My Perspective

I have for many years suspected that I am an undiagnosed mild dyslexic. As words and writing are my profession or ‘craft’ I have always found my struggle with spelling quite ironic. I can usually tell immediately when a word is incorrectly spelled but I still have to use my online dictionary to be sure of the correct one. It’s a painless exercise that I do now without thinking but in school it was a vexation. I can remember doing creative writing exams where I was forced to replace the superb adjective I had in mind with a simpler one simply because I knew I was spelling it incorrectly. Like A A Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh “long words bother me”. But thanks to one primary school teacher I have no trouble spelling “because” (to this day I still unconsciously repeat Betty Eats Carrots And Uncle Sells Eggs!). If that helps you, you’re welcome.
I Googled ‘dyslexia symptoms’ and it was fascinating to see which symptoms I related to.
According to www.dyslexiavictoriaonline.com, dyslexics are dominant right brain learners and thinkers in a society that reflects and respects the thinking processes of the left brain. “Righties” can have a difficult time fitting in. They often have a high IQ (I am claiming this one), but do not do well academically, especially in written schoolwork and tests (the story of my pre-university school career). This is not to say that being a left-brain thinker is better. They have their weaknesses and limitations with certain types of processing also.
Unsurprisingly, reading problems in dyslexic children are very common. In primary school I took longer than my peers to learn to read and it was extremely frustrating. My parents had always read me wonderful bedtime stories. I grew up enchanted by Gulliver’s Travels, wondering what new land would arrive at the top of Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree and curious if the woman across the road was really a witch as she fit Roald Dahl’s description perfectly. In short I was desperate to read. Today I am an avid reader and I like few things as much as curling up with a good book.
One I never would have guessed was that dyslexics apparently show confusion with directionality such as left from right, up or down, over or under, now or later. We apparently think three dimensionally and 360 degrees around us so directionality can be bewildering. For example if you ask a dyslexic “Can you point to my left hand?” – watch our eyes and body movements. We will generally be imagining ourselves coming around the back of you to find your left hand. We do not realise it should be the hand opposite to our right hand. I have done this!
Another interesting one is extreme messiness or excessive orderliness: “messy” people with dyslexia tend to make piles of things rather than to organise them and put them away. This one is spot on.
Messy dyslexics apparently struggle to get anything done on time. There must be a lot of undiagnosed dyslexics in journalism because we often say nothing would get done without a deadline…
We send Christmas cards after Christmas. Cleaning my spare room the other day I discovered a couple of thank you cards from our 2010 wedding that I never posted (apologies if you never received yours). So there it is, I am self-diagnosed. It is quite comforting really. The most encouraging thing is that my struggles in the spelling department have not hindered me from pursuing my dream career in journalism. When schools send their pupils to our office for a tour I usually make a point of telling them about my spelling issues. It’s a great example of how they should never allow their weaknesses to hold them back from what they really want to do in life.
I can still remember the one horrid English teacher I had in high school who embarrassed me in front of the whole class for a spelling error. It did nothing to improve my spelling. Never let small minded people define you.
The things that seem insurmountable in school are often insignificant in real life. My uncle Charles is a great example. His dyslexia was so severe he never matriculated but he went on to be an incredibly successful farmer and businessman in the Midlands. He now owns multiple dairy and timber farms and has created employment for hundreds of people. I heard recently that a college student arrived at his farm to do an internship but when she heard about his failure at school she was quickly removed by her supervisors. How incredibly short-sighted.
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“You can’t help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn’t spell it right; but spelling isn’t everything. There are days when spelling Tuesday simply doesn’t count.” – A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh