When Words Don't Make Sense

[puppetmaker]

Last night Jon Stewart had Malcolm Gladwell on to talk about his new book entitled “David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants”. I have read a couple of books by Mr. Gladwell including Blink. I find his style easy to read however I tend to take some of his simplifications of complex problems with a salt lick.

He touched on something that I have been living with my entire life. I don’t exactly hide it nor do I talk about it a lot. It is just part of me and I have, over the years, learned to deal with it.

I am dyslexic and rather severely so. I have learned a number of skills that makes it less obvious to the world at large but it comes up in the oddest places.

I didn’t learn there was a name for what was going on in my head until college and I got a freshman English teacher who was studying dyslexia.

What I did know is that I had no idea that there was a difference between my right and my left until the fourth grade where my left was when I dropped my arms down next to my desk, my watch on my left hand would make a clicking sound when it hit the desk.

Now here is the funny thing, I may not be able to call up my left from my right but I am very good at directions. Take me somewhere a couple of times and I can find my way back to it. And I retain things that I learned years ago. The GPS arrow has been my friend because it gives me a visual of how I need to go. Don’t ask me how to get somewhere because I have to really work on the lefts and rights. But have me take you there and I am golden. Over the years I have gotten better about left and right and, for the most part, I can tell one for another but it can be a struggle.

In elementary school and high school I got low marks for spelling. I was informed that I was a lazy speller on my report cards. “Kathleen is a wonderful reader however she can work harder on her spelling.” I can’t tell you how many Happy Brithday Cards I created. And it was very frustrating for me as a child. It didn’t look wrong when I wrote it and even when it was pointed out, it would take me a while to see it. I hated spelling a lot because I couldn’t get it right no matter how hard I studied.

This still happens. Spell checker has become my best buddy and I have worked hard to learn how to spell things. There are words that I recheck several times because I know that they are my problem words.

Numbers and I get along just great. Mathematics makes sense to me. I don’t change them around. I had more fun with higher math. I could see the patterns in the numbers. I enjoy deconstructing a problem. I still do long division in my head to get to sleep. I love math so much.

The other mad skill I have is spatial relations. Peter is always impressed how I can look at a pile of suitcases and boxes and the like and get them to fit into the car for a convention. I can look at an empty space and figure out how I can Tetris things into it. If I say it is going to fit, it will fit. 3-D works in my brain. However 2-D and I have issues which explains my negative drawing abilities. I think it might have something to do with the dyslexia or something else my brain does or doesn’t do.

I have learned to live with my dyslexia. I really don’t know what would have happened if it had been diagnosed earlier. And frankly I don’t care. I think there are things that I do better because of it. I don’t make a big deal about it because it really doesn’t define me it just a part of me like my height or my blue eyes.

I am grateful for spell checkers.

Comments

[amarafox.livejournal.com]

I have mathematical dyslexia, and a few weird brain misfiring. It isn't diagnosed, but I am forever transposing numbers. Even at 38 I get less than and greater than signs reversed. Instead of typing 'f' I'll type '4'. And my brain reads the first part of my postal code - S9A as 'SNA' because my brain associates 9 with the letter N.

I'm grateful that it's really mild, but when I'm typing a new password and I'm tired, I'll put 4 instead of F and 9 instead of N. It's bizarre.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Some people do have a blindness to numbers the way that I do for letters and boy do I understand that.

I think I have met more people who have number issues than letter issues over my lifetime.

[trinalin.livejournal.com]

I, too, am more likely to transpose numbers around, but like puppetmaker40 I have to think hard about what's right & what's left. Great with figuring out where I am and where to go, but gimme some time to figure out what's left and what's right if you give me instructions or ask for them.

Despite my issue with number transposition (glad that my area code changed, cuz I could never remember 513 - or is it 315? Or 135? For some reason, 937 doesn't get mixed up in my head) I am pretty good at math. (And am only an OK speller - yay for spell check indeed!)

[amarafox.livejournal.com]

I get right and left mixed up, too. Oh man.

[tigrkittn.livejournal.com]

Brains are weird. My brilliant husband almost always uses "in" instead of "to" when he's writing. I've pointed it out over and over but it's hardwired. It sounds right to him in his head.

My sister has dyslexia and loved math as a kid and hated reading and writing, for all the reasons you mentioned. I was the opposite- avoided math at all costs and read everything in sight. I'm not sure what it means that today I'm in accounting and she is a librarian.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

It means that brains can work anything out given the motivation. * grin *

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

It's never mentioned in the TV show, but in the Monk novels by Lee Goldberg, Monk has 'absolute spatial sense'. He can look at a pile of rope and tell you how long it is to the exact quarter inch. He can look at an odd-shaped object and an odd-shaped hole and tell you whether you can get it through. I've thought that would be a neat skill to have.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

I remembered that from the books. I think that they used it in one episode to help solve the crime.

I can tell you whether something is going to fit or not. That's my magical power.

[alycewilson.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine is both a dyslexic and a librarian. Another family friend, also dyslexic, is a mechanical drawing teacher. He told his students that at the beginning of the class, just in case it became an issue in class. It never did, but I respected him for doing so, because it helped demystify the condition.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

I think I don't make much of it because it really doesn't effect much that I do.

I kept it close to the vest when I was editing for Del Rey and other companies because there is a stigma to dyslexic and book editing (like they think that one can't)

[ghilledhu.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I never would have guessed you had dyslexia. Your posts are always very clean and typo-free.