Dyslexia-personal experiences and help

Something that I don't think has been mentioned on here (apologies if I've missed it!) is that some people with dyslexia can read almost perfectly, but have absolutely no idea of what they've read. This is the case with someone I know. When reading text, they miss out the odd word here and there, but have no idea that they have because they have not comprehended anything that they've read. It's very easy for their issue to be overlooked because, to the untrained eye, they can appear to be good readers.

Yes daphnedill We had a base in a small unused classroom in a local primary school. When we set up a series of information and advice evenings hundreds of teachers turned up and we had to beg the school for the use of their hall. No cash was involved - all was voluntary! On the first evening we asked those teachers to write down what they wanted to know and based all future evenings around those requests. The responses we had were amazingly positive.

Over the next years I watched the same teachers forced to complete innumerable tick lists to reach impossible 'targets' and many of them still went the extra mile to help the pupils for whom this system would never work. Heartbreaking!

MiniMouse This is known as 'hyperlexia' and requires particular input to develop language skills and comprehension (possibly as well as development of social skills).

This is slightly off topic, but one symptom of depression can sometimes be not understanding what you've read. It's happened to me when I've been really depressed and I usually don't have problems with reading and comprehension.

Making sense of written 'code' in the brain and converting that to meaning is a complicated process. It's as though part of a depressive's brain switches off - maybe something similar happens to people with hyperlexia.

My OH is severely dyslexic, labelled as "thick"in the 70's,sent to "special" school in the 80's.Life is full of coping mechanisms with him,unfortunately he still cannot read or spell due to short term memory problems anything learned goes straight in one ear straight out the otherside.Dyslexia was finally diagnosed in 2014 after he was at college completing a practical course on car mechanics...he has always been very practical,however measuring for curtains and carpets produce some strange hilarious results.part of his coping mechanism is to leave things exactly where he has put them, and as a tidy person find that can be frustrating ,it has taken a while to learn how unorganised and choatic life can be with him.
On the other hand E, my GD whom I have brought up since the age of 4 has dyscalculia,which is the equivalent but for maths,looking back both of my children had this number blindness.My OH father is dyslexic it does seem to run in families

my GD and OH are not related

Daphne I recognise that having suffered on and off with depression some days I find it harder for information to sink in , I just put it down to brain fog

It's more serious than brain fog. It can go on for weeks and is always related to very low moods. Usually I'm a very quick reader and don't have any problems, but this is looking at a page of words, being able to decode the individual words but not having any idea but not being able to make any sense of them.

Daphne didnt realise that have only called it brain fog, but somedays can look at a page of words and nothing makes sense,thought that was just one of those things that happen due to struggling to stay above water

Short term memory loss, not being able to concentrate or make sense of external stimuli are well-known symptoms of depression. I've had diagnosed chronic depression since I was a teenager and a couple of very serious acute episodes, so symptoms have gone on for weeks and months and have affected my life.

I expect it is to do with struggling to stay above water. There are definitely brain changes, but I don't think anybody really knows what they are. Maybe they're similar to the way the brain functions for people with hyperlexia. To be honest, I don't know, but the symptoms sound similar.

I have just found this thread I think I was away at the time. I may have posted it before.
Are there many other dyslexics in their late 60s on here who recognise this condition in themselves?
20 yrs ago (when I was 50) I was diagnosed as Dyslexic when starting an OU course.

I was an early and very competent reader long before Dyslexia was known of so it was never recognised . I could read well but it was found I had issues like “short term visual memory problems" so I could read it but not fully recall what I had just been reading unless I had read it a couple of times. I was constantly nagged at school about my written work.
These conditions did really take a toll on my education in terns of grades .

A few more signs of this condition? Add general disorganisation.

One thing that came to mind today was my general disorganisation. I had left my handbag at a friends house but did not realise until later. I was certain I had taken it home with me . This was a "lost bag crisis" over (a very sleepless) last night which left me thinking I had lost my handbag and contents and I was in a really dreadful panic. It was un-noticed in a friends house and thank fully she arrived on my doorstep with it about 9.30am.

I can leave trails of my belongings behind everywhere and my knitting friends are well used to picking up my belongings and returning them.

Symptoms of Dysgraphia
I have recently found this very accurate description of my hand writing problems due to dysgraphia. I found this article really good for my morale. I can’t do much about it now but I know I am not thick.

"Dyslexia creates problems in reading where dysgraphia, also known as written expression disorder, creates problems in writing. Although poor or illegible handwriting is one of the hallmark signs of dysgraphia, there is more to this learning disability than simply having bad handwriting.

The National Center for Learning Disabilities indicates that writing difficulties can arise from visual-spatial difficulties and language processing difficulties, in other words how a child processes information through the eyes and ears."

Some of the main symptoms of dysgraphia include:
*Difficulty holding or gripping a pen and pencil
Inconsistent spacing between letters, words, and sentences
Using a mix of upper case and lower case letters and a mix of cursive and print writing
Sloppy, illegible writing
Tires easily when completing writing assignments
Omitting letters or not finishing words when writing
Inconsistent or non-existent use of grammar*

Besides problems when writing, students with dysgraphia may have trouble organizing their thoughts or keeping track of the information they have already written down. They may work so hard on writing each letter that they miss the meaning of the words.

I experience all of the above.

I still have dreadful problems hand writing. The wrong words just come off my pen, capitals appear and grammar and punctuation is difficult. I find even writing a simple note to the milkman difficult and usually needs two goes because I make mistakes.
I hope this is useful to someone.