Wondering??????

OKay, let me tell you! It made me chuckle to read this:-)
I am dyslexic. Everything is pictures for me. One of the reason I couldn’t read for soo long was because writing meant nothing. I see in 3d picutre form,I don’t see the word. This puts me at an advantage being a nurse. I visualize it,I don’t visualize the words on the page. I visualize where to put the injection,not the instructions on where to put the injection,know what I am saying?
Yes,it is a trait of being dyslexic. Just one of the many benefits.

… yes, this is soemthing I’ve seen in kids with dyslexia. In the classroom — and life! — it translates into a kiddo who does *not* know the important stuff from extraneous detail. We work on strategies to figure that stuff out, because it’s important. IT can also translate into not seeing that the impulse to do this, or buy that, is *less* important than the consequences afterwards — a real thinking problem, not a moral problem. (Yea, this would be the person who buys the car with the best cup holders ;-))

Hi Sue,

My 14yo dd definitely has difficulty sorting the important stuff from extraneous detail. She gives the one-in-a-million liklihood of something the same importance as the most commonly accepted response. This showed up on her testing also. What are the strategies I can use to help her see the difference?
Thanks!

Blessings, momo

>>It’s like he sees the whole picture all the time.<<

bingo!
My youngest, when he was in first grade, drew a picture of his
room, from the perspective of being up on the ceiling, in a corner…

Strategies - Many times I will say, “Your teacher is trying to
teach you ________, or your teacher is looking for ________.

Sometimes it helps to write down the title of the chapter you
are reading, read the questions at the end of the chapter,
look at highlighted words.

Anne

I disagree…this is not disordered, just DIFFERENT. If I need an injection (or worse…like an IV!) I want SOCKS to do it…not the person who got A+ for the best essays in university and has many wonderful academic degrees…same for my surgeon!!! With all respect for your usually excellent opinions, you are judging apples using the criteria for oranges. Unfortunately, in a lexic society with a school system run by and for lexic types, the apples sometimes get a funny label…just the view from my window, of course, but…

Sorry, Sue J…I should have also said that it IS important to work on this, and that for some kids you ARE possibly correct that this is a deficiency, I’m certainly no expert other than in the type of kid my son is and I am (and I think, from her posts, that socks and kids are!). We DO have to help them become contributing adult members of society who can make the choices they need to make and have the basic skills they need to live as independent adults…but school success does NOT always equal life success, and school problems often end when school does, as Patricia Vail so wisely says…sorry to post so reactively! AND, while I don’t want you doing my IVs or operations, I DO want YOU teaching my kid…!
best wishes,
Elizabeth

They often talk about dyslexics being very visual… seeing things in the big picture that others cannot. They don’t talk about that as being the reason they have trouble reading but it’s an interesting thought.

There’s a tape made by a woman who founded a school for dyslexics - Diana King that speaks to the interesting abilities of many dyslexics in three dimensional space. Sounds like your son fits the profile. I know my own does.

The book, The Gift of Dyslexia, speaks about some dyslexics seeing the printed word 3-dimensionally. According to the book, that is what makes reading tough as they try to look at all angles of the letter/word to decipher it. You may enjoy reading this book.

I used “sometimes” as the topic heading because it’s important. SOme of our kids are apples, some are oranges — can’t tell which one this one is. You’re absolutely right, lots of learning problems are very specific to academics (and certain kinds of academics), and it’s only the emotional baggage that remains once we’re not being asked to get wonderful academic degrees and write essays. And I sure wasn’t trying to label dyslexic kiddos as being unable to see the forest for the trees (and doomed to be impulse-driven for the rest of their live). (And BTW I’m reasonably good with a needle when I have to be — but that’s another story ;))

I’ve too often seen it reduced to just thinking about academics, though, when a person really does have difficulty not just (or sometimes even) with the reading and verbal stuff, but in organizing and prioritizing information. “Impulse control” is a big issue for lots of students, but it’s important to have some idea what’s behind that issue. It can make the difference between working with someone to find a niche where they can flourish, vs. being at a “basic living skills to be functioning” (academic and otherwise) — working wiht older students and adults, I too often see the latter when perhaps it could have been the former.

Elizabeth,
And would I like you in my corner? Heck yes!

There is two sides to a coin. While there are positives,there are also negatives. Sometimes looking on the positive keeps me going:-) And BTW,I probably would not buy a car with bad cup holders:-) Spent enough time with one already!

I do agree with Sue,there is things that can be done to help a kid survive in class. Sometimes it’s simply understanding yourself better.

You know what, maybe I’m dyslexic too. Never really considered myself one…..but the cup holders in my last car was an important issue to me.

Tho’ the “Forest for the trees” issue seems to be totally independent of reading problems — I’ve seen it in kids with great reading skills, too. I suspect it would be classified as an executive function problem. AWareness is a huge part of developing strategies for working around it — for linear analytical thinkers, analyzing what’s most important with a mental system (so for finding the “main idea” as opposed to a detail in a paragraph, you go through each sentence to see if that sentence is about what you think the main idea is… if it’s only one, forget it… for figuring out if the cup holders are the most important … hmmm… ).

Have you ever been really thirsty,finally you get a cold drink. A big one,because your really thirsty,only to have it fall out of the cup holder that was too small , and it spilled all over your carpet? You didn’t even get a sip,you’ve been running around,or cycling,( hah) it’s hot and your THIRSTY. For god sakes why CAN”T they make a cup holder that fits the cups they give you these days?

I have personally thought about a better design,while mad as a wet hen,sitting at the light,seeing the next 7-11 right in front of me. God it seems like a slow light. Imagine how many ideas have come from a situation such as this?
I can see the cup holder in my mind,hell I will use the cup,now empty,laying about all the other clutter now soaked with diet coke,as a model.

Forest for the trees? Okay,I suppose I would pick trees,call me deficit,don’t matter to me. I’ll be a millionare soon enough:-)

Let me know what cars these cup holders of yours will be in, I’m buying one. And when you start making millions…..how about opening a school for all the dyslexic’s? You’d be a great role model……you could build it in the forest or in the trees. LOL

I’ll have one of your sons design a bird feeder that has a remote control device so that when I see that squirrel on there, just a press of a button and that dude is nudged off. Nothing cruel — just gratifying :)

I use my daughter’s details to help me all the time. I am forgetful and she helps me find my keys, glasses, where we left this, who was there, etc. Then she says “I know….if I remember that, why can’t I remember the word “was”?”
and we laugh about it. These kids are deeper than their disabilites!!
Melissa’s Mom…..Connie

One of mine finally remembered how to spell would, should and could because she’d say to herself “Oh, You LD!” — and stick thebeginning on and get it right every time. Learning to laugh is a real key…

We had a gift exchange at work, and I got the woman who is dyslexic’s name. She ask for kitchen glasses, and told me the name of the print. IVY. So I go to Walmart….no print called IVY, so I stood there awhile and thought…..OK, if my son said IVY, what would he really mean. I found the exact match, a print called Sandlewood….but it did have some IVY in it. So I guess, living with a dyslexic has it’s advantages. LOL

Hmmm,:-) A squirrel chaser. Okay,it would have to be Johnny,Joey wouldn’t approve. He would be feeding the squirrels of the world. But of course YOU know that,your a part of OUR family!

Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants. She never misspells because.

And THEN, with a special school (world wide please!) run by someone who KNOWS what’s what, I will no longer have to post reactively to people who are REALLY on MY side…(sigh!)

If somehow we could get across to everyone that, while the strategies to improve our weak areas MUST be discovered, we are all designed to take on one specific range of jobs…one man’s disorder is another man’s talent!

And the funding for said school would NOT be keyed to any DX…! I guess I’ll go off and dream about this utopia…yet, somehow, if we are ALL dreaming about it, maybe some wee bits will filter into our local schools…

Elizabeth,
You got it girl! Why is it always a negative thing? Something to fix? Something to make one feel inferior about? Why is it that being different is something that must be fixed?

I believe our kids will guide them into the light of acceptance and mutual respect. It won’t be IDEA that does it,it will be our kids,proudly standing up and being counted.

That’s one for the books, too :)