Dyslexia stories

I took an online test this morning and apparently I have “significant risk”. It think it may be overplaying my early years when I found spelling and reading difficult and which I’ve largely overcome or circumvented in later life.

In retrospect and to my own credit I suppose, I achieved A* grade in A level English as a mature student and found it relatively easy. I was even offered a place at Oxford doing English if i had wanted it, but the thought of it scared me and I couldn’t see a desired vocation coming from it. Also in the A level essays I frequently reconstructed sentences to avoid words I wasn’t sure how to spell to avoid minus marks. Not as easy as it sounds under pressure in an English exam.

However, even now I struggle to find the motivation to read novels as it’s too much like hard work and I still get bored easily. At primary school my teacher told my parents she thought I was “retarded” (yeah eat your heart out) not because of work results but because I was so badly behaved and disruptive in class. Apparently in one lesson I stood on my chair and put my fingers in my ears when the teacher was talking. I still instinctively get left and right wrong 90% of the time. When driving the car my wife has to give me hand signals for direction or I go the wrong way.

https://dyslexiastg.wpengine.com/

Any stories from yourselves on this sort of thing?

Edit; my usual edits for misspells and word displacements.

@divegeester said
I took an online test this morning and apparently I have “significant risk”. It think it may be overplaying my early years when I found spelling and reading difficult and which I’ve largely overcome or circumvented in later life.

In retrospect and to my own credit I suppose, I achieved A* grade in A level English as a mature student and found it relatively easy. I was ...[text shortened]... from yourselves on this sort of thing?

Edit; my usual edits for misspells and word displacements.

@pettytalk said
Does this have anything to do with Rusty's latest assessment of your language comprehension ineptitude?

And why do you need to edit your posts due to misspelling, when the system here has auto spelling check? Most likely, you need to edit because you are using wrong and inappropriate words, which indicates you do not comprehend the meaning. For example, you do not understand the term 'etiquette'.

@kewpie said
"When the system here has auto spelling check"

Whatever gave you that idea? I see an abysmal level of spelling errors every day on this forum.

Is it just me or are some of us giving out some pretty personal information?🤔

@pettytalk said
Does this have anything to do with Rusty's latest assessment of your language comprehension ineptitude?

And why do you need to edit your posts due to misspelling, when the system here has auto spelling check? Most likely, you need to edit because you are using wrong and inappropriate words, which indicates you do not comprehend the meaning. For example, you do not understand the term 'etiquette'.

@very-rusty said
I also get the red underline when I spell a word incorrectly. So I can back you up on that one.

-VR

@great-big-stees said
Is it just me or are some of us giving out some pretty personal information?🤔

@divegeester said
Interesting to see what people do with it don’t you think.

@great-big-stees said
I may be naive but I still hold out hope.🤞👍

@pettytalk said
That's because they are neglecting to note the red underline. It's an auto spelling checker, and not an auto correcting function. The correction is optional, which also comes in handy to those who also want to sidestep foul language detection.

By any chance, are you color blind in the red hue frequency? @#!%^&^....

@very-rusty said
I also get the red underline when I spell a word incorrectly. So I can back you up on that one.

-VR

@divegeester said
I think the topic is an interesting one which might affect a lot of people in various ways.

@pettytalk said
Thanks Rusty. I'm certain Kewpie can back me up also, unless this person is a perfect speller 100% of the times he posts here. I imagine he was only trying to be humorous. I merely returned the compliment in code.

Since you know Dive more intimately than I do, since he's always at your heels a long time, do you rate him as material worthy of Oxford? Maybe as one of the plumbers there, since he likes water?

@divegeester


Dyslexia isn't an on-or-off thing, like diabetes. It is a psychologists' wastebasket description for a wide spectrum of character traits which have been commonly, and in my opinion wrongly, classified as 'deficits.' Similar to dyscalculia and autism, 'dyslexia' describes a bundle of abilities more or less strongly present in varying degrees in any given individual. There is strong empirical evidence that how people process information (note to KJ: that is a metaphor, not literally like how computers process information) is different in individuals and between males and females. Some people are primarily word-thinkers, whereas others are primarily image-thinkers; a very few are digit-thinkers (calculating prodigies) and some are melody thinkers (e.g., Mozart). There may be other types as well. Some people are very well spatially oriented and reliably find their way by dead-reckoning, whereas others rely on landmarks (I, however, am a navigational moron, but I recall telephone numbers of houses which no longer exist and license plates of cars which no longer exist and serial numbers of bicycles). More research needs to be done on how people think. Welcome to the human race: "You're all individuals, you have to sort it out for yourselves!" (Life of Brian).


PS In case anyone missed this over on the Jokes thread:

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-10), there are five criteria for confirming a diagnosis of dyscalculia. I fulfil seven of them.