How to tell if you're Dsylexic

tbh.. I think 'dyslexia' is just a label used for people who are otherwise intelligent but have trouble with reading/writing.

If they didn't do well in other areas then they just be 'thick' but if they can score well on an IQ test then the current thinking is that they need a special label to keep their parents happy.

It wouldn't bother me but it does create a lot of unfairness - for a start you get unfair tests with people having the 'dyslexic' label being allowed extra time. Secondly you get schools dedicating extra resources to 'dyslexic' kids when in reality both kids with low and high IQs who are struggling with reading/writing would benefit equally from extra help.

There is a professor at Durham who has basically stated that after 30 years working in this area he can't really tell the difference between a 'dyslexic' child and a poor reader.

Psychologists have various different 'tests' for it and don't seem to be able to come to an agreement on what really defines 'dyslexia'. IMO it is just a meaningless label - all kids who are poor at reading/writing should get help - wasting time with silly tests and labels just make particular groups feel at ease - i.e. reassuring middle class parents wishing for the best for their kids that little johnny isn't a slow reader hes 'dyslexic' etc...
 
dowie said:
tbh.. I think 'dyslexia' is just a label used for people who are otherwise intelligent but have trouble with reading/writing.
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what you think though is in fact ignorance !

If you ask my gfs boy to read a 4 figure number say 7654 he will read it as 7564 and when he tries again but takes his time he still gets it wrong ,its often about the brain seeing the letters or numbers the wrong way around !
I have a similar problem but to a lesser effect !
 
romperstomper said:
what you think though is in fact ignorance !

If you ask my gfs boy to read a 4 figure number say 7654 he will read it as 7564 and when he tries again but takes his time he still gets it wrong ,its often about the brain seeing the letters or numbers the wrong way around !
I have a similar problem but to a lesser effect !
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I used to work with a guy like that. He left his job with us to work in a hospital, using some pretty complex maths to run/maintain MRI machines :eek:

Luckily everything that they do is (supposedly) double checked.
 
Feek said:
It seems fashionable these days for anyone who simply can't be bothered to learn to spell correctly to claim that they're dyslexic, so just go for it. There's no need to get it confirmed officially, just assume that you are in the same way that the majority of lazy buggers do.

Not that I'm saying you are a lazy bugger specifically because I don't know you.
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Yep, then see if you can get some kind of government pay out for being "disabled".
 
dmpoole said:
When my youngest daughter was 14/15 she came home with another 'Removed from class' letter.
I asked her what had happened and it was all over a teacher not helping her to spell a word.
It then dawned on me that all 12 times she'd been removed was over her asking for the teacher to spell a word for her and then I remembered the 1000 times she asked me to spell words.
I rang the school, told them my findings, they had her checked out and initial tests showed she was quite bad.
She then went to a proper centre who said that she had severe dyslexia but she was so clever that one cancelled the other out and she ended up getting 14 GCSE's.
It angers me when I see people posting that dyslexics are lazy.
My daughter must spend at least 4x longer on her work than a normal student would because she has to go over it that many times.

However (and you could try this) salvation came when one day she started to use a blue pen instead of a black one and all of a sudden words made sense.
She then started typing in blue and her condition improved considerably.
We got her blue tinted see through paper that she puts over books and she can read with less problems.
The college has given her permission to write and type in blue.
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It angers me when I see people posting that dyslexics are lazy.
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I don't think anyone has every claimed dyslexics are lazy, just that some/many lazy people claim they are dyslexic.

In the end it doesn't matter if you are dyslexic or just plainly not very good at spelling. The end result is you should put in more time and effort and out will still receive the same end result.

Spelling is an ability and a skill, like any other human skill there is a range of abilities that most likely fits a Gaussian distribution. At some arbitrary cut-off some medical test declares the one as dyslexic.
 
You can take a dyslexia test, costs about £350 when I did mine a few years ago. Don't really see the point of taking the test other than self-confirmation, I did mine at Uni so I could get extra times in exams, but more importantly so they took away the marks I could be docked for grammatical errors. I had first been noted to have dyslexia aged 13 but back then nothing changed as they didn't really see it as a condition which could be helped, apart from being a little more lenient with my spelling errors.

While I'm sure dyslexia is a real condition and I'm positive I've a "sufferer" I can see why people often think that it's just down to people being lazy and stupid, the massive growth in the condition, for me, shows how society is just trying to label people rather than address the real issues.

The way dyslexia works (from my understanding) is say you have an IQ of 100 overall, the test will separate out all of the different skill sets, reading, writing, logic, problem solving, word recognition, maths, memory, spelling etc. After testing each skill set you'll be given an IQ for each skill, for me my spelling and reading were around 30% lower than the other areas which apparently means I'm dyslexic!

What did I do to combat it? Not much. Knowing I'm actually weaker in some aspects gave me the incentive to concentrate a little more and stop being annoyed because I couldn't do things others seemed to do without thinking. Apart from that it's things like re-writing sentences so they sound a little clearer seem to work, rather than attempting to spells words I couldn't I'd just change the word to one I could spell.

All this I've been doing since school so it's nothing new. The only practical advice I can say is use a spell checker and re-read things you write, try and read more (if you're like me you don't read at all) reading I found to help understand how sentences work and generally get you use to how things are written down.

Good luck!
 
D.P. said:
In the end it doesn't matter if you are dyslexic or just plainly not very good at spelling. The end result is you should put in more time and effort and out will still receive the same end result.
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WRONG.
A real dyslexic could spend hours upon hours reading a sentence and the letters will still be jumbled up.
 
dmpoole said:
WRONG.
A real dyslexic could spend hours upon hours reading a sentence and the letters will still be jumbled up.
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i really struggle with sentence structure really badly (im dyslexic btw) but i read fine. i struggle with spelling but ive work hard all my life and you just learn to deal with it. spelling can be improved but i takes a lot of time and effort. I can write a sentence and look at it and think thats a well laid out sentence there perfectly structured nothing wrong with it what so ever, some1 else reads it and goes ... this is awfully its hard at times but i the IT business i dont have to type up much stuff except a report every now and again.

a quick question am i the only dyslexic who finds it really hard to read spreadsheets
 
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Spend_day said:
a quick question am i the only dyslexic who finds it really hard to read spreadsheets
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Don’t think I find it harder than anyone else, I get lost when looking from row to row if there is a lot of similar information but I'd guess everyone does if it's a complicated spreadsheet as you're eyes play tricks on you.
 
Meridian said:
That might be the problems - most of those sort of things are hardly havens for correct spelling and grammar. I'd suggest a bit of proper reading - i.e. books. Doesn't have to be great literature, but the idea is to get the words fixed in your head.

M
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I found this too, my spelling and grammar isn't/wasn't very good and my reading speed has been dire since I was half way through primary school due to a teacher telling me I wasn't allowed to read 'adult' books (The Hobbit etc.) when I had been reading it, so I lost interest in reading, and never really read a book for many years.
Then whilst in my first year of uni (now coming to the end of 2nd year) I met my current girlfriend who reads loads, which lead me to start reading again. Once I'd started again my spelling and grammar improved and my reading speed dramatically increased over a series of books that she lent me.
I now enjoy reading books again, but lately (last few months) haven't felt the want to due to having loads of assignments...but my reading speed etc. is still a lot better than it was two years ago, and probably better than it was a year ago.

I have been told by friends that are classed as dyslexic by the university that I should take the tests etc. as I don't grasp spelling well, but I just don't see the point in having the label if it's something I can change/fix myself.

InvG
 
romperstomper said:
what you think though is in fact ignorance !

If you ask my gfs boy to read a 4 figure number say 7654 he will read it as 7564 and when he tries again but takes his time he still gets it wrong ,its often about the brain seeing the letters or numbers the wrong way around !
I have a similar problem but to a lesser effect !
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This is similar to what my girlfriend has. She has trouble spelling but can read fine, and sometimes she'll mix up some numbers such as the situation you've described. It doesn't stop her being an accountant - she can do the hard stuff in her job, its just the little mistakes that happen.

I used to think that dyslexic people were lazy as well... until I met someone that was actually dyslexic and was not just trying to leech equipment such as laptops etc. like a couple of people at school were.
 
I struggle with numbers (which doesn;'t help when you're in a job which deals with a lot of numbers :o) however I just plod through and try my best, I'm slower than most people at working things out, but I seldom get the answer wrong. I have to re-read stuff a couple of times and don't really have "quick" wit, and prefer a slow rational reply to most things - however I don't claim to have any condition at all, some people are just more apt with numbers or have that quick mind - if I was really concerned I'd see a doctor, however I've managed to make it to senior management with a bit of hard work - though I'm good at lateral thinking and managing projects/people and so on, so being numerically minded is not always necessary. :)
 
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