Unusually high dyslexia incidence in the UK

[tnimble]

I've Dyslexia V. Reading words is not hard but reading the correct word is, the same holds up with writing and typing. Letters in a word can be reversed or interchanged with other letters of semi similar shape or sound, numbers can be reversed, and sentences can be swapped around. Spelling spelilng spelllng are all the same word. The longer a word the more problematic this becomes. Computers and spell checkers are great but a spell checker suggesting 8 times the same word does not help without someone the aid in selecting the correct one.

At school I've had many trouble my hand writing is terrible, and reading is far more slow then average. Teachers have given me a very bad time (I've been hit, locked up, fellow classmates instructed to mob be, etcetera). The teachers did not believe I had a disability, I was just lazy and did not want to learn. The main cause for this was not the acceptance of visual disability and the resulting disabilities. There where two kids with almost the same name (mine is Christian the other is named Christiaan), we both have the same day, month and city of birth, and lived in the same city, the other being two years older. He has a speech disability and I have a visual disability. Both of us had a bad time at school. Only just before finishing primary school our parents found out about the mixed up filing of our dossiers.


However I find that besides the people that have a reading / writing disability there are a lot of people who give nothing about using correct spelling or even using the correct words to name something.

 

[wizer]

Well there is a sense of irony here somewhere.

When I was at school I was told after some tests that I 'was probably dyslexic'. I have problems reading large amounts of text. Which is why I get by and, indeed, learn a lot from forums. Because it is conversational. When I am given a sheet of paper or screen of just text, it all goes wrong. Over the years I have learned to deal it it. I slow right down and bring the text closer to my eyes, not to see better but to calm the page down (if you see what I mean). I have to have complete silence around me with nothing at all to break my concentration. To read a novel, probably takes me 6-12 weeks. 50% of the pages are often read twice. It was never properly diagnosed, my parents were going through a bitter divorce during my school years (yes it took that long) and I largely wasted my schooling.

What's odd, is I loved learning English as a subject. It's the only class I did well at. Whenever asked what I wanted to do 'when I grew up' for some reason I always replied 'I want to be an author. '. Well that didn't quite pan out, I'm not a story teller. But I love to analyse the written word, correcting it and pointing out what's wrong with the grammar or punctuation. That doesn't mean mine is perfect. But then Shakespeare didn't get it right all the time

I absolutely hate it when I hear people say that dyslexics are just lazy. It's an extremely hard condition to diagnose properly, I admit. But that just makes it so much harder for us that do have 'difficulties'. It's one of those conditions, like Depression, that has probably been 'over termed'. People have a bad day at work and they're 'so depressed'. When someone who really is depressed is going through something much darker.

The irony comes in that I struggled to get through this thread! I will go back and read it slowly when I can get some quiet time. Even reading back what I have typed can be a struggle.

I also agree with Mike, well done everyone for not turning this into another UKW brawl.

 

[filsgreen]

Hi,


filsgreen

You just don't get it do you.


Pete

Not sure what you mean Pete, could you please elucidate? I thought Dave was making a statement about the standard of English that is taught these days. I am fully aware of the problems faced by people who are dyslexic and have never passed judgement on the standard of writing on this forum.

 

[mailee]

I have to agree that a lot of the 20-40 age group seem to have trouble with their spelling. Where I work most of them are in or around this age group and I lose count of the times someone will come up to me and ask me how to spell a word. I am not perfect by any means but studied English and have a degree in it as I was interested and it was my favourite subject. There is another guy who works with me who is close to my age (53) and he is astounded as I am by how many of the workforce can't spell. It is my opinion correctly or not that English education has gone downhill over a period of years. Who is to blame....who knows?

 

[Digit]

I am not dyslexic! But I did pickup on one point that I found very humbling, by not being dyslexic it behoves me to make sure that I write correctly and not then increase the problems for those that are.

Roy.

 

[Woody Alan]

Mike Garnham wrote

my daughter is looking at the words and spelling (not the meaning).

Very interesting Mike. My daughter has AS Grade A in Maths, Chemistry, Biology and a grade B in French, and yet is unable to pass English GCSE. She has perfect spelling and grammar but cannot understand the requirements of the questions asked in English, where an answer can be ambiguous, or have several answers depending on interpretation. French AS is based on factual translation. She has been diagnosed as having Aspergers and being Hyperlexic, possibly somewhat similar to your daughter in the reading language structure not content.
The school year tutor has not come across this before...there's always one different.
My colleague at work is a clever chap he's 45 and when he took English he achieved a higher grade than me, I have been at a loss as his grammar is appalling as is his spelling. He admitted that he was/is dyslexic but had been clever enough to work out how to pass the exam with only the smallest words correctly spelt and he could make up a story which I never could....suspect that's where my daughter gets it (the being awkward not clever).

Alan

 

[Racers]

I cannot believe that some would say that spelling and punctuation were overrated . The whole meaning of a sentence can be changed with the miss spelling of a word, or a comma in the wrong place.

Sounds like you are criticizing people who struggle with spelling/punctuation i.e. me, sorry if you didn't mean it that way, its a touchy subject.

Pete

 

[agbagb]

So frustrating, I just wrote my longest post ever, feeling quite passionate, my internet went down and Ive lost it.

So 'll try again, this time just typing and not attemping to get the english right, I hope you can get the gist of it.

Christian, you had an awful time with it, I feel lucky I got the help I needed. I was taught skills and trained to overcome most of difficulties my dyslexia causes. However my hand writing is terrible to disguises my spelling.

Thanks to those who can get the spellings right, I'll continue to copy and paste the difficult words. I'll correct communicate, in my new signature, when the spell checkers done its job on this.

What I've been thinking about is, many express themselves through their craft based hand work do so because A) Through lack of the right sort of education, and this was the only avenue left to them B) They have a talent for creativity and "Hand" skills as a direct result of the different brain wiring.

I would think there ae many out there who read forums but never contribute. It is a big step to take when you have never really communicated in written form. I had to gather up some courage to first take the plunge but I'm really glad I did.

There is probably a wealth of knowledge and experience out there as yet un-expressed that could en-rich debates in many forums. Maybe more could be done to encourage those with less confidence to make a contribution. I know many of you do already.

An opinion is often given in the media that manual skills aren't valued by society in general. Maybe this is because many with hand based skills are too fearful or unable to express their value for fear of being ridiculed.

Thanks for reading

Andy

now to the spell checker

 

[Digit]

Sounds like you are criticizing people who struggle with spelling/punctuation i.e. me,

I know not whether that was a criticism or not Pete, but it is correct. Today I was reading the posts on Sky net and there were two there that I had to read a number of times.
Whether the posters were dyslexic or lazy, again I know not, but one post was twice the length of this. It had no capitalisation, no phrases, no sentences, few spaces and the only comma was in the wrong place.
Just as you may struggle because of dyslexia so others may also struggle because the message is poorly scripted.
If it was down to lazyness then I believe that the writer has a damn nerve to expect others to put in the effort that they won't.
His message may have been interesting, I don't know, I gave up!

Roy.

 

[SketchUp Guru]

I cannot believe that some would say that spelling and punctuation were overrated . The whole meaning of a sentence can be changed with the miss spelling of a word, or a comma in the wrong place.

Sounds like you are criticizing people who struggle with spelling/punctuation i.e. me, sorry if you didn't mean it that way, its a touchy subject.

Pete

Pete! Slow down for a minute. Filsgreen wasn't criticizing you. In fact that statement had absolutely nothing to do with you. He quoted me and I believe he was expressing amazement that anyone would say what I stated I have heard. Touchy subject or not, it doesn't help to take remarks that weren't directed to or at you as personal attacks.

Filsgreen, I have indeed heard that and I also find it unbelievable that anyone could think that.

 

[cant-weld-wood]

O S*** i have been caught again for being lazy.
Sorry digit i will try not to do it again. :lol:

 

[Digit]

I didn't know you were lazy ! :lol:
The fellow I was on about was rabidly anti Islamic, I think, what ever he was saying he got it in the neck from other posters and I left them to it.

Roy.

 

[Larry James]

... The inference from the question is that spelling and dislexia are associated directly, and even that spelling is the only symptom of dislexia. The logical extension of this suggestion is that good teaching of spelling will eliminate dislexia.

I contend that this is a mis-understanding of dislexia. ...

Mike

I agree Mike, problems with numbers are also related to dyslexia. As a teenager, I hated school and quit when I was about 15 years old. I was told all you need to do is "apply yourself." That was little encouragement to a teen who had no clue why he was so "dumb."

At 17 I joined the Marines, spelling was not a high priory. However, discipline, self confidence and a can-do attitude were very high on the priority list. My time as a Marine changed my life.

After I was discharged from the Marines, I entered a 2 year Community College and did very well. Later I started working on a BS degree. With a family and job it was a long haul, but I graduated from college a few weeks before my 50th birthday.

I'll be 67 this month and difficulty spelling and pronouncing words has plagued me all my life. Then there are numbers - don't even ask me to dial a phone number. 1234 becomes 1243 even if I say the numbers as I dial. "Measure twice, cut once," not this woodworker.

I'm not complaining, I've had a good life. The last 20 years before I retired, I taught mechanical and electrical trades.

Like most problems in life, it is all about working around the problem. Children that are dyslexic usually have good general intelligence. They don't need to learn to spell, they need to adapt and work around it.

Larry

Disclaimer: Any misspelled words in this post are the fault of my spell checker, and my ancestors from from the UK.

 

[Rich]

... The inference from the question is that spelling and dislexia are associated directly, and even that spelling is the only symptom of dislexia. The logical extension of this suggestion is that good teaching of spelling will eliminate dislexia.

I contend that this is a mis-understanding of dislexia. ...

Mike

I agree Mike, problems with numbers are also related to dyslexia. As a teenager, I hated school and quit when I was about 15 years old. I was told all you need to do is "apply yourself." That was little encouragement to a teen who had no clue why he was so "dumb."

At 17 I joined the Marines, spelling was not a high priory. However, discipline, self confidence and a can-do attitude were very high on the priority list. My time as a Marine changed my life.

After I was discharged from the Marines, I entered a 2 year Community College and did very well. Later I started working on a BS degree. With a family and job it was a long haul, but I graduated from college a few weeks before my 50th birthday.

I'll be 67 this month and difficulty spelling and pronouncing words has plagued me all my life. Then there are numbers - don't even ask me to dial a phone number. 1234 becomes 1243 even if I say the numbers as I dial. "Measure twice, cut once," not this woodworker.

I'm not complaining, I've had a good life. The last 20 years before I retired, I taught mechanical and electrical trades.

Like most problems in life, it is all about working around the problem. Children that are dyslexic usually have good general intelligence. They don't need to learn to spell, they need to adapt and work around it.

Larry

Disclaimer: Any misspelled words in this post are the fault of my spell checker, and my ancestors from from the UK.

Well Larry, you are living proof that all that is needed in life is a spine and the application to back it up, you are a credit to yourself and deserve a pat on the back, well done mate, and thanks for posting an honest and open post.

Regards,

Rich.

 

[Digit]

I limped out of hospital, aged 20, partially paralized, deaf, epileptic, no balance and amnesiac. The consultant's view was that I was lucky to be alive and that I should 'make the best if it'.
Later I was sent the hospital's Pysio dept, the man who met me at the door was blind in both eyes, he was my physio!
He had been an Army Officer in Kenya and had been shot in the head by the Mau Mau, he qualified after he left hospital.
That man made it very clear to me that I didn't have any problems, that if he could achieve what he had achieved I could handle my problems.
I owe that man a very great deal.

Roy.

 

[Jenx]

I am not dyslexic! But I did pickup on one point that I found very humbling, by not being dyslexic it behoves me to make sure that I write correctly and not then increase the problems for those that are.
Roy.

Thats a great point.
Hats off to you Sir, for making it. 8)

 

[tnimble]

What's odd, is I loved learning English as a subject. It's the only class I did well at. Whenever asked what I wanted to do 'when I grew up' for some reason I always replied 'I want to be an author. '. Well that didn't quite pan out, I'm not a story teller. But I love to analyse the written word, correcting it and pointing out what's wrong with the grammar or punctuation. That doesn't mean mine is perfect. But then Shakespeare didn't get it right all the time

That sounds very familiar, I have a similar 'fasination' with language, grammer and etymology of words (I mange (to variing degrees, or understand, reading and writing) Dutch, English, Frisian, Latin, German, Arabic, Italian, Russian and Coptic), and I've heard this from others.


Thanks Andy.


Hats off Roy!

 

[MikeG.]

Mike Garnham wrote

my daughter is looking at the words and spelling (not the meaning).

Very interesting Mike. My daughter has AS Grade A in Maths, Chemistry, Biology and a grade B in French, and yet is unable to pass English GCSE. She has perfect spelling and grammar but cannot understand the requirements of the questions asked in English, where an answer can be ambiguous, or have several answers depending on interpretation. French AS is based on factual translation. She has been diagnosed as having Aspergers

Alan

Strange world...............my other daughter, a real academic high-flyer, has Asperger's Syndrome. This is one for another thread, methinks...

 

[MikeG.]

I say again, as I did in my first post on this subject..........what a pleasure to take part in such a high-class and well argued discussion! I think all contributers should be congratulated for the quality of their posts here, and this should set an example for some of the other subjects discussed here in General Chat.

This could easily have degenerated into "teachers are useless"................"in my day we had to learn x spellings per week" or...."just another excuse for lazy skivers".

There is much to be proud of here.

Mike