On 2013-09-10 12:51:06 +0100, Baz said:
snip

My "training" to deal with dyslexia when reading, was to recognise the
word and not to get bogged down trying to spell it. But writing is a
different matter. Thanks to spell checker software it is quite easy now.
When I was at school there was no such thing. A NIGHTMARE.
My music teacher was sympathetic and taught me to read music, in a basic
way. And my maths teacher was stunned that I could master to some degree
algebra and trig. at age 11 when I went to the comprehensive school.
My primary school teacher thought I was thick, so I never tried to
impress her. I just grunted and got myself a bad attitude. My older
brother tought me most things then.

Thank goodness things have become better for the younger dyslexic.
Baz

An awful lot depended on how old you are now! One of my family is
severely dyslexic and now in his fifties, another in their 30s has the
problem equally badly but wasn't diagnosed for years. The different
approaches, understanding, knowledge are simply astonishing. The 50
something had some kind of funny little machine that was supposed to
make it easier for him to read, iirc. Luckily, he went to a boarding
school where they were au fait with that kind of problem, as he was one
of the earliest to be diagnosed and treated with understanding and
specific assistance. At one time, 'they' thought left handed children
were more likely to be dyslexic. It's hardly strong evidence but I'm
the only (mostly) left handed member of my family and my spelling is
near perfect ( do not be fooled by the typos). This is not because of
some gift I have, it's just that I remember the construction of a word
easily and almost see a picture of it when I'm using it. And I learned
to read when very young and have always read a lot. Otoh, I am really,
really bad at maths (not arithmetic) and my brain just glazes over when
people start talking mathy things. And in that instance and thanks to
*my* age, I didn't have to do maths O level and gave up maths
altogether at 14. Dyslexia has absolutely zero to do with
intelligence. Otoh, how people express themselves and use words, even
if they can't spell, probably does! ;-) Just as a rider, when I was
at school in the 60s, a friend's brother joined the Fleet Air Arm. He
was horribly dyslexic apparently and his gloves were marked with 'L'
and 'R'. I cannot imagine how he got away with that!
--

Sacha
South Devon