Dyslexia

[Markleshark]

Are you dyslexic?

I ask, because I really feel for people who genuinely have this learning disability. I can't begin to imagine how confusing it must be, and how hard it must be to over come severe dyslexia.

However, I feel that it is now being used as an excuse by an alarming number of people (In the UK anyway) who just can't spell.

When I was at school, a few people I knew genuinely suffered from it, and found spelling and in some cases numbers very hard. But now every second new person I meet is dyslexic, has mild dyslexia or has something related to it.

I don't suffer from it at all, but I certainly have noticed that it is being used almost as a scape goat for stupid people, rather than admitting they can't spell they say 'Oh, I'm dyslexic.' So I would like to hear what genuine suffers feel about this.

 

[Mord]

I am severely dyslexic, I can read perfectly well however I can barely write, my spelling is so-so, it's not being rubbish at reading/writing/spelling it's a very specific issue which leads to very recognisable errors being made, I used to have terrible troubles to the point that I could do no work at school and it wasn't until I was 6-7 until this was recognised and I was given specialist help, then I shot to the top of my class.

Whether people who're just pants at english are genuinely dyslexic or not doesn't really concern me, those who have issues should get help.

I personally will never use it as an excuse for being rubbish, it's something I do well in spite of, you can overcome it, many people I know just give up and don't put in the effort to improve, help is generally available these days.

What concerns me is the kind of help available in at least my secondary school, while I'd sorted a considerable chunk of my issues in primary school I still had troubles and when I sought help for them I was only offered an extra class which was geared for people who were struggling full stop, I'm rather academic so this did not work for me, I think more effort needs to be put into tailoring help for each individual, I did fine without help however I could have done allot better were I given some appropriately.

 

[edesignuk]

I can't being to imagine how confusing it must be...
...

I don't suffer from it at all

Sorry, had to

edit: damn it, you fixed it

 

[Markleshark]

Sorry, had to

edit: damn it, you fixed it

Don't know what your talking about.

Me? I just can't spell...

 

[geese]

I was diagnosed with partial dyslexia when i was 16. Its a bit of an odd condition, as my writing and spelling are fine but I suffer from linguistic syntax problems, especially when talking. It also affects my organisation, although i dont know if thats just me being a bit rubbish.

I'm 29 and I'd like to be reassessed, as I really dont know how it affects me now, or how to overcome my problems. Do you have any ideas?

 

[xUKHCx]

I'm dyslexic as I am sure many of you know.

During school I simply coasted my way through so it wasn't picked up but at university it is a whole different ball game. My grades were a lot lower than I had expected and I was facing large problems. I had a test done at my university psych department. At first I thought it was bad having the stigma of being dyslexia attached to me, however since knowing and getting support I have really developed.

I have a problem with spelling but OS X counters this quite well but my handwritten work is just full of errors, but it is perfectly understandable to me. Just have to take extra care during exams as I had a tendency for hiding the spelling errors in bad handwriting. I often miss words and can't follow lines of text very well. I trace the lines I am reading with the curser to highlight the text as I am reading it. This really annoys my gf if we are trying to read something together but she understands.

There are many barriers but knowing is half the battle as they say. It is a case of learning coping mechanisms and thought processes that enable you to work around them.

I don't think I have met a person who says they are dyslexic but aren't. Probably because of the stigma attached. That said it doesn't bother me. I go about my daily business quietly, most of the people on my course don't know I'm dyslexic

 

[RedTomato]

True. It's no excuse. I have met people with severe dyslexia who left school with no qualifications, and are now finishing their PhD programs.

My partner has very severe dyslexia - she can barely spell two words in a row, but she runs her own company, with project budgets in 5 figures, and sends off about 50 emails a day.

It's interesting that she always gets taken seriously by her business contacts despite her spelling and grammar mistakes.

Shows it needn't be a handicap if the rest of you can make up for it.

Interestingly, she wanted to get a formal diagnosis once, but was told that it's impossible to diagnose or confirm dyslexia in deaf people. (I'm highly suspicious of this statement.)

 

[spork183]

taught special ed for a number of years. dyslexia is really hard for the people affected by it. the flip side is the number of people who are undiagnosed, but toss out their own assessment as an excuse. Poor spelling is not dyslexia, however a dyslexic may have extremely poor spelling. My wife is an extremely poor speller. She is not dyslexic, nor is she lazy. She's one of the brightest women I know, she just can't spell. On the other hand, she runs circles around me in higher math concepts. Go figure. Maybe I'm math dyslexic...

 

[zblaxberg]

I'm not dyslexic but I have learning disabilities that really get to be a pain in the a$$. I can't read long paragraphs and remember a single thing, my memory is shot and I'll tend to repeatedly ask people the same questions over and over. I'm usually pretty embarrassed to tell people why I don't have to take the test at the same time as everyone else for my college classes. I usually go to an office and get time and a half and a distraction free environment. It really sucks and yes I feel bad for people with dyslexia because I know a few that have to deal with it.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

I'm am dyslexic and I was diagnosed with it close to 18 years ago now. Back before everyone was claiming to be or was being told they where. Of my 2nd grade class of 100 or so students 4 of us had dyslexia.

It effects everyone differently as it is an issue with how the brain is wired. For me my find motor skills are crap. Biggest thing that it effects is my handwriting which is crap. I write worse than some 2nd graders and my best handwriting still looks like a 2nd graders. My spelling is poor along with I make a lot of grammar errors. The most common being tenses. I tend to drop 's' at the end of words. Contractions I tend to miss the missing letters at the end. Best of that I try not to use them and just write out both words like "did not" instead of "didn't"

I speak grammatically correct which is better than some people who have dyslexia that i know of. Now I do speak like I have a minor speech disabling which is brought on by the dyslexia and i was originally diagnosed incorrectly with.

Now a interesting fact they found out was people with dyslexia are normally quite a bit smarter than average. That or it is that extra intelligent that makes it a lot easier to pick up.

Lastly it is very hard to test for dyslexia in adults because the scores get muddled up because the person has a life time of learning to adapted to living with it. It effects their every day lives just it not as easy to see it in testing.

I struggle with it every day. It takes me a lot longer to write emails and other things in my job that require writing because I have to go back 3-4 times and recheck my work looking for simple errors that most people do not make and easily spot. I do not see them.

Now as for my life I earned my college degree last December and now have a job doing what I enjoy doing. I have to use my degree every day. I make a pretty good living for myself. My starting income put me conformable into the middle class and it will only go up from there.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

I'm not dyslexic but I have learning disabilities that really get to be a pain in the a$$. I can't read long paragraphs and remember a single thing, my memory is shot and I'll tend to repeatedly ask people the same questions over and over. I'm usually pretty embarrassed to tell people why I don't have to take the test at the same time as everyone else for my college classes. I usually go to an office and get time and a half and a distraction free environment. It really sucks and yes I feel bad for people with dyslexia because I know a few that have to deal with it.

yeah it sucks. A lot of people with dyslexia have your problem and then some. My short term memory is crap as well.

Some tricks I learned to deal with it is try to write everything down. As for asking the same question more than once there is a trick to make it seem more like you are confirming you heard it write. Trying rephrasing what they told you and say it back as you are confirming it. To most people they will interpurt that not as you missed it but instead just confirming you heard it write.

With phone numbers I always repeat it back as I am writing it down. It has saved me more than once. Works quite a bit with little things I am ask as well. Most people do not know I am really saying it because I am not sure on my memory but instead thinking I am just trying to avoid making a mistake and seem have said they wished more people would do that.

 

[Prof.]

I do misspell words often but I don't know if that qualifies for dyslexia. However, I do have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD/ADHD) and it sux. School was really hard for my up until high school.

 

[Stardotboy]

I don't have any problems with speaking, reading or spelling - though I do have a slight problem when it comes to writing the letters in a word in the right order. For example if I was trying to write the word "laugh" I may get as far as L-A-U then write H, then realise I need to fit the G in between the U and H. Oddly enough it only happens when I'm writing with a pen or pencil and never when I'm typing. Not sure if this is dyslexia or something else though

I definitely share the OP's frustration with the number of people who use dyslexia as a way to gain an advantage when it comes to things like exams. When I was doing my GCSE exams (about 10 years ago) there were two people in my class that claimed to have dyslexia, which entitled them to something like 35% extra time in which to complete each exam. One of these people was severely dyslexic and had serious problems understanding written material. The other admitted to me that they were faking the whole thing just to get the extra time. The prevelance of that attitude really doesn't do any favours to those who genuinely suffer with the condition.

 

[iSamurai]

I'm slightly dyslexic i think.

according to my biology text book, dyslexia 9/10 times occurs between men, and it's not curable.

i have no learning disabilities except that i swap numbers around (costed me quite a number of marks in exams, oh dear), and that sometimes i speak with words swapped around (although i notice it but it's too late - so i say the sentence again) - probably because english/french and german/afrikaans have different word orders and i sometimes get confused between them, even though english is my 2nd language... chinese is 1st.

and that i cannot see the difference between "mapmind" and "mindmap", and i skip/jump lines in reading, especially to the break of the line and i can't find the next line. also, i seem to make up words from letters around a certain word, next to it or above/below it.

phone numbers are a pain to remember and last time when i had to enter my prepaid voucher (cell phone) i had to do it 3 times lol.

 

[Abstract]

During school I simply coasted my way through so it wasn't picked up but at university it is a whole different ball game. My grades were a lot lower than I had expected and I was facing large problems. I had a test done at my university psych department.

Wow, same here, except I was tested for ADD/ADHD. I tested positive for ADHD at age 19 (possibly 20?). I was also OK in high school, but was doing incredibly poorly at uni. I wasn't going to get the "C" I needed in my 1st year to continue into the programs I wanted to get into (every science student in my school was enrolled in General 1st Year Science, and we selected our degree at the end of our 1st year). Anyway, being diagnosed helped, as did the extra time I received to finish tests and exams.

People always tell me that they think they have ADD, just because they sometimes have trouble paying attention. Everyone has trouble paying attention sometimes. It's NOT ADD. It's like believing I suffer from depression just because I feel depressed sometimes.

 

[Prof.]

People always tell me that they think they have ADD, just because they sometimes have trouble paying attention. Everyone has trouble paying attention sometimes. It's NOT ADD. It's like believing I suffer from depression just because I feel depressed sometimes.

I was diagnosed when I was like 3 or 4. It seems that everyone has ADD/ADHD these days.

 

[cuestakid]

well i do not have dyslexia I do have a different learning disability which can makes among other things reading comprehension very difficult, which can really slow down any kind of learning at all. For example I am taking an online course in networking, and I have been having a lot of trouble because there is no real instructor or lecture for this class. You simply do everything on your own and figure it out yourself. Fortunately I finally got a tutor the other day so I think that will help a lot.

 

[zap2]

A friend of mine has it, honestly I had no idea until she told me...it doesn't seem to hurt her a huge way, but I can't be sure.

She has trouble with standardized test, but in class she seems fine(better then me at spanish)

I just suck at spelling..not sure why, just never 'clicked' with me

Reading about it, half the things that result from Dyslexia, I show(all the time in spanish class)


From what it look like, Dyslexia is impossible to diagnosis with one test, because lots of people have things which can look like Dyslexia, but are really just personal quarks.

 

[puckhead193]

i'm not really dyslexic. I can't spell well (as you may notice) I have other LD's especially short term memory. When studying, i'll know it and then the next morning its like I never studied. I hate reading. I read something and have no clue what the hell i read. Its really annoying. My old roommate was the definition of dyslexic. Reading IMs and reading through his papers was a chore and a half. From spelling to grammar not to mention his handwriting.
Someone I knew from college used his LD card way to many times. I think he handed in one paper and it was sad excuses for a paper yet still managed to pass the class. Drove me nuts

 

[PowerFullMac]

I dont but my aunt and one of my friends at school does. My friend writes very good storys and such, but spelling lets her down, but she is in the highest English class at school.

 

[cuestakid]

I figured I should also mention something else-currently, all California High School Students must pass a test called the California High School Exit Exam, regardless of who the student is or what their LD is. Fortuanately a temporary injunction was in placed when I graduated so I did not have to pass it.

My point is that a student with an LD still, who may have worked their butts off for 4 years, would not recieve a diploma because they couldn't pass a test that no matter how hard they tried they couldn't do. Luckily for the state, no lawsuits have come yet but its only a matter of time before some kid sues the state for discrimination

 

[Rodimus Prime]

I figured I should also mention something else-currently, all California High School Students must pass a test called the California High School Exit Exam, regardless of who the student is or what their LD is. Fortuanately a temporary injunction was in placed when I graduated so I did not have to pass it.

My point is that a student with an LD still, who may have worked their butts off for 4 years, would not recieve a diploma because they couldn't pass a test that no matter how hard they tried they couldn't do. Luckily for the state, no lawsuits have come yet but its only a matter of time before some kid sues the state for discrimination

Good luck on that case going any where. A lot of states have those type of test in them. If you do not pass them no diploma.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

I don't have any problems with speaking, reading or spelling - though I do have a slight problem when it comes to writing the letters in a word in the right order. For example if I was trying to write the word "laugh" I may get as far as L-A-U then write H, then realise I need to fit the G in between the U and H. Oddly enough it only happens when I'm writing with a pen or pencil and never when I'm typing. Not sure if this is dyslexia or something else though

I definitely share the OP's frustration with the number of people who use dyslexia as a way to gain an advantage when it comes to things like exams. When I was doing my GCSE exams (about 10 years ago) there were two people in my class that claimed to have dyslexia, which entitled them to something like 35% extra time in which to complete each exam. One of these people was severely dyslexic and had serious problems understanding written material. The other admitted to me that they were faking the whole thing just to get the extra time. The prevelance of that attitude really doesn't do any favours to those who genuinely suffer with the condition.

I hate when people do that. Because so many people try to cheat the system to get that extra time it makes it a huge pain for people who do need the extra time. Now you are required to turn in quite a bit of paper work proving it.

I always really bother me when people who did not need the extra time abuse the system so they could get it because I never use the extra time even though I could of easy gotten it. I did not feel like I truly needed that much extra time. While quite often I would push things close to the end I seem to finish up around when everyone else did.

It is rather sad people abuse the system that was put in place to help out people who truly need it.

 

[Nunnanunn]

I hate it when people use it as an excuse to not work hard at something.

I found out i had Dyslexia when I was 17 though my mum had been asking the school every year since yr 7 whether or not I was dyslexic but due to my top grades in school at top marks in English they basically said that she was being rediculous since i had past all the school tests for it 7 years ago.

But I can spell as well as an average person, my handwriting is very neat, i'm pretty damn good at maths, and have always had repectable grades. However my processing speed is extremely low and my speech and ability to structure and recognise words is horrendous. I panic when I read, (it can really upset me) I stutter and slur and find myself in a sheet panic, I simply dont use very big words and I am dyslexic. Just because you can spell, it doesnt mean you arent dyslexic.

I dont agree with poeple using it as an excuse for giving up and as soon as I was diagnosed with it my school started offering me extra time and all this crap. But i didnt take it (I mean by this point I was studying Maths, Further maths and Physics - no words!!! - and was finishing exams with 40 min to spare) i didnt need it, but thats just me and now i know which areas I struggle with i'm gonna ask for support if I need it at university. And yeah I'll say it to my friends as a joke and if there is something important I need to do where i could struggle because of my dyslexa I will mention it.


I dont know, maybe more people do have it than before but I think maybe the testing is now just more thorough and readily available.

And I dont feel sorry for myself tbh. they say 10% of people have some form of dyslexia, and i know some poeple who have it to the extreme. and yeah some of them use it as an every day excuse, and others are now very succesful at what they do and have learent to get around it.
Some people of course struggle more than others and I'm not saying some poeple shouldnt be felt sorry for but most definately not everyone should. If i tell someone I'm dyslexic i dont expect sympaths, i guess i just expect a bit of understanding to why certain things are a much bigger pus for me.

 

[RedTomato]

Nice thread resurrection, Nunnannunn

One of the better ones I've seen. Your post was relevant and really, most of the posts in this thread are still timely.

Back on topic, my colleague told me she thinks her 12-yo son is dyslexic, but the school psychs have repeatedly cleared him. He can read words in small letters but he cannot read words in capital letters, and gets frustrated when people give him comics with the lettering in caps.

I told her not to trust the school psychs - they want to save the school money and admin overheads - best to take her son for independent assessment, even if it costs more.

(This is the UK where most medical services are free, but sometimes come with an overhead of not quite being in your personal best interests. However, compare that with having to go to a private health provider who profits from providing the treatment as well as the diagnosis ... )