Are you a secret Dyslexic?
I'm a smart cookie so when I struggled to spell things I didn't think of dyslexia at first. It was only when I was at university and I started to put two and two together that I came to the conclusion I was dyslexic. I thought since I managed to get through school and I read a treat that surely I'm only mildly dyslexic. Well that might not be case. In the last few years I've been researching dyslexia to be a better English teacher (my day job) and what I found out shocked me a bit. Here I'm going to write about the secret signs of dyslexia.
Can't read an analog clock.
I hate reading analog clocks. I love digital and I hate the 24hr clock and I live a dream world where all my digital clocks also change for daylight savings on their own because figuring out backwards or forwards is a nightmare.
Can't tell your left from your right.
I drive my dad up the wall when I give directions as it is never left up this street, turn right at the so and so store. Nope it is go down this street then up this street when you see the so and so store. I still do the L with my fingers to figure out which is left and right.
Write like a doctor on crack.
Dyslexia is genetic. I get it from my dad and this is one of the symptoms he has. He writes like a doctor went on a drinking binge. He told me once it was because he knew the letter that starts a word and the letter at the end and he just does a squiggle in the middle in the approximate shape of the letters that should be there. This is clever because most brains will fill in the gaps any way.
Times table. What times table?
I can do the easy times table like five and nine and that is only because of I use my fingers but I never learnt my eight times table and I must say I praise the day when someone put a calculator into a smart phone as I now quite literally carry a calculator with me everywhere. In some Asian countries they teach their times tables with cool little box drawings. I really wish they would do that everywhere for all the dyslexic children.
Nothing simple about simple words
I once forgot how to spell The once. It is the sound you see. The doesn't sound like the. Also I'll often forget the or put in two 'the' or' in'. Give me a word like onomatopoeia any day versus the silly small words. I'm a English teacher I have to teach onomatopoeia so I know that off by heart. Ask a doctor about words they use every day and they can spell it easy but they could be as long as your arm. When I am tired this is even worse.
Can't remember your own phone number
Sequencing is a difficult thing for people with dyslexia. I don't give out my phone number to cute guys anymore because if I write it down in front of them I get so flustered that I transpose numbers. There is a pin number lock at work that I have been told heaps of times but I've only used a few times even though I've worked there over a decade.
You have to sing the alphabet every time
Yip I still sing the alphabet. I hope I never get pulled up one day and asked to say the alphabet backwards to prove I'm sober as I will be in cuffs super quick because I can't even do that when I am stone cold sober. (don't drink and never will)
Cursive or print or just both
I grew up in a world where the big kids learnt how to write in cursive and print when you first start writing. Now I write in both cursive and print all in a jumble. Capital letters also put in willy nilly. If I think about it I can write in either but I really hate those forms that say in print only because I've never written in one or the other since I was about ten.
Names snames
Phonetics aren't easy for me and I have this thing with particular names that I'll pronounce them wrong every time. It is only certain names like Helena, Maria and Kysha. If a letter can be pronounced in two ways I'll forget which way is the right way. Also if you are the kind that will go through all the names and even the dog's even though you aren't a senile old coot then it might be dyslexia.
Now I would be classed as mildly dyslexic or maybe moderate since my reading is fine but please if you have any of these issues plus trouble reading or reading aloud then you might be severely dyslexia but don't see that as a bad thing because there are some wonderful things I can do because I am dyslexic.
References
https://www.dyslexia.com/about-dyslexia/signs-of-dyslexia/test-for-dyslexia-37-signs/
http://dyslexia.learninginfo.org/symptoms.htm
http://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/dyslexia-test/
http://www.4d.org.nz/school/identifying.html
