Crossman is dyslexic, and when she started on Shortland Street as a teenager, she found memorising lines overwhelming. Photo / Getty Images
Crossman is dyslexic, and when she started on Shortland Street as a teenager, she found memorising lines overwhelming. Photo / Getty Images
At least one in five New Zealanders is classed as neurodivergent, a label that covers conditions such as ADHD, autism and dyslexia - yet society insists everyone should be “normal”. No Such Thing as Normal, a 10-part NZ Herald podcast with broadcaster Sonia Gray, explores how we can do better.
As an actress and TV presenter, Kimberley Crossman is forever learning scripts. But Crossman is dyslexic, and when she started on Shortland Street as a teenager, she found memorising lines overwhelming. “It took me soooo long” she says “I would just stare at the paper. “I’d be like ‘okay, this part of the page is highlighted … but the letters aren’t staying on the page’”. Crossman is speaking on Sonia Gray’s podcast ‘No Such Thing as Normal’, which this week takes a closer look at dyslexia.
In recent years, Crossman has realised she has strong auditory skills. So if she can hear the lines, even just once, they’ll be cemented in her brain.
“As long as I’ve said it out loud, my muscle memory will kick in … how my mouth moves, the musicality … things like that”.
Dyslexic individuals are used to compensating and creating workarounds. But anthropologist Dr Ruth Gibbons thinks it should be easier. “A lot of dyslexics aren’t taught how to be dyslexic”, she says. “They are taught how not to be dyslexic, you know, how to fit in, which is seriously problematic.”
Gibbons describes dyslexia as a whole-body sensory experience, but says that’s not where the bulk of the research lies. “If you Google ‘dyslexia images’ the first thing that pops up is a picture showing where the brain doesn’t light up for dyslexics. Therefore your immediate thing is going to be ‘deficit, deficit, deficit’ - that’s the biomedical model. We now know that nerves think for themselves, without sending information to the brain. But that area of research is not where the money is”.
As an actress and TV presenter, Kimberley Crossman is forever learning scripts. But Crossman is dyslexic, and when she started on Shortland Street as a teenager, she found memorising lines overwhelming.
The dyslexic experience is still commonly thought to be simply a problem with reading and writing, but many dyslexics can do both quite comfortably. Some of the lesser-known struggles come with things like comprehension, sequencing and symbols.
Gray has a particular interest in this side of dyslexia because of her own daughter’s struggles. “Inez has always been a great reader and is really good at complex maths problems, but she struggles to spell simple words and still can’t do basic facts,” she says. “It never occurred to me that she could be dyslexic, there just isn’t a lot of information on that side of dyslexia.”
Neurodiversity coach Becky Smith says this is because dyslexic brains need to be able to “experience” the word or maths problem. “Take the word ‘the’. You can’t picture it, you can’t experience it so it doesn’t have meaning. When you add to that the fact that dyslexics are able to see symbols from all angles, trying to remember the letters in sequence is very complicated”.
The focus on the deficits associated with dyslexia, and a lack of understanding of the numerous strengths, mean many dyslexic individuals suffer from low self-esteem. But Kim Crossman has turned this on its head and now embraces her dyslexia.
“When I read the news on [TV3′s] The Project, I make sure they know I have dyslexia, so they can give me more time to look at it beforehand.”
She used to keep quiet, while internally panicking, worrying she’d miss a simple word on the autocue and muck up on live television. “But I’ve realised people have more grace and empathy if you let them in. If they know it’s something you’re struggling with, they’ll always find ways to help you. I never knew to ask that, but now I realise it’s not a weakness”.
No Such Thing As Normal was made with the support of NZ On Air.
No Such Thing as Normal is a NZ Herald podcast, with new episodes every Saturday. You can listen to it on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
