 7:56getting worried and we're, we need to up the pressure a little
- 8:00bit so that this. Kid is.
- 8:03Keeping up or like basically, yeah, makes it in some way.
- 8:09And if you're then not diagnosed, then people just
- 8:13don't understand what's going on with you.
- 8:15And the default answer is like, well, kind of slow or kind of
- 8:18stupid or something along those lines.
- 8:20And that can have like serious impact on yourself esteem and
- 8:26the way you feel about yourself. And yeah.
- 8:29You know what's interesting about that as well, 'cause like,
- 8:32you know, as a society, everything we do should be for
- 8:37the group, right? It's for the group of society
- 8:40and no, and, and within that group we have factions, you
- 8:43know, different dynamics of, you know, you and your spouse, you
- 8:45and your kids, you and your friends.
- 8:46Then it's the the biggest circle of maybe all the dyslexic
- 8:49students and you've got society and then you've got every person
- 8:52animal on the planet and then you've got everything else in
- 8:54the universe. And so when you think about
- 8:56like, you know, your attitudes towards the group are going to
- 9:02do one of two things, right? An equal or or opposing
- 9:04reaction, right? You're either going to worsen
- 9:07the situation, which will end up worsening the situation of the
- 9:10group, or you're going to improve the condition of said
- 9:13people in the group. And the entire group will move
- 9:15forward towards a civilization that is prosperous and
- 9:18successful. And I find it so bizarre that
- 9:21people will, will, would treat members of the group, you know,
- 9:26in such negative ways because it's going to impact them.
- 9:29Like, let's put it this way. If you're a, if you're a teacher
- 9:32and you have a dyslexic student right, younger than you and
- 9:34you're an older teacher and you treat the dyslexic student like
- 9:37cramp when you become old and Gray and they're the ones that
- 9:40looking after you, what do you think is going to happen?
- 9:43You know what I mean? Yeah.
- 9:45And so that's also the, like, I think the idea of like, you
- 9:47know, what are we missing out on?
- 9:49Like, what is like, what if all the dyslexics that go through
- 9:53the education system wouldn't be kind of scarred when they get
- 9:57out of it at the end? You know what?
- 9:59Yeah, what would that like would be?
- 10:01What would that be like? And how much potential are we
- 10:04wasting by not taking taking care of it properly, really?
- 10:10100% it's like, you know, it, it, it is, it is crazy because
- 10:14I, I think, you know, zinc can be said for many different kind
- 10:17of groups in a similar, you know, a situation of kind of a
- 10:21lack of opportunity maybe, or someone in, in, in the developed
- 10:23nation where you think, you know, they could be such a
- 10:25brilliant mind that could contribute towards societal
- 10:28group, but they haven't got the chance, the opportunity.
- 10:29So we should never shed them. We should try and kind of like
- 10:31encourage that and urge them towards an existence, right?
- 10:35And I, I think that's just fascinating.
- 10:37But dyslexia has been dead. Sorry, wait, I just wanted, just
- 10:40would like to add something there.
- 10:41And then at the same time, like I was, yeah, a few years ago, I
- 10:45was in Texas, Dallas at the Shelton School and I talked to,
- 10:51and that's a school that's specifically for people with
- 10:54dyslexia and also built with ADHD.
- 10:56And I talked to people who were at that school and they were
- 11:01generally happy there. So I'm like, wow, you know,
- 11:05apparently we are actually really able to do it right.
- 11:08They're it's it's not. How you apply the education
- 11:13right, like it's you can't you know, and I had this
- 11:15conversation today. I was talking to somebody on my
- 11:17podcast yesterday, a guy called Sam from young.
- 11:21What the heck was he? I can't remember the name of his
- 11:23company. It's like an Academy for like
- 11:25twice gifted people. Don't forget about him.
- 11:27And he was, he was saying that like, you know, the, the, the,
- 11:36when you apply the right conditions for learning or
- 11:39scholastic education, the person can excel in ways that far, you
- 11:45know, they faster pass whatever you thought would would happen
- 11:48because you're, you're tailoring the environment or you're
- 11:50tailoring their learning style to them.
- 11:51And it makes sense. But when you're, when you're
- 11:53faced with this old archaic ISM, Bad Kingdom, Brunel industrial
- 11:57revolution, you know, this is how school and education will be
- 12:00from the academic standpoint, you kind of get a little bit
- 12:04like, OK, well, I don't fit into that mold, you know, because.
- 12:08Because basically all you're getting taught in school is show
- 12:11up on time, clock in. Yeah, with your working card,
- 12:15know when you can take your lunch break.
- 12:17Ask your supervisor if you can take a toilet break.
- 12:19Go home and don't ask questions. Yeah, I mean the, you know, the
- 12:26whole idea was to create factory workers right in the in the day.
- 12:32Yeah. So that is definitely
- 12:34problematic. But but it is I, I found this
- 12:38very comforting to to see that that we that it is that we are
- 12:43able to do it differently. And I, yeah, I got kind of hoped
- 12:46on that because, you know, looking at my school experience,
- 12:50a lot of feelings that I had were, you know, very negative
- 12:54towards it. I was like, you know, I, yeah,
- 12:58I'm really at such resentment towards that institution that I
- 13:04went to as a child. Yes, that's that, to see that
- 13:09it's that there is actually an option to make that experience
- 13:12so much more positive. That was actually, I really like
- 13:15to to see that. And yeah, it's some help.
- 13:17It's kind of reconciling your trauma from school, right?
- 13:22In a way, yeah. Yeah, I like that.
- 13:24OK, so you said you said that this this this whole dyslexia
- 13:27kind of thing isn't all what you do?
- 13:29What? What else do you?
- 13:30What else do you about? Come on, tell us some more.
- 13:32I'm interested there. You're going to.
- 13:34Be going so besides besides my channel and the coachings that I
- 13:38do what else I'm that's the question yeah.
- 13:42So basically what I've been doing for a while, it's like I
- 13:47came here to Israel and I started, this is not really
- 13:51related to to this Lexian, but I started working in a historical
- 13:55institution and I started to interview people that survived
- 14:02or were able to flee from Nazi Germany.
- 14:05So while they were Austrians. And I had a lot of interviews
- 14:10with survivors from that time and interviewed them and talked
- 14:14about their experience, sometimes even in concentration
- 14:17camps. And those, yeah, those, those,
- 14:21those are also that's fun job that I do at the side.
- 14:24And I encourage now a lot of their social media content.
- 14:27So work with those files and talk to a lot of researchers and
- 14:34basically give them a platform too.
- 14:37And so on their research, yeah, 'cause like when that was a
- 14:41piece of history, that's like, we need to really know, you
- 14:44know, like, so that never happens again.
- 14:45I mean, that's horrible, isn't it?
- 14:47It's funny you should say that. I did a video diving into the
- 14:51Hans Asperger Austria Nazi Vienna kind of takeover when the
- 14:57Nazis took over Vienna. And is, you know, should we use,
- 15:00should we, should we be using the term Asperger syndrome or,
- 15:03you know, was he a Nazi and all this kind of stuff?
- 15:05Really interesting because there's a big, there's a paper
- 15:07on it, right? There's a big Hoo ha in 2018
- 15:09about Hans Asperger and, and it's really interesting.
- 15:12You should totally read that if you haven't already read the
- 15:13paper, because I feel I feel like they unjust, they unjusted
- 15:17the unjust persecute Hans Asperger when there's no actual
- 15:21hard evidence that he has anything to do with the Nazis,
- 15:23right? And so it's kind of like it's
- 15:24really, it's a really interesting concept.
- 15:26But he was funny because I was literally just talking about
- 15:28this, You know, he was in Nazi certified Vienna.
- 15:31Crazy, crazy time in history. Like, you know, you got these
- 15:34totalitarian nut jobs, as you said, God, it's crazy.
- 15:38Like what? What a crazy time to be alive,
- 15:40you know, And to survive it is, is a miracle because it was just
- 15:44horrendous, you know, horrendous.
- 15:46Yeah. Yeah.
- 15:47So that's absolutely so how? Was I just that?
- 15:50Sorry. Yeah, yeah.
- 15:51So, so that will be one part. And then also the what I've been
- 15:54doing at university, like I've also been giving some, some
- 15:58lectures on or teachers that are, or students that will
- 16:03become teachers in a, in a little on the topic of dyslexia
- 16:08and educating them on it. And, you know, giving them a
- 16:11little bit of an idea of what it's like and you know, so
- 16:16communicating that it's not just reading and writing that that
- 16:20it's more than that. You know, you have the extracted
- 16:22functioning, yes, the mental health expect to it.
- 16:27And that is also something that I do and I try to do on a more
- 16:32regular basis. So that is also interesting.
- 16:35Interesting. So in terms of your YouTube
- 16:38channel, like when did you start it?
- 16:40Oh well, when did you start uploading videos?
- 16:41Like how long ago have you started doing this?
- 16:44I think I started now around, been doing it now for around 4
- 16:50years, something like that. I I started during the pandemic
- 16:53actually. Oh.
- 16:56OK, what an interesting time to start that.
- 16:58How have you found, how have you found you know when you put
- 17:03something out public, you are persecuted to ridicule by
- 17:06people, right? How have you found that?
- 17:07How you found navigating through like hate comments and stuff
- 17:11Well. Interestingly, I have not gotten
- 17:15a lot of that very little, actually barely any, but it is,
- 17:23it's a big thing. It's I was just uploading it was
- 17:27jumping around the apartment totally nervous, nervous about
- 17:31the entire thing. And, and for me, it was just a
- 17:36big growing experience. And then also getting back the,
- 17:41the positive feedback from that was also really, really nice.
- 17:45And the negative, the negative side didn't really come up.
- 17:51I had one time where I did where I talked about dyslexia and, and
- 18:00the topic of disability. So where they're discussing that
- 18:04and having a look at that and I was basically talking about how
- 18:12personally, I didn't really see myself really as disabled for a
- 18:18long time. So that is kind of how I framed
- 18:20it for myself. And, and I, I didn't really, I
- 18:26wasn't really willing to, to, to accept that for myself.
- 18:30Also like I think as a form of of yeah, keeping like the fight
- 18:38in that sense, like. I've been a foster syndrome.
- 18:41Right, like you maybe. Yeah, maybe.
- 18:45You weren't really. It's hard.
- 18:48Yeah. Yeah.
- 18:50Rejecting the idea that you could be, you know, the classes
- 18:53at the same. Yeah, right.
- 18:54Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
- 18:56So that was, that was something that, that I was arguing and,
- 19:03and basically I, I posted that in a group of, of Australian
- 19:07people and they, they didn't really like that.
- 19:13And they actually found it that I was looking at, at being
- 19:22disabled as something negative, as something that I don't want.
- 19:26And and then they went into the ableist direction and actually
- 19:30threw me out of the out of the group without, you know, talking
- 19:33about it without having a discussion about it.
- 19:36So that was actually something that that was the harshest
- 19:41criticism that I've ever had and something, yeah, that I kind of
- 19:45had to work through and kind of struggle with.
- 19:49But yeah, I kind of, you know, yeah.
- 19:54And basically thought about it some more and, and at the end, I
- 19:59actually did feel like the video that I made was kind of
- 20:03misunderstood, you know, often then I would like that.
- 20:06So I actually put it on unlisted.
- 20:09So that. You know, so that it's that it
- 20:12doesn't come across in a way that I don't want it to come
- 20:16across. Yeah.
- 20:18Somebody's always going to disagree what you say, right?
- 20:20You could say like, I love everybody.
- 20:21This one's going to say can I love everyone, mate?
- 20:23Say, oh, come on, just shut. I like, I think somebody was
- 20:26like did the thing where they said, oh, there there's the
- 20:29age-old argument where you can you can, you can argue about
- 20:33anything by saying, you know, they've got a picture of like a
- 20:36twig or something up and they say this is a stick.
- 20:39And then everyone in the car was like, actually it's twig, it's a
- 20:42branch. It's like, OK, it's the same
- 20:43thing, isn't it? But yeah, but people will just
- 20:45argue anything, which I found really fascinating because it's
- 20:49like what we doing anyway, regardless of that, here's my
- 20:52kind of final question for you. Where do you see the future of
- 20:55dyslexic dyslexia advocates and kind of like where we're headed
- 21:00in terms of how we understand things like dyslexia?
- 21:04So let's put it like this. The way I would, what I would
- 21:07hope, the way it would go is that we would look at it in a
- 21:12more actualistic, holistic way. So you know, for example, like
- 21:17you, you know, you're not just dyslexic, you have different
- 21:20diagnosis that that you got. And I think we really need to to
- 21:25see that and kind of look at the individual as a whole.
- 21:31That will be nice. And I think it is going in the
- 21:37direction. I think there is getting more
- 21:38awareness around that. And and then on top of that, I
- 21:46would hope that we that we kind of like in our in the dyslexic
- 21:51community, I don't know how it's and they are to the world.
- 21:54You're, you're hearing a lot about the dyslexic superpowers
- 21:57and. Oh yeah.
- 21:59Those kind of. Talk, right?
- 22:00And I have actually a lot of people that are kind of offended
- 22:06with that because they're either it doesn't apply to them or they
- 22:11feel like, OK, we're not buying it.
- 22:13And then you look at the research and you find, OK, well,
- 22:15this is actually not really supported the way it's promoted.
- 22:19So the evidence for these statements are often not there.
- 22:23And I feel like, you know, we need to or what, what, what a
- 22:28solution. And I'm not entirely finished
- 22:31with this thought process, but I think one solution could be to
- 22:34just look at the individual and look at their strengths and
- 22:37talents and promote them and make sure that those individual
- 22:44amazing aspects of us as dyslexics are being themed.
- 22:49And yeah, that we can support each other that way.
- 22:54Yeah, I think. I think I think you're right,
- 22:56you know, and I think like I'm the bigger picture is looking at
- 22:59the person as the whole person, right?
- 23:01Not just like that one area. And I think when we do that, we
- 23:03then start looking and, and, and implementing things, you know,
- 23:11because right now, if you say, so I'll, I'll get an issue and
- 23:14I'm dyslexic, they'll go look, they'll kind of look at the
- 23:16dyslexia thing and give you all the tip for dyslexia.
- 23:18But the bigger picture is that dyslexia is also meagerly
- 23:21impacted by the ADHD, right? So how do we, how do we get the
- 23:25two to work really well together?
- 23:26You know, and then the autism is like, you know, so what's the
- 23:28big picture here? You know, like, and I think
- 23:30that's so interesting because people don't do that.
- 23:32And and it's that that I mean even.
- 23:36You know, even in the diagnosing world, you know, like what's the
- 23:39point and just and just doing 11 diagnosis of one thing, if that
- 23:45only gives you a slight piece of the puzzle, you know, you should
- 23:48really be have an evaluation where all these things are
- 23:52considered to them and get to a point where, yeah, where you
- 23:56really understand the person. Absolutely.
- 23:59And I think that's the that's the future or that's the
- 24:01revolution of it, you know, like where, where are we headed and
- 24:04how, how will it kind of how will it benefit the group as a
- 24:07whole? And then that's how we do it.
- 24:09But yeah, Aji, I think, you know, this has been a fantastic
- 24:13conversation. I think we've definitely like
- 24:16started a, a thought process in the minds of many.
- 24:20So if people want to get in touch with you or check out your
- 24:22YouTube channel, how do they, where do they go?
- 24:23What's your online handles? So.
- 24:26So basically if you go to if you put in dyslexia and then
- 24:31dyslexia, let's say you put in dyslexia test, then my face will
- 24:35pop up and you can also find me. Yeah, basically find me there.
- 24:43Yeah, right in right in REAREA. And my last name is Dehas.
- 24:47So that is DE new word Haas. And then I will pop up on on
- 24:54YouTube and in every description box you will find a link to my
- 24:57website. It's really funny, dude.
- 24:59Like I actually have come across some videos before, especially
- 25:02the dyslexia test 1. There was a there was a are you
- 25:06dyslexic one, right. And that was really interesting.
- 25:09Yeah. And I love, Yeah, you're, you're
- 25:11very clever. You're very clever.
- 25:12YouTube. I will link everything down
- 25:15below. I'll link your YouTube channel
- 25:17so people can check you out and listening, anyone listening on
- 25:19the podcast, check out the show notes.
- 25:21I will put the link to Ajay's YouTube channel in there.
- 25:26So dude, thanks so much for coming on the show.
- 25:28It's it's been awesome. Yeah, you're welcome.
- 25:32Hey, guys. Thank you so much.
- 25:33For checking out this podcast, make sure you are subscribed
- 25:36because there are people listening right now who are not
- 25:37subscribed to this podcast. I can see you.
- 25:40Make sure you subscribe. OK, guys.
- 25:42See you in the next one piece.