Dyslexia

My DH has dyslexia. Although very intelligent he spent his secondary education in the lower grades and so became very bored. He is able to read and write but he reads more slowly than you would expect and his spelling...well the least said the better lol. He mixes up g and j because they can have similar sounds and tends to spell using the sounds he hears when he says a word so tends to miss out the less audible sounds.

It must have been terrible for him at school. He left with no qualifications because in those days if you were less able in one subject then you were less able across the board.

Yes, I have no sense of direction either. I'm okay with maps but not when we get nearly there and I have to work roads out. It's definitely part of the same spectrum I reckon.
I read that 40% of millionaire businessmen are dyslexic, though only 10% of the general population. It suppose it could be frustration making people push harder or the originality of being wired up slightly differently.
Looking on the black side though I was talking on-line to a desperate lady whose bright 14 year old was having no help and was in a class with children with severe general learning difficulties. It's still happening!

In my first teaching job I had a class of reasonably bright children one of whom simply could not spell, but dyslexia was not at that time in the teaching vocabulary. Many years later I remembered her and put two and two together. I often wonder what happened to her.

You are quite right to be proud, Anno, they have to work so much harder than other students. My grandson had an extra 25% of time in his exams after he was statemented. He could have had an amanuensis, but he said he would rather manage on his own. Most universities have now made provision for students with special needs of various kinds but it has been a long struggle. I met plenty of teachers who refused to believe the condition existed, even when they acknowledged that the children were of at least normal intelligence. So many poor children were labelled rebellious and punished in the past.

Senior GD was not assessed for dyslexia at school, though I could see that this was her problem. When she reached 6th form college she belatedly got all the help she needed. She would have loved to do GCSE History at school but couldn't cope with extended writing. She was helped at college to cope with written work and at University she has received even more help, including a new laptop and printer and last year did very well in her course. This year she is in the final year of a degree in fashion production and technology and I am so proud of her.

Well done, Hilda, that must have taken a lot of hard work and courage.

I've often thought my problems with driving [the sense of direction being the main problem] stem from a sort of map reading dyslexia. I also have no sense of balance; no horse or bike riding for me.

I always had problems reading aloud in class............something they used to make us do when we were reading a 'classic' book. It meant I spent the whole lesson dreading for my turn to come - and totaly ruined me for literature. I would stammer over simple words and the whole class usually ended up chuckling at me (yet something else to be bullied with). Nowadays I still have to read more carefully and slowly than most especially text books where there is no 'story' to help you along. My spelling is also dire. Whilst I was qualifying to teach in pre-schools in my 30s I attended many special needs sessions and it slolwy dawned on me that I was in the dyslexic 'spectrum' albeit at the less severe end. It explained my complete inability to play the recorder, read music (yet come from a musical family) and learn to drive. I have problems with time tables also. However, I taught myslef several tricks (ruler under the line of print for example) and pushed myself through an O.U. degree which I passed. I also managed to get a driving liscence by learning on an automatic first - then progressing to a manual. Once you know its not you being 'stupid' and someone gives you some support and help most things can be sorted.

Mackintosh was dyslexic. I was looking at some old coursework that my son did about him last night and had forgotten the fact. One reason why he is so enigmatic as an artist/architect as he wrote very little about himself.

Yes, they do learn all kinds of strategies to help them cope, especially if they are very intelligent. It is interesting to learn that many successful people, in all kinds of fields, are dyslexic. If you google 'what is dyslexia' you find many other effects of the condition, not just the problem with reading.

One of our grandsons is dyslectic. He's thirteen, and attends a small, private school in Leicester. He is highly intelligent and I'm always amazed by the breadth of his knowledge...particularly in matters of history. Given half a chance, he would talk about the subject until asked to stop. At the weekend, my family in Leicester, had a "who dunnit" party. Every member of the family had a role to play. When my grandson was given his part to read, according to his father, he was visibly shaking with nerves. We're all very proud of the fact that, inspite of his dyslexia, he played his part to the best of his ability.

And the more intelligent the child the more they manage to work round it but at the same time underachieving.

Oh, my husband comes from the Wirral originally. I agree computers are a life saver if you are dyslexic.

Some people still say there's no such thing as dyslexia, as if it was a disease or something It's just to do with how your brain works, some people's brains don't make the automatic connections that Mr Average does without having to think about it. It makes me furious that really bright kids and adults are treated as hopeless just because no-one helps them get round the problem.

I am glad to say that when I was Head of the Wirral Schools Remedial Service, serving every primary and middle school in the Wirral, we gave a course for 16 teachers a term on the teaching of reading, with a special module on dyslexia. I also helped the local Dyslexia group and converted the headteachers who also thought it was a middle-class excuse for less talented children.
I was very well aware of the reality of the problem, as my own daughter suffered from it, in spite of being highly intelligent. Unfortunately, her comprehensive school failed to recognise it and she was put into the bottom stream where she got bored and started being a nuisance. Three of her four children are also dyslexic, but they were luckier with their schools and had some one to one teaching. The internet has been a boon - one grand-daughter, who has two children, is studying for a degree with the OU and finds Spellcheck invaluable.

It concerned me when my children were young [@ 25 years ag] that a good friend who was a headmistress of a primary school said to me one day that there was no such thing as dyslexia. Those words stuck in my mind; thankfully my two never had a problem, although a child I looked after for a while was dyslexic. I didn't agree with her at the time but I wonder how and when attitudes changes to dyslexia. It must have been awful for the children. I know some parents who struggled for years trying to convince the authorities that their child had a problem.