Questions about Dyslexia

If you are going to be a teacher, will you expect your students to learn to do their own homework?

http://www.interdys.org will have most of the answers you are looking for, including centers in Alabama. Look up the “branches” and also check in “finding help” on this site (http://www.ldonline.org — look on the top of this page for the box that says finding help).
If you do a google search for dyslexia gift and then dyslexic strengths and dyslexia gender you’ll get answers to some of your other questions. However (can’t assume you already know this) anybody can put anything on the web so you should (good scholars would, anyway) look for a site that isn’t selling their ideas/products and will say whatever it takes to support their income.

And yes, most dyslexics are right handed or left handed, though some are ambidextrous.

And in general, it’s good not to generalize. Different dyslexics will have different strengths.

I hope you raise your standards.

Natasha,

You could also go to the library and read a few books on the subject.

Regarding questions #2 - I can tell you from experience that finding a place in Alabama that does dyslexia testing is almost impossible. One of the few places that I found that does dyslexia testing is Scottish Rite in Birmingham. They have a website that will give you some of the info that you need www.alscottishritelearningcenters.com My son was tested there last year and since then Scottish Rite has provided free inservice for his teacher and for his school the material for the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital Dyslexia Training Program.

I have dyslexia which sometimes I can spell and sometimes I can’t. Usually a person with this doens’t JUST have dylexia, they usually have other LD problems also and usually have an average to above average IQ too. The can do good in some subjects and poorly in others depending on what their LD is. I did poorly in about everything except art and PE…lol. I have a short term memory problems, ADD, and an autory processing disorder too. So on top of reading words that made no sense the teachers talking made no sense either! I spent alot of time daydreaming in school cause I had no clue as to what was going on most of the time. I watched the other kids to see what they were doing and did the same thing. Like if the teacher said something and everyone got up and got some papers and pencils I did the same thing. Then I watched to see what they did on the paper. I didn’t copy answers…just watched to see what they were doing so I would know what to do.

I flunked every weekly spelling test in third grade…every single week. No matter how hard I worked on those spellings works durning the week by that morning I would freak out and miss just enough to get an F. It was awful. I spent a great deal of time feeling stupid and worthless in school. I couldn’t learn math…letters and numbers were so hard for me to learn. I didn’t know my right and left until I was a teen agers. I have just recently finally learned which way is east and west in my town…but I still can’t seem to get north and south. If I go anywhere outside of town I have no idea which was is which…I can’t remember highway numbers or street names…I go by landmarks. I drive all over this town going just by land marks but if someone stopped me and said where are you…I could give them a street name or if I was east or north or where ever. Sounds werid I know, but I am also a excellenct driver. Have neverr caused an accident…but I park terrible! lol. Can never get the car between those two lines very well you know.

To try to really explain my LD would take a book. When I graduated from high school I was functionally illerate which I can’t even spell. I went to the library and got books about reading disorders and read (with help) about my reading problems. Once I learned what my brain was doing wrong I took the steps in the book to learn to correct those problems and taught myself how to REALLY read. I spend so many years reading and thinking I was reading, but I read thing wrong so that the information I got was really not what was written in the book I was reading and I didn’t even know it. Now I can read about anything..still can’t spell worth a darn and can barely add and subtract. Somethings I can’t do…but most things I can. I have worked very hard on overcoming this problem….no thanks to the public schools I might add…who only destroyed my self estem.
Julie

Hi,
I thought I would tell you about my problems with dyslexia,
I’m dyslexic was diagoised at 19 then retested at 25 with same results.

I do have strengths one is I can read and read well now, but I am useless at maths and spelling not you can tell huh.

I have my Dad is left hended as is my son, I have been told that having lefted people in your family has a affect on if you are dyslixic.

I did have a problum with my eyes that they rolled a lot as they are a little lazy since then I haven’t had the problums with my eyes the same.

I don’t know where my “problums” have come from but I have passed it on to my daughter as she has a LD.

Well I’m not male and I’m dyslixic but most people say to me your the first female I have met with it so I guess I am a little bit rare. I have to brothers and they are both doctors, also my son is “normal” but as I said before my daughter has problems.

My stregths are I am willing to understand people with learning problems but get worried about my daughter (I think that is normal) I get take a lot of info on board but if you asked me about it I couldn’t write it down.

There are so many websites that could help you I have found so many a help.

I hope this is of help,

Liz

I can give you a little info on my husband’s dyslexia.

1. He sees words, phrases, groups of letters literally backwards. For him to decode, he’s had to learn the physical motion of writing those letters. He reads and writes, but it’s very time consuming and requires a lot of mental effort.

2. He has an incredible memory, what he reads he remembers and can repeat to you verbatim even years later. He honed that memory when he was younger. He learns visually and auditorily (watches a lot of educational tv)

3. He’s incredibly visual, good with his hands. Never gets lost. Builds, creates, and fixes anything and everything. Very good at sports, and very much a perfectionist.

4. He’s highly intelligent.

5. He cannot spell, read, write under pressure situations or when he’s really tired. It takes huge mental effort. Things like phone numbers, left and right, and phrases he constantly mixes up.

6. He’s ambidextrous (sp?)

People tend to treat him like he is less intelligent then he is, simply because he’s dyslexic. This has been a life long frustration for him.