Elaine C Smith ordeal over daughter dyslexia

By Chris Marshall
Published on Sunday 27 November 2011 00:00

ACTRESS Elaine C Smith has spoken of her struggle to come to terms with her daughter’s dyslexia after it was first detected when she was just four years old.

Smith, who is a former teacher, said she had first been told her daughter Hannah was dyslexic while she was at nursery school, but had “dismissed” the suggestion.

Writing in a new book, Dyslexia And Us, published by Dyslexia Scotland, she said: “My daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of six. We had hints that there was always something a bit different in Hannah and indeed we revelled in it… her creativity, her imagination and her quirkiness were just joyous in our eyes.

“When her nursery teacher indicated that she thought Hannah was dyslexic at the age of four, we dismissed it as being unlikely and said that Hannah was ‘just Hannah’. However, my husband and I as ex-teachers did take the comments seriously and talked it over and monitored what we thought were Hannah’s differences to our other daughter and her peers”.

The Rab C Nesbitt star, who is currently in rehearsals for panto in Aberdeen, said the introduction of a new reading scheme at school saw Hannah’s condition worsen, while her reading and writing were becoming “problematic”.

“Fortunately, the school noticed too and called for an assessment from an educational psychologist, who did indeed diagnose Hannah with dyslexia.”

Smith said her daughter is now an avid reader and has recently passed her Higher English, thanks to early intervention at school.

She added: “In my teacher training and career I had no knowledge of dyslexia. I knew vaguely of its existence, but was not trained to spot it or what to do if we suspected something was wrong with a child’s reading. It is much better for all of us that we live in a more enlightened society that recognises the condition and provides educational help.”