A question about dyslexia?

Question

I was diagnosed with dyslexia at six years old and was put into special classes for three years. I'm now 27 (almost 28) and a college student. I love to read, solve math equations, and able to take notes. I even take notes for a couple disabled students in my courses. I was talking to the girl I take notes for in my geology course and it turns out the reason she cannot take her own notes is that she's dyslexic. I'm just curious about how this can be. Is it because I had special classes to help me adapt to my condition whereas she didn't? I guess I just don't know a lot about it since it never really effects my life, well besides occasionally misspellings and wrong word choices. Can someone shed some light on this for me?

Answer 1

Everyone's different. That's the main thing.

I was diagnosed as dyslexic when I was eight. I'm in college now. I take all my own notes, and make good grades (or did last I checked, which was semester before last - don't ask). I've never liked to read, and generally can't make myself do it for more than a minute or two. I run into problems just trying to read a few sentence word problem for physics, let alone 50 pages of Greek history, but I've learned ways to do well without doing much fo the reading.

Special classes may have helped you. I was in mainstream classes my whole life, though, so that's certainly not the only way to adapt. But my mom is a psychologist with a lot of experience with learning disabilities, so that helped a lot. To me, one of the main things was just that I've known since I was little that the reason I had trouble with certain things was that I was dyslexic, and not that I just wasn't smart enough. I would think that being in special classes might have done the same thing for you (depending on the classes of course - being put in special classes can also have exactly the opposite effect on kids).

Dyslexia varies a lot in it's severity. It's not really an all or nothing thing - there are different degrees of it. Dyslexia is diagnosed basically based on a failure to learn certain skills (most notably reading) where there's no overall cognative deficit. There are other diagnostic criteria that can be used, but the most common reason a kid is diagnosed as dyslexic is because based on their overall intelligence they should be reading at or above grade level, but they're significantly behind. The thing is, there are a million and a half different physical anomilies that could cause that, so not all dyslexic kids are the same.

She might be more severely dyslexic than you are. She may have given up trying when she was little because she was told she was stupid, rather than that she was dyslexic, so she's further behind now. Or, as politically incorrect as this sounds, she may just not be as bright. Also, some people do use it as an excuse to be lazy and get out of doing work.

I'm rather tired right now, so that wasn't nearly as coherent or comprensive as I'd like it to be, but there's lots of information out there on dyslexia if you want to look for it. One website I've come across that I like is:
http://www.dys-add.com/index.html
There are even whole books written on dyslexia. I don't know any off the top of my head, but I can find some titles when I'm home over Thanksgiving - just email me if you're interested :)

Answer 2

Not everyone has dyslexia in the same form. There are different "symptoms" and degrees of dyslexia. You probably have a mild dyslexia and it certainly helps that it was diagnosed early and you got help learning how to deal with it. Some people have a worse form of dyslexia and/or don't get much help for it at all, so their dyslexia causes them problems.

I know a guy who is so dyslexic that he can't read at all and can only write his own first name, nothing else. I have a friend who is dyslexic, but was not diagnosed and helped until after high school, until that she had just been labelled as lazy. She improved a lot after getting help for her dyslexia. And then there's I, who have a mild dyslexia, which causes me some inconveniences but doesn't stop me from being able to do things, I just need to work harder than others.

So dyslexia is not at all the same for all dyslexics, they experience different problems and the problems range from minor inconveniences to major problems and inability.

Answer 3

My sister has dyslexia and was placed in a class but not until she was in junior high and I really think it is because of the classes... She improved so much and learned how to deal with it. just ask your classmate and see if she was ever taught to deal with the disablilty and explain to her that it helped you.Maybe there is help for her through the school or something

Answer 4

There are different severities of course but some people are lazy and don't want to get better. Maybe they're using it as an excuse not to work. Just a thought. People aren't always trying hard to overcome their problems.
Good for you anyway

Answer 5

I am also dyslexic. I think there are some degrees of it. I still struggle but I made it through college.

I still have night mares of being at school and not remembering my lock combination, it was horrible

Answer 6

dyslexia effects diffrent people in diffrent ways

Answer 7

yes your classes retrained the way you see things, im glad for you that it worked so well,