Though there was no kindergarten available when I was the right age, I learned the basics of reading before I began first grade. I think phonics in school would have just been confusing.

The problem as always, is that people who aren't affected don't understand that dyslexia isn't one specific thing, it's a range of problems. My dyslexia is pretty minor, but it's real. Who was going to understand, when a kid like me who could read very well 95% of time, just could not read at all, once in a while. My dysgraphia is serious, but it was always dismissed as me being sloppy and careless. No one else understood when I was little, so how could I?