Dyslexia

Last night I had my dislexia pop into my brain and I've wondered for years what it's all about since I've never been officially tested. I typed in dislexia in the location bar of my web browser and this is what popped up. http://www.dys-add.com/symptoms.html I thought I'd share my finding with you. Perhaps you know someone or are struggling yourself and want to know why.

I found a more than a few things that said why I've had problems all these years. It's creepy how many descriptions I fit into. I wonder if my parents don't know this about me. There are more descriptions than what I've copied here but these are the ones that stuck out in my life. I wonder if I had been tested earlier in life how much it would have changed my life. A teacher labeled me as stupid early on. If she knew I was dyslexic, would she have been more easy on me, helped me out more?

· mixing up sounds in multi-syllabic words (ex: aminal for animal, bisghetti for spaghetti, hekalopter for helicopter, hangaberg for hamburger, mazageen for magazine, etc.)sometimes I actually combine two words or two phrases if I'm talking to fast.

· lots of ear infections- been there · confusion over left versus right, over versus under, before versus after, and other directionality words and concepts

· late to establish a dominant hand-

May switch from right hand to left hand while coloring, writing, or doing any other task. Eventually, the child will usually establish a preferred hand, but it may not be until they are 7 or 8. Even then, they may use one hand for writing, but the other hand for sports I've wondered about that for years. My kindergarten through third grade teacher was really frustrated with this. They decided to encourage me to be right handed.

· when reading aloud, reads in a slow, choppy cadence (not in smooth phrases), and often ignores punctuation- I'm still working on this

· reading comprehension may be low due to spending so much energy trying to figure out the words. Listening comprehension is usually significantly higher than reading comprehension.- Not exactly right with me, I have a better reading comprehension rate than listening. I often have to write something down to remember it. On the computer or tv screen, I remember things so much quicker.

· Copying off of the board is slow, painful, and tedious. Child looks up and visually "grabs" just one or two letters at a time, repeatedly subvocalizes the names of those letters, then stares intensely at their paper when writing those one or two letters. This process is repeated over and over. Child frequently loses his/her place when copying, misspells when copying, and doesn't always match capitalization or punctuation when copying--even those the child can read what was on the board. - I would look up and get a few words before I would have to look back. I couldn't get a whole sentence down before needing to look up again.

· Child has an unusually difficult time learning cursive writing, and shows chronic confusion about similarly-formed cursive letters such as f and b, m and n, w and u. They will also difficulty remembering how to form capital cursive letters. - most small case wasn't a big deal but those capital letters still are a big problem. My hand writing is a mixture of print and cursive.

· People with dyslexia usually have an "impoverished written product." That means there is a huge difference between their ability to tell you something and their ability to write it down. I must be one of the few who actually like writing stories but getting down what is in my head is difficult

· Most dyslexic children and adults have significant directionality confusion.- yup, east and west have always caused me problems. I have to think about the sun when it comes to east and west. I have the worst time giving directions. North and south aren't such problem.

· People with dyslexia have extreme difficulty telling time on a clock with hands- I actually buy watches with hands so I keep practicing.

· People with dyslexia have an extremely difficult time organizing their belongings. They tend to pile things rather than to organize them and put them away. It is almost as though if they can't see item (if it is behind a door or in a drawer), they will forget where it is.

So they have extremely messy bedrooms, lockers, desks, backpacks, purses, offices, and garages.

· Light Sensitivity (Scotopic Sensitivity)

A small percentage (3% to 8%) of people with dyslexia also have light sensitivity (sometimes called scotopic sensitivity). These people have a hard time seeing small black print on white paper. The print seems to shimmer or move; some see the rivers of white more strongly than the black words. These people tend to dislike florescent lighting, and often "shade" the page with their hand or head when they read.- I'm mild, sometimes I even wear sunglasses outside on overcast days. Sometimes it's too dark for me and for other people it's just fine. Print doesn't shimmer at all.

don't ask me how the boxes got in there, I don't know. They weren't there when I copied this from word.