Dyslexia

[Angel]

Are any of the other writers out there dyslexic? I am. I was wondering how it affected your writing. It barely affects mine anymore, although I do find myself slipping once in awhile into spelling things ass backwards, and not even noticing it. What ways do you deal with it? Nobody ever caught on that I was dyslexic until college and by then I had adjusted on my own.

 

[stogie]

I'm not but I do have a friend that is. She did the same thing and didn't tell any one until college. But she is and accountant and doing fine. She still makes a mistake on spelling every now and then. A good thing we live in a time with spell checks. It's sounds as if both of you found a way that works specifically for you. It's hard to do it on your own.

 

[Madame Pandora]

Angel,

I am.

It doesn't affect my writing except that I go over things more than the average bear. And I have friends who gladly proofread for me. The frustrating thing is that even when I proofread, sometimes wrong things still look okay to me.

Like I'll write: She him gave the book.
Instead of: She gave him the book.

And I'll read it a few times and it will still look fine.

Spelling is important to me only enough so that I have a basic grasp of the "rules of thumb" otherwise; let the spell checker handle it. It is a very overrated skill to me. Like doing sums in your head or remembering dates... Sure...it's a neat trick, but we have that kind of information at out fingertips these days. It is important to remember the basic skills, but...well...I just don't place much importance on it.

My style of writing is just to get the idea out of my head. Then, I go back and make it "pretty" later.

That includes my reversed letters...my juxtaposed words...my overuse of ellipses...a zillion comma splices and whatever other literary sins I've committed.

I deal with it by letting it be. Like you, no one caught on to mine until I was older (high school), and I'd already learned tricks to compensate, so I just go with the flow. Sure, I make mistakes, but I'm not a doctor, so no one dies .

MP

 

[Angel]

Exactly, MP

And most of the time I am fine. But then when it does mess me up, I get frustrated and make it worse, which is why I tend to not post large entries.

Either that or I will start spelling things ass backwards or switching the order of words and I won't even notice I did it. Which frustrates me more. LOL.

It's a pain in the ass especially when I LOVE to write and to read.

I am SO thankful that I don't have a problem with Rhyming, which alot of dyslexics I met in college DID. I think I'd die!

 

[carini]

MP.. sounds like my writng style... My Mom thought i was dyslexic in grade school by the school said i wasn't.. just had an over active brain.. came to find out years later i actually was... i agree about profreading.. and having others proof read it.. that's what i do... cause i tend to either drop words.. or just not finish words

 

[WriterDom]

I am. They didn't find out until I was in the 10th grade. Some chick came down for two days from U. of Georgia and had me putting round pegs in square holes. She told me what I had and said that I had my own way of doing things and to work around it. I hated school before then and that just gave me a reason to hate it more. I dropped out of two colleges in the first six months then went back 14 years later and finished. By then they had computers with spell checkers

 

[WebDesignGuru]

Angel,

I am also. I don't that it affects my writing at all. At least to my knowledge, since I don't have any experience as to what it would be like to write without it.

By comparison to others here, I was diagnosed early...7th grade I believe.

I have always seen it as more of a special skill as opposed to a learning disability. I see things in a different way than most other people. I think it's a good thing.

One thing I've noticed is that dyslexic people tend to kick butt at "wordfind" games. I guess it's easier to see words spelled backwards.

 

[Angel]

True WDG! We're also more artistically and creatively inclined as we tend to think that way more than the average person. I never have, and still don't think of it as a learning disability, as I've always been one to read above my grade level in school, and was in accelerated classes all through grade and middle school. It wasn't until I got to highschool where we all just became numbers instead of individual students and teachers took less time to work with us that I started to have problems. All I got after that was "But you're so smart, why are you having a problem" And absolutely no help whatsoever. Which is why I dropped out my senior year (Yes yes I know, stupid.) got my GED and went to college. One of my college professers was also dyslexic. He was a wonderful teacher and it was easy for him to notice the little subtle hints that showed I was also. He's the one who set up the tests to diagnose it. He was also a therapist and teacher for dyslexics. He said I managed to teach myself how to get around any problems the same way dyslexics are taught when they are caught early on.


I think the single most annoying thing is sometimes I have alot of trouble getting my thoughts into words. It's really frustrating, and sometimes the things I write seem to start out perfect, and slowly decline into something that looks like a 5 year wrote it. I have to go back and redo things alot.

[Edited by Angel on 02-12-2001 at 08:57 AM]

 

[WebDesignGuru]

All I got after that was "But you're so smart, why are you having a problem" And absolutely no help whatsoever.

Followed, no doubt, by "If you would only TRY, you could do so much better".

I actually had a teacher who said to me once, "I know you have a 82 average, and I don't usually send out progress reports if you have a "B", but I know you can do so much better if you would just apply yourself".

Little did he know I was kicking my own butt to get that 82. I just turned him off from that day on. Talk about backfiring motivational techniques.

If he only knew I was successfully writing short erotica stories, he'd be so proud...

..okay, maybe not.<grin>

 

[Angel]

Yup, I got that one too lol.

 

[carini]

You guys are lucky. I confounded all my teachers. I was tested in the third grade and told i wasn't dyslexic, just too hyperactive and bored with school to learn. I don't know if the tests were flawed or what. I had techers after that call my mom in and ask if i had been tested for it and she said that i had and wasn't. All they told her was that i was "very smart but not working up to my potential" they told me that all the time too. It drove me nuts. Years later in college a child development teacher noticed i had all the traits of a dyslexic and asked if i had ever been tested. Turned out i was but instead got labeled as a slow learner which only made things worse. I ended up feeling stupid. All my life I thought i was just too stupid to do anything right.

When that Professor told me she thought i was dyslexic i told her the stry and she said that i most likely had fooled the test. She said that that's the reason most Dyslexics slip through the cracks. They're usually highly intelligent and usually the only tst they give you to detrermine if you are dyslexic is an IQ test which the councelor giving the test then has to interprit. 8 out of ten times they do it wrong.


So don't let it get you down. Spellcheckers rock and stream of consciousness writing cleanses the soul

Peace and Sugar cookie
Carini

 

[carini]

Does anyone else have horrible penmenship on top of it?

 

[Ambrosious]

do I.

 

[carini]

I had a french teacher in high school who gave me the final then when i turned it in called me up and asked me all the questions again. I had failed the final writing it but had gotten an A when he asked me all the questions. I spoke french well but couldn't write it

 

[Pyper]

I think I may be mildly dyslexic, but nobody has ever tried to fix me because I do so well in school. I have trouble with a variety of little things like:

When I write words, I sometimes start with the wrong letter. For instance, if the word was "spank", I might start with the p, then the a, then go back and write the s, then end with nk. Weird huh?

I can't tell time with numbers. If somebody told me it was 2:30, I would have to think about it to figure out what time it was. I tell time by looking at the hands on my watch: how close the minute hand is to a point on the clock when something is supposed to happen.

I cannot spell outloud, nor can I write down a word spelled outloud to me to save my life. Although I'm a fantastic speller on paper!

Also, I was terrible at handwriting. I'm right-handed, but I hold the pencil like a lefty, so I smear my letters. I gave up script when I left grade school. It was pointless when I could print just fine.

My mom and my sister are both dyslexic. I try to tell my mom I think I am too, but she doesn't believe me because she thinks I'm so smart!