Youth Ambassador:
As requested by youth/rangatahi, teachers/Kaiako, family and whānau, our Youth Ambassador Kata will be available at our brain training courses. Here she can answer questions and share her life-long experience of what it might look sound and feel like to be in an education system with out-of-the-box-thinking and neurodiverse superpowers such as dyspraxia and dyslexia

Let me introduce myself, I’m Andria Studman and I believe EVERYBODY has the right to Live, Learn and Succeed in Life. I am so excited about the new brain training courses, You provide the venue and we come to you.
Bonus: Hear from our Youth Ambassador.
E: andria@dysco.nz or
Text 027 806 9973 and we will call you back

Click here to see her story

What the Trust does

Happy Talk Trust is the don’t wait, self-referral service tackling transitions for 10-24 year olds.  e.g. changing schools or starting jobs.

Alongside tips and tools to assist with reading, writing and arithmetic (maths), the training teaches youths / rangatahi how to reduce anxiety, raise self-esteem and self-regulate so they don’t ‘explode’ or worse still ‘implode’.

What inspired The Trust

When 12-year-old ‘Hat’ talked 10-year-old ‘Hoodie’ out of taking his life by suicide, Happy Talk Trust was born.

Triggered by transitioning from primary to Intermediate school, the root cause of Hoodie’s decision to take his own life was his neurodiversity e.g. his battle to conquer his dyslexia (read), dysgraphia (write) and dyscalculia (Mathematics) and realise his inherited (whakapapa) of greatness.

Despite coming from two totally different walks of life, Hat used a strategy he had learnt five years earlier to help Hoodie.  Being a typical primary school aged child, Hoodie would take the word and advise of a peer of a similar age over that of an adult.

Also, Hat inadvertently named the strategy “I’ve Got Your 6”, when he translated Andria’s gesture of “you’ve got this” to mean the WW2 gunners / pilots term of “I’ve got your back”.

Dyslexia: Orthographic, Visual, Phonemic:  The battle to read, process and comprehend text (mental)

Dysphasia: The battle to comprehend and react or reply/speak appropriately (mental + physical)

You may see…
Children: Usually put in remedial reading groups (Mainly because they don’t have strategies for dysphasia)
Adults: Often do not fully understand what they sign their names to e.g. about their health & possessions.

Dyscalculia: The battle to comprehend and calculate arithmetic
(mental + mental)

Dysnomia: The battle to remember and
recall words to speak
(mental + physical)

You may see…
Children: Usually don’t learn and understand basic number facts such as numbers that make 10 & times tables.
Adults: Often cannot budget for necessities such as clothes, food and shelter e.g. 80% of prison inmates,

Dysgraphia: The battle to align thoughts & muscle movement to write, type & spell (mental + physical)

Dyspraxia: The battle to plan and co-ordinate movement with thinking
(physical + mental)

You may see…
Children: Usually miss-spell simple words and many struggle with computers and on-line learning.
Adults: Often cannot fill in forms for supplies & services e.g. Drivers licence, WINZ support.

Sponsors

Clients

Supporters