Signs of Dyslexia

I jump back now to a period of extreme personal frustrations, just prior to finding the book ‘The Gift of Dyslexia’.  I had been unemployed for about 6 months at this time.  I had spent a good portion of two of those months bettering myself and learning more computer skills, etc.  I remembered talking to my doctor a good year or more earlier when I was in to see him, about dyslexia, and what could be done for me. 

Now let me say here, I think I have a great doctor.  He has been our family doctor for years, and knows all of our children.  I literally trust him with my life.  I am planning on living a long life, and I can only hope he will continue to practice medicine as long as I live, as I don’t want to find another doctor.  I think a lot of you can relate to this, and understand where I am coming from.  His comment to me was along the lines that there is much that can be done for children who have dyslexia today, and would encourage one to take advantage of those services.  However, as for adults, he wasn’t aware of anything that I could do, but to continue on the best I could with where I was at that time. 

I was sadden by this news.  I didn’t want any medications.  I feel the less medication one takes, the better off they will be in the long run.  However, I was hoping he was aware of classes or support groups, or something that was out there for the working age people with dyslexia, who probably didn’t have much resources available to them when they were younger.

So, during this time, I decided I would do a google search on signs of dyslexia.  Was that an eye opener to me! I will list here many symptoms or signs or dyslexia.

I have discussed the reading challenges.  They don’t like to read, read slowly and very unevenly. They have a hard time understanding what they read, and get tired easily by reading.  Mixing up letters in words, or words being seen backwards is common.  Letters like b,d, and m,n and p,q are often interexchange.  They will see house, but say home, and on and on.

There are also speech indicators.  They may stutter.  They may take a long time before they even start talking, like age 2, 3, or even older.  They have a hard time sounding out words.  Enunciation and pronouncing words are challenges.  They can be easily distracted by sounds that are around them.

Spelling is another huge indicator.  They hear words differently, and then try and spell according to how they hear the word.  Not to mention words that sound the same but are spelled differently. Which ‘their’ do they write?

They appear bright, and highly intelligent, but are often labelled lazy, dumb, careless, immature, etc.

They appear to zone out, or daydream

They often are clumsy, uncoordinated, or poor at ball or team sports, prone to motion sickness

Dyslexia’s can be ambidextrous, and confuse right/ left, as well as over/under, etc.

They can have challenges with math.  Besides seeing numbers backwards 6/9, 3/8, 2/5, they depend on fingers or other tricks, have challenges with word problems, or doing any math over algebra level.

Another indication is they have challenges with time, as in reading a clock with hands on it, managing time, or being on time.

A dyslexia has excellent long term memory for experiences and locations they personally had, yet can’t remember facts or sequences which he/she has not experienced.  They think primarily with images and feelings

One will have extremes’ in their life, very disorderly or compulsively orderly, class clown or too quiet, extremely early or late developmental stages (talking, crawling, walking, etc.) heavy sleeper, or light sleeper, thus causing  bedwetting beyond appropriate age if they are heavy sleepers, very high or low pain tolerance, emotionally sensitive, strives for perfections.

For a dyslexia, mistakes and symptoms increase when they are confused, have time pressures, stress, or poor health.

And you thought reading was the only sign of dyslexia?  Of the above 12 paragraphs, I have had challenges in 10 of the 12.  And several symptoms, if not all in those 10 categories.

I would suggest that if you, or someone you know, have challenges in 4 or more of these paragraphs, what would it hurt if they were tested for dyslexia?  With what is available today, I think we are doing a greater disservice to them in the long run, if we don't reach out now to help them, no matter their age.

As I mentioned before, I don’t like taking medication.  There is a time and place for them, but I think it should be a short lived duration, if possible.  There are options out there that does not require any medication that can help these people.  I know.  I took a class that had no medication attached to it at all. 

There is help out there for you.  After all, you don’t know what you don’t know.

Next post: Motivation