Talents · Creativity · Gifts · Imagination · Natural Abilities

Dyslexia is…

The Many Facets of Dyslexia

When you learn to focus, you are finally able to realize many facets of your potential and are able to take charge of your life. You experience choices and successes that have eluded you all of your life.

You open up to increased self-esteem, the value of which is immeasurable. You learn to understand and accept yourself. You are different, unique, and talented!

The following paragraphs were written by students training at The Dyslexia and Learning Disability Center Inc. They were written to explain how the world is experienced by the dyslexic and to provide understanding of the many facets of dyslexia.

The ability to see multidimensionally…

. . . all at once, or from any one place at a time. The ability to think in pictures and to register those pictures as real. Thus, you mix in creative thinking with reality and change what you see and hear.

Disorientation

You’re “spacey.” It can be seen in your eyes or felt inside your mind. You start running your imagination, because something “triggers” you to do so; then you “drift” and make mistakes. Triggers can be written or spoken words, movement, confusion, sounds, people, exhaustion, sensitivities, emotions, hunger, fear, anger, etc. Thus, dyslexia affects your life and the lives of those around you.

Running Daydreams

You can’t hear or see things around you accurately. You’re always rapidly creating in your mind, so you never hear what others really say, or you forget what they say.

A Talent to Think 3-Dimensionally. . .

. . . in pictures like computer graphics. But this talent interferes with symbols, print, spoken language, balance, movement, and the sense of time. One needs to learn when it needs to be turned off; each person has to learn when those times are.

Optical Illusions

The spatial talent can be a disability, too. You perceive in a different, unique way. You see changes in the details around you. They may not be accurate. They shift and change; they get brighter or duller

Not Just in Academics

Dyslexia affects your hearing, your ability to integrate what you hear, and your ability to follow through successfully; it affects your sequential thoughts and your ability to stay on task.

A Verbal & Thinking Disability

It can make you easily unsettled. This can create extra movement, extra anxiety, and tends to speed up your thinking rate which, in turn, can speed up your talking rate immensely. It affects your language rate, so that your talk either speeds up or slows down, or gets “stumbly.” You are trying to catch up to your rapid thinking, which increases stumbling and fumbling for words.

It can also cause you to misperceive what others say. You may interrupt others to keep explaining yourself. Or, you will stop talking because you can’t even begin to explain all of your thoughts and feelings. You always feel there is something missing in you, something unidentifiable. You cannot grasp it. What you are often missing is the feeling of well-being.

An Emotional Disability

For some dyslexics, it can move you from a calm state of mind into confusion and a reaction in seconds. It makes it hard to understand these dyslexics. If you are this type of dyslexic, it tends to make you moody, overly sensitive, and unable to communicate easily with others. Thus, there is no question that it affects your relationships.

Greater or Lesser in Symptoms. . .

. . . depending on your tolerance for confusion that moment, that hour, or that day. Ordinarily, confusion precedes learning; in a dyslexic, confusion leads to more confusion, which tends to block the learning process.

A Collection of Symptoms in Reading:

Omissions of letters in words; omissions of words, or not “seeing” a word; additions of words, transpositions (switching) of letter order; repetitions of words or sentences; reading and rereading; practicing what you’re to read and still making embarrassing mistakes; reading worse under pressure, not remembering what you read; reversals of word order; reversals of letters, reversals of words; stumbling over words, sounding out a word and then not recognizing it in another sentence; confusion over the author’s meaning or purpose, “rewriting” the author’s words and feeling you’re dumb; frustrated because you can’t understand what you’re reading. You feel that something is wrong with you.

Confusion in Math (Dyscalculia):

Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing incorrectly, with seemingly small, “careless” errors. Transposing and reversing numbers. “Forgetting” to do something; somehow, coming up with other answers: Adding when you should be subtracting; suddenly multiplying when you should be adding. Somehow losing the process; not “seeing” a problem to be worked on the page and, thus, not answering it. Not reading the directions and incorrectly working the entire page. Often not knowing how you did on a test. You can work the sample problem, but you can’t apply the process to a slightly different problem. Everyone thinks you could do it if you try.

Inconsistency in Subject Matters

You may even do well in math, but you don’t have a clue when doing reading, writing, and spelling; or the opposite may be true. Dyslexia can affect learning in all subject areas, or a few at a time; this can vary throughout your life. You feel that you have to work 7 times as hard as anyone else; or you just give up. “You have been slipping through the cracks.”

Irritating to Others. . .

. . . because the person who has it makes mistakes that look careless.

Sensitivity

You are upset when you make mistakes, or when you feel accused of being wrong. (The positive side of this is you are keenly sensitive to others, and are able to perceive others’ thoughts and feelings.) You also have a strong sense of justice; and you’re always right!

A Talent!

You are excellent in art, music, drama, sports, carpentry, mechanics, computers, designing, electronics, cooking, building, troubleshooting, and brainstorming your way out of anything. You excel in hands-on projects and activities. You are creative and bright. That’s why others think you should just try harder!

Multi-faceted

Dyslexics have complex lives; many dyslexics are intense and “high maintenance” people.

Correctable & Manageable . . .

. . . once you have been trained to do the correction, catch your confusions, and clear up your “stumblers.” You can then experience the feeling of being focused. You will then learn to alternate being focused and unfocused, corrected and dyslexic. You will use your dyslexia to learn instead of trying to plow through it day after day, becoming exhausted “trying” and “concentrating” to drill and remember. You will know when to be focused and when to be dyslexic, turning the perceptual talent off and on as quickly as you blink your eyes! You will never lose your own talents and abilities, but rather enhance them even more. Along with the rest of our techniques, you can keep boosting your skills and your self-esteem immeasurably!

Where Your Talents Are Encouraged & Your Gifts Reward the World