Oh dear... (dyslexia?)

[Dali]

I never really know whether the 'tiny bubbles' on P, b and d should face left or right and I'm never really satisfied about whether I've written them right. Same thing with all the Hindu-Arabic numerals. I just recently learnt to distinguish my right from my left and, still, it takes me at least 3 seconds of thought when I attempt to do so and, I read words wrong all the time. For instance, I read this sentence as "People should apply for licenses in order to bread. I thought the poster was being random and hence I didn't pay it much heed only to see it quoted by another poster upon which I realised he had said 'breed'.

I'm dyslexic, aren't I? And if I indeed am, I'd like to hear from other dyslexics on how they deal with it.

p.s. I LOVE reading and am the most voracious fiction reader I (and all my close pals and family) know. For some reason, I thought dyslexics didn't much enjoy extraneous reading.

 

[Falcarius]

Well, I don't know if I have dyslexia, but as I explained in my blog it is reasonable presume I have some sort of learning disability. I never have been diagnosed with any type of learning disability, as my school thought I was stressed because I had some personal problems. It was only when I was at around seven or eight years of age when my teachers finally realised my speech and writing problems was something more profound than being just stressed out; not only was I completely unable to copy writing off a blackboard but I embarrassingly failed a student progress assessment in English, as I could not even spell my own name properly. I am being totally serious.

In any lessons up until my early teens that involved written work I was pretty much bottom of the class. The main reason being despite it being acknowledged I had a problem, they misunderstood what the problem was, they thought my problem was I had a 'reading disability' rather than I have 'writing disability', as most people who are considered dyslexic suffer from 'reading disability'. All those years they spent giving me reading lessons were a waste of time because my reading was fine. The thing that makes a writing problem more difficult to solve is many of the normal classroom techniques used to teach spellings do not help someone who is dyslexic, while 'phonemic awareness' normally will help one get by with their reading to at least an adequate degree.

One day in deep thought I realised the main reason I had trouble with written work was because I was not processing spontaneous written work properly; hence, why I had trouble expressing and organise my thoughts and writing on paper. I saw no logical reason I could do mathematics but I could not write to save my life. Mathematics is much like a special language with its own rules, and so I thought if I could do one language why not another. Therefore, I decided the only way I was ever going to stop my spelling errors, letter reversals, capital letters in the wrong place, writing the wrong word, and other stupid things I do did, was if I learnt to visualise what I was trying to say better. I came to the conclusion the best way to do this was to treat writing like mathematics.

I thought to myself what is the first thing I do when I have a mathematics question, and the first thing I do when I do mathematics is find out what the problem of the question really is. Now the first thing I do now when I have to write is to reword the question in my own words. By this point, I understand the question completely or al least enough that I can try to solve it. I solve it by using graphic organisers; in other words, brainstorming my ideas. Once I have ideas, I have to find out what ideas are related to what, and make them in to paragraphs. If need be, I break down the paragraphs into bullet points of things I am trying to say, in order to help simplify my thoughts. Once I have done that, half of the words are most likely spelt wrong, so I just restructure the sentence to use words I can spell. If I can't get round it like that, I look up the word in a dictionary. If ones vocabulary is big enough they should not have to look up words all the time.

I have not got a clue if my way around it made sense to anyone, or even works for anyone else, but it seems to work for me anyway. I do some other things like group words with each other by how similar spelling and sounding they are with each other. It is kind of complicated to explain, but in short I compare words that seem similar in length and sound and just remember the slight differences.

 

[placebo]

I don't have dyslexia, I don't really have any experience of it. I just remember I had a teacher who was slightly dyslexic and he told us a story about how he didn't know which washroom to go into once because they only noted it with a W or M sign, and he had to stand outside until he saw someone else go in or out of one of them.

 

[Jeffster]

I'm dyslexic, aren't I? And if I indeed am, I'd like to hear from other dyslexics on how they deal with it.

Well, online spell-checkers and dictionary.com have helped me tremendously when it comes to typing words correctly. Even if the word doesn't look right to me, I have to take their word for it sometimes. Obviously that doesn't help with reading books much. I have to pace myself on book-reading, sometimes I can read for long stretches without too much trouble, it's like I'm in the zone or something, but other times the words are all jumbled on the page and I have to take a break and come back to it.

I learned to read at a very early age, but my mother says I actually hid that fact from people. I think it was because I did a lot of reading where I didn't understand it, and I was embarrassed for anyone to know that. "Embarrassed" there's a good example of a word I can't spell without help. Double letters kill me if I don't have the spell-check because it never ever looks right. And just there I typed "tight" instead of "right" the first time (and it's not a typo, in case anyone would say that, because the letter is next to it, I mean I look at it and it looks right to me, and also looks like night.) I'm doing like a dyslexia play-by-play here haha I know what you mean with the b and d, the q and g gets me too when it's in writing, not typed letters.

Also, those deals on online sites where they ask you to enter a code and the letters are all misshapen and weird, those are like torture for dyslexic people, so stop making those, whoever you are.

Sorry I'm probly not much help to you mo, because really the only way I deal with it is I read online or listen to audiobooks instead of actual books a lot of the time, and like I said use the spellcheck on the computer as well as dictionary sites to help me along too since i'll copy and paste words in.

Oh, I just remembered, at work, I tend to write in ALL CAPS, like if I'm writing notes to others or on the payroll info sheets I do, because I don't tend to screw up the letters as much when I write in caps because they aren't as similar to each other or something.

 

[Dali]

Falacrius, thank you for sharing your story. The mathematics thing wouldn't work for me for sure but it's good to hear that it's possible to have it easier in this regard.

Placebo, that's a hilarious story. I've also walked into the ladies one too many times and it also only happens when there are symbols on the door rather than a simple 'gents' or 'ladies'.

sometimes I can read for long stretches without too much trouble, it's like I'm in the zone or something, but other times the words are all jumbled on the page and I have to take a break and come back to it.

Me too! Sometimes, even when the subject matter is something I enjoy, I find myself having 'gone over' all the words on a page but not actually read anything upon which I have to go back a page and try again.

"Embarrassed" there's a good example of a word I can't spell without help. Double letters kill me if I don't have the spell-check because it never ever looks right.

I bet 'occassion', 'accommodate', 'occur', 'exageration' (and their derivatives) also pose a bit of a problem. I know they do with me. I also know what you mean about the code security things when you're registering on a site. I feel like I've won the lottery when I get it right the first time I try. I actually whooped with delight when i read something a few backs week about there being a new security thingie that will be rolled out in their stead.

Thanks for sharing, Jeff. I guess I am also dyslexic and not, as I thought for the longest time, merely careless and lazy. Good to know there's more of us out there.