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The Horrible Jumbling of Words or ...
Nov. 15th, 2004 09:21 pm(As an aside: I considered whining about my shopping excursion and call-waiting, but figured I spare you. Suffice it to say? I hate both. Evening Shopping excursion, last hour and a half, was made mildly endurable by the unexpected appearance of my pal Wales, who also despises shopping, and purchasing a $50 dollar wool coat to replace the one that is falling apart. Call waiting? Sigh. It's rude people. I preferred Busy signals. I understand why people think it is a necessity, but it is still rude. And I preferred life without it. Heh. Aren't you glad I spared you?)
The Horrible Jumble of Words...
While I was growing up people used the words dyslexia, learning disability, mentally challenged, stupid, slow learner pretty much interchangably to describe someone who could not easily decipher letters or sounds or had difficulty learning.
People take the oddest things for granted. Hearing and quickly deciphering words and syallables. Being able to remember the lyrics to a song. Deciphering an accent or the tone of the words used. Being able to quickly read a book in one sitting, just a few hours, and write a review on it. Being able to learn a language, any language. Being able to speak without a stutter or a lisp.
Hearing consonants. Trusting that what you heard was correct and not having to double-check. Being able to take notes during a lecture. Knowing when you copy words from a book, a black-board or a computer screen you are copying them correctly. Taking a multiple choice test without the fear of circling the wrong letter by accident or jumping down a row on the computer form. Hitting a pool ball and seeing how far it is from your stick. Tying your shoes. Knowing left from right automatically without having to double-check.
When you hear dyslexic? What is the first thing you think of? Is it - oh they flip letters and numbers around? If so, you have no idea what dyslexia is.
I remember in College, a researcher asking a friend of mine what it was like to be dyslexic, for her to explain how she saw the world differently than she did. She stared at him for a moment, then said: Why don't you explain how you see the world to me? For me, it's normal. This is what I've always seen. I don't know anything different.
This is a difficult post to write, partly because it is personal and thus tough to put into words effectively, but I think it is an important one. So bear with me, if you are reading this. I hope you are, because I want people to understand what it is like to have a learning disability. To know it does not mean you are stupid. Some of the most brilliant minds of our time, had learning disabilities - one was Albert Einstein. It can be compensated for. All it means is those of us who have it, who see and hear the world differently, have to work a little harder at communicating, translating and deciphering what we see and hear than others.
[Updated to add the following analogy, which hit me on the way home from work today: A good way of understanding dyslexia is - if you have ever had to convert text, scan a document, import a document from html/ASCII/MAC or PDF file to a Word/Windows or some other format = What usually happens? If your converter program is anything like mine - sometimes the translation is perfect. Every word exactly the way it was before. Sometimes just the spacing is off. Sometimes a few words are garbled. Sometimes one paragraph but not another one. And sometimes the whole document is pure gibberish and you have to find another way. That in a nutshell is life for someone with dyselxia or audio/visual coordination difficulties. The brain sometimes translates the data feed to it perfectly, sometimes not at all - depends on the situation.]
Those of us who live with a visual and/or auditory coordination ephasia(sp?)
otherwise known as dyslexia, live in the looking glass world. I hope through this post to show how I've learned to compensate and deal with this world.
( Going Through the Looking Glass )
Okay must go to bed now. Hope that made sense and wasn't too rambling. No time to double-check.
The Horrible Jumble of Words...
While I was growing up people used the words dyslexia, learning disability, mentally challenged, stupid, slow learner pretty much interchangably to describe someone who could not easily decipher letters or sounds or had difficulty learning.
People take the oddest things for granted. Hearing and quickly deciphering words and syallables. Being able to remember the lyrics to a song. Deciphering an accent or the tone of the words used. Being able to quickly read a book in one sitting, just a few hours, and write a review on it. Being able to learn a language, any language. Being able to speak without a stutter or a lisp.
Hearing consonants. Trusting that what you heard was correct and not having to double-check. Being able to take notes during a lecture. Knowing when you copy words from a book, a black-board or a computer screen you are copying them correctly. Taking a multiple choice test without the fear of circling the wrong letter by accident or jumping down a row on the computer form. Hitting a pool ball and seeing how far it is from your stick. Tying your shoes. Knowing left from right automatically without having to double-check.
When you hear dyslexic? What is the first thing you think of? Is it - oh they flip letters and numbers around? If so, you have no idea what dyslexia is.
I remember in College, a researcher asking a friend of mine what it was like to be dyslexic, for her to explain how she saw the world differently than she did. She stared at him for a moment, then said: Why don't you explain how you see the world to me? For me, it's normal. This is what I've always seen. I don't know anything different.
This is a difficult post to write, partly because it is personal and thus tough to put into words effectively, but I think it is an important one. So bear with me, if you are reading this. I hope you are, because I want people to understand what it is like to have a learning disability. To know it does not mean you are stupid. Some of the most brilliant minds of our time, had learning disabilities - one was Albert Einstein. It can be compensated for. All it means is those of us who have it, who see and hear the world differently, have to work a little harder at communicating, translating and deciphering what we see and hear than others.
[Updated to add the following analogy, which hit me on the way home from work today: A good way of understanding dyslexia is - if you have ever had to convert text, scan a document, import a document from html/ASCII/MAC or PDF file to a Word/Windows or some other format = What usually happens? If your converter program is anything like mine - sometimes the translation is perfect. Every word exactly the way it was before. Sometimes just the spacing is off. Sometimes a few words are garbled. Sometimes one paragraph but not another one. And sometimes the whole document is pure gibberish and you have to find another way. That in a nutshell is life for someone with dyselxia or audio/visual coordination difficulties. The brain sometimes translates the data feed to it perfectly, sometimes not at all - depends on the situation.]
Those of us who live with a visual and/or auditory coordination ephasia(sp?)
otherwise known as dyslexia, live in the looking glass world. I hope through this post to show how I've learned to compensate and deal with this world.
( Going Through the Looking Glass )
Okay must go to bed now. Hope that made sense and wasn't too rambling. No time to double-check.