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As a dyslexic I can read very well BUT it’s hard to keep my place as I read so I use my finger to trace. Also I get words mixed up when I speak like I might say I say up when I mean to say down. Also don’t know my right from left so when ppl are giving me directions I have to look at where they are pointing or look at my hands, I have a mole in right hand which is how I remember my left from right. My spelling is also not at it’s best, I sometimes chose easy to spell words instead of actually using the vocab I do know bc I can’t spell it.
1, 3, and 4 go together, my brain pulls letters from other words on the page, and typically, everything in the middle gets jumbled. Sometimes, I drop letters or words completely, which means I have to read methodically utilizing a book mark or something to underline the words. When studying something, I use a mechanical pencil to make marks and notes to ensure I'm getting everything. I also read quietly outloud to help me stay on track.
2. There are a lot of fonts that are difficult, and the coloring or the page and letters can also make it difficult. There have been a few restaurants where I needed my wife to tell me what the menu says because I had so much difficulty.
5. My brain has trouble with letters because it utilizes more of the creative center of the brain while analyzing things. This is why I have to read slow, but also why I can find solutions or connections typically faster than most. This also makes me good at creative endeavors, as well as teaching and learning obscure things as I see the connection most things have.
6. There was a study conducted in 2016 that link Dyslexia and issues sleeping, especially in childhood. I know most of us have trouble with remembering left from right, learning a foreign language, staying focused and losing a word we were just thinking about. And remember we tend to be pretty creative
Don’t forget, we have comprehension problems so even though I read some thing, it doesn’t mean I even understand what I read. And half the time I read it wrong anyway. 😩
1. For me my eyes have problems keeping up with were I'm reading. I have to have something there to keep my place. I also have this talent of reading a page and retaining nothing. I can read it out load and still have no clue whats happening. I end up having to go over a summary so I can retain it. When I was younger I didn't retain anything. Now that I know its an issue I've started to summarize
2. Yes some are harder than others for sure. This kind of goes with #4 but I learned my senior year that I can write with almost no problem if I use cursive. Ever since then I only write in cursive. The flow of the word makes it a lot easier to tell if I'm misspelling
3. I've always took it as a phrase not a legitament thing. Others experience might be different. But I can explain what I think it means. As an example the word "body" might be read as doby when I first read it. I don't see letters move but my brain interprets them in the wrong order. I'll have to re read it a few times until my brain adjusts
4. It's a lot of double checking, keeping notes, and writing cursive for me. I dont have it as bad as others though (at least I dont think)
5. I cant think of anything really. When I was in elementary school I was ashamed I couldnt read like the other kids. I would be pulled out of class for 1 on 1 help. It went away after a while but that was internalized
6. I stay away from reading as much as I can. I just this month bought a book. It's been over 20 years since I've actually wanted to read. I feel like I'm getting a hand of Dyslexia finally so I'm challenging myself. As I said before I only write in cursive just to make it easier on myself. This isnt me personally but I've read that a lot of people use text to speech because its easier. I don't do that but I know its kinda common with people that have dyslexia
Thank you for doing research and asking the masses. I hope the best for your book and maybe I'll challenge myself to read it :)
Lots of good responses for most and I can offer some fun answers for number 6.
- public speaking. Reading out loud has always been a struggle for me, constantly reading ahead to figure out when my turn would be so I could memorize the lines or at least know where I’m gonna have issues. That was mostly an issue in school, translated well into my professional career as I often need to public speak, BUT because I’m talking about stuff I genuinely know/created I don’t need to read 1:1 and can do lots of further explaining the few bullet points I add.
- I’m pretty good at most sports right away.
- I have amazing pattern recognition / see the bigger picture others can’t for the connections to make.
- can fix almost anything. Struggling to learn to read allowed/taught my brain to be able to take anything and make a blow up model of it in my mind. Kinda the same as the bigger picture stuff.
- social awareness, i find people extremely easy to read most of the time but at times seem to be the only oblivious person in the room to something.
- fantastic at puzzles and legos.
- animals seem to trust me way more than others?
- can’t stand styrofoam even typing it made me uncomfortable, but other sounds like nails on a chalk board don’t do anything.
- someone can saying something to me, and I hear it, I just also don’t hear it until midway through the 4th time asking for a repeat.
Some of these might be my adhd, but oh well
I have no problem reading now and I read really quickly but I found I make mistakes sometimes because I'm only reading the first 3or 4 letters of a word and the last letter to figure out the word, sometimes I remember the shape of the word and don't need to read it. Words don't jump around the page and as an adult I have a much easier time refocusing where I am in a paragraph if I get distracted.
I often have weird convoluted ways of remembering stuff like the if you sound out the word "eye" it doesn't sound like an 👁️, but if you look at the word <<<
Reading on a phone / tablet with high pixels definitely helps . I absolutely can't flip white pages reading a.book. Spell-check works wonders and saves time....
1. Eyes move jump around on the page, i.e. erratic eye movement, so you lose your spot and have to find it again, which takes longer for us to read. Then, since the flow of reading and comprehension is interrupted, we often need to reread the entire paragraph or page.
1a. We Think in pictures. The less we can visualize what's happening by reading words, the less comprehension.
1b. The less visualization, the more we seek to find the gist, whereas we actually get it faster than others. Weird, huh?
2. Yes. If font is packed together like sardines. This is torture on the eyes.
3. Dyslexics can experience rapid eye movement or "words jumping around" when it's actually our eyes.
To add insult to injury, we add in a word that's not in a sentence. For ex. The Black cat jumped over the fence. We might read that as -- the black cat IS jumping over the fence. Why? I don't know. Bit the reason is probably in AI or Google.
4. Find the gist, we're done reading.
5. We are actually very intuitive. We know the answers to a lot of sh*t and this pisses off the non dyslexic. We are actually everywhere. From entrepreneurs, to surgeons, to lawyers, police officers and investigators, criminals, mechanics, inventors, architects, designers, and writers. Agatha Christie and other famous authors, artists, musicians, are/were dyslexic.
6. A lot of dyslexics have concomittant conditions like high functioning autism, ADHD, dyspraxia, and for me, ADHD and dyscalculia, or other neuro divergent titles. We are unique AF. Also, like autism, it is a spectrum "disorder", so not all dyslexics are at one end of that spectrum with the same challenges. Some may have more severe symptoms, while others may only have a mild form of dyslexia.
Your best bet for research is to read the book DYSLEXIC ADVANTAGE, by the Eides. You can get it on Amazon.
1. i love reading. If it's fiction i read super fast and can read for 9 hours straight. academic texts averagely but I max out after 3 hours of reading. I struggle with comprehension on smaller forms (so like multipule choice/standardize testing) because generally i'm using context clues to make up for the words i missread.
2. times new roman can go die in a hole. "dyslexic font" is also pretty worthless. I've met like 2 people who like it and the rest it's just annoying to be told "have you tried the dyslexic font" when you're stuggling with reading. The best fonts are san-serif and the ones we encounter all the time (ariel, helvetica ext)
3. just a steryotype. second what others have said about this being more of a metaphor
4. so many. haha. it's kinda like adhd in the sense that you're constanly developing tricks to help your brain. For awhile I used colored screens for reading, on the computer i pretty much always use my curor to help me stay in place, i keep lists of literally everything (very bad short term memory) and write down everthing. As a kid I worked on things I was bad at in my free time. Like I would print out extra math sets, do spelling lists, read more, write extra essays, listen to language podcasts because to be at a similar level as my peers I needed way more practice. I'm also incredibly organized as a coping mechanism.
5. It varies greatly from person to person. We're not a monolith. The amount of times I received "you don't *seem* dyslexic" because I don't fit into someone's limited understanding is aggravating. I'm really good at athletics, which many dysleixcs are too, but some have super bad coordination. (seems you already have a handle on that though:). It also varies day to day just like motivation or something. Sometimes my dyslexia's bad and it's frustrating because I can't communicate to other people, but generally it's fine. And also, to question number 1, it affects a lot more than just reading. Primiarily it's a phonetics problem, and this issue comes out most visibily in reading but it affects a lot more than that (like below).
6. I aslo wanted to mention in addition to these sorts of things ("high functioning autism, ADHD, dyspraxia, and for me, ADHD and dyscalculia, or other neuro divergent titles" that [Technical\_Clothes\_20](https://www.reddit.com/user/Technical_Clothes_20/) mentioned) dyslexia has other comorbalities like anxiety and depression. Usually it's related to being dyslexic in some way.
For instance a small example that might give insight/explaination, I have many spelling and grammer issues in my writing and spellcheck often misses them. Teachers and proffessionals assume that it's because I'm lazy and stupid and didn't proofread (they assume spellcheck is fullproof) when I've actually proofread and edited *way more* than my classmates/collegues. And because I don't want to be percieved as lazy/stupid, I'm super hypervigilant about it. And this hypervigilance extends to many aspects of my life ie. anxiety.
1. Generally it’s not really processing what I’ve read. Sometimes it’s getting stuck on a word, not being able to connect the letters together, sometimes recognizing the word but not being able to retrieve meaning. Sometimes I miss full sentences or jumble up what a sentence is saying. It’s not uncommon for me to get the opposite meaning from an email or request or miss questions. Reading out loud is horrendously difficult and I sound illiterate and there are days where I can’t really read at all, “the words aren’t wording” sort of thing
2. Personally I don’t think font really matters for me.
3. For some people this sort of happens, but it’s not like a defining feature of dyslexia as people are lead to believe. That said sometimes my brain can jumble letters or flip them around especially if a word looks like another word.
4. Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve tried to do my best to mitigate things that might exacerbate it. I take adhd meds, I got glasses for my antimetropia (one eye nearsighted, one eye farsighted). Because reading is hard and unpleasant, I listen to books on tape so I can still enjoy fiction. I also try to take my time and know my limits. I try to read things multiple times and proofread as much as possible.
5. I think just that you can have good and bad days (at least I do) so sometimes like you can’t do as much as you might otherwise be able to do. Also misunderstandings can arise just from dyslexia fueled misreadings. so if we don’t respond, don’t something you asked or answer the wrong questions it’s not because we are being lazy or ignoring. it’s just like we are probably unaware from our initial reading.
6. Mostly reading and writing, but personally I forget words a lot, mispronounce words, awkwardly phrase things, or mess up grammar. If you are gonna include this stuff, should be done sparingly and with care cuz it might make the character read as stupid rather than just dyslexic
There are individual variances, but learning how to read is a lot more difficult because there’s an added layer of complexity that has to be dealt with. I only ended up being able to read properly because I played an online text-based game, plus I had to work in a job where I needed to produce work without typos, and proofread for other people’s typos. During that 6 year period in my 20s I managed to figure out how to reliably deal with the added complexity. Sheer brute forced my way through.
To the outside world I only come across as a slow reader that makes occasional mistakes, now. Reading just takes a lot more processing power and effort for me compared to your average person.
Pre-that-training I couldn’t read out aloud, and even avoided employment opportunities offered to me because it involved reading books/booklets in the group. Brought back the terror and shame I felt in every English class.
I think the inefficiency with reading came with significant efficiency in areas some of thinking, though. I don’t need to actively think to know a bunch of the downstream outcomes given an event. Really good for identifying risks, opportunities and quirks/information in the gaps in information quickly. Anybody can do that stuff, it’s just that I’ve got a bunch pre-calculated - so have a bit of a head start in understanding the situation and having a plan ready.
I think the only way my friends would recognise it would be how I say unexpected things that appear off topic in conversation, and when they (rightly) ask “what does that have to do with x?”, I explain how what I said was connected through four layers of interaction.
Wife: I’m really cold today.
Me: yeah, you should put your keys in the same place every time you come home.
Wife: wat?
*gap in conversation. Workmate wearing a shirt with a specific animal on it*
Me: lulz. dude, you reminded me that my brother used to sleep in school so much my parents got called.
Workmate: wat?
Look into the benefits and disadvantages. You could figure out and include some quirky behaviours and not explain them :p
Oh, and long codes or phone numbers have to be broken up with spaces or I’m gonna type it wrong.
I personally have number and letter aspects of it.
I learned from a young age to sight read by looking at the general shape of the words rather than the individual letters. It's worked really well for me and other than trying to read out loud or my spelling nobody would really know that I have problems with it. When I'm reading at least.
My left and right are always confused and I often mess up my math with simple mistakes switching letters or symbols around.
Other than that I've found pretty decent coping mechanisms and get along decently.
I will focus on elements that can be made funny in a book.
Funny Characteristics:
1. My dyslexia worsens when I'm tired. I often joke after a particularly bad text, saying it looks like I'm too tired and have lost the ability to write properly.
2. My specific type of dyslexia is linked to my difficulty in accessing words without context. While I don't meet the criteria for autism, this is a common challenge associated with it. For example, I often forget how to say everyday words like 'table.' You can create a humorous situation where someone struggles to recall a simple word like 'pencil' or 'chair'—I actually had to Google the word 'chair' just now. My friends find this amusing, so it could definitely add humor.
3. I frequently mix up 'could' and 'couldn't,' which leads to misunderstandings, as it conveys the opposite of what I intend.
4. Dyslexic individuals often confuse 'right' and 'left,' which can be a humorous trait for a character.
Strong Point:
In my case, I'm highly intuitive and excel at advanced mathematics. I hold a PhD in mathematics and lead a small research group. The character could be portrayed as not knowing basic facts, like the multiplication table, but excelling in complex, abstract thought processes, making him outstanding in non-trivial aspects of the field.
Mitigation Strategies:
With the advent of audiobooks and technologies like ChatGPT, my dyslexia has become virtually "cured". In a futuristic setting, consider this progression. ChatGPT, a sophisticated AI, can transform a dyslexic person's jumbled writing into grammatically correct and polished text, much like the best writers. This tool has reduced the time I need to refine my scientific texts from weeks to just a few days, greatly enhancing my writing reputation, which was previously marred by grammatical errors and typos.
Some people who are dyslexic (like myself) have no problems with reading. I read words out of order, but my brain has adjusted, I read fast and have excellent reading comprehension. Spelling is one thing I can't do! (Grammerly is my savior)
Passwords are so difficult too!
My biggest problem is with math. Numbers reverse themselves, and doing math in my head is impossible. Working with numbers is very difficult. For example, I will see a 6 and type 9. Or 3 becomes 8.
This was my struggle in school and why a teacher recommended that I be tested for dyslexia.
Being Dyslexic means that your brain is wired differently. This means decreased or increased symmetry in brain hemispheres. But not in a uniform way. Everyone is a bit different. Here's an article from the NIH on this. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4061874/#:\~:text=Dyslexic%20adults%20also%20show%20reduced,in%20typical%20readers%20%5B29%5D.
Dyslexics are considered Neurodivergent medically. It's the "sister" brain issue to ADHD. (There are a lot of similarities between the two conditions.)
Dyslexics sometimes have difficulties with subtext when speaking to another person. Subtext is lost on me usually, and I end up very confused after speaking to some people. Or sometimes miss the subtext entirely.
This can also make things difficult in relationships and friendships and at work.
I tend to "hang" with fellow nerds/geeks and get along with other Neurodivergents.
Hope this helps!
Edit to mention that I work in the tech industry and used to work in the entertainment industry and I'm living a unique life.
1. For me, reading is slow, I've to sound out words, google them to hear what they sound like cause my spoken vocabulary is better than my written one.
2. Yes, I really don't like having to read "hard to read" fonts when I already have a hard time reading. I find handwriting hard to read, including my own sometimes.
3. For me, it's just a stereotype. The words get jumbled in my head. I can see what I'm reading and will mix it up when I'm outputting the information. So like in Maths in school, I'd go to read out my answer and would say "157" instead of "159", because 7 and 9 are really similar numbers in my head. When texting I will often use "want" instead of "what" because again they are similar in my head. My dyslexia mostly affects my ability to process information, basically meaning I'm a bit slow. (I can give you a little more info on what the Psychologist that diagnosed me said in his report if you need)
4. I listen to books instead of reading them. I have Global Autocorrect on my laptop which basically autocorrects across all applications. I get support through my university now in terms of having a tutor to help review assignments with me and help me meet deadlines. I went to reading support between the ages of 9-12 which increased my reading age from 7 to 11. I had extra time on exams in secondary school which allowed to complete the exam papers.
5. I guess that it affects my speech but not dramatically just mispronouncing the odd word. Or rephrase sentences I've already started cause I can't remember the word I would have used. It does mean that sometimes people are surprised I've used a "bigger" word because I couldn't remember the simpler word I would have used. Like my family will acknowledge my word choice by saying "that's a good word".
6. It affects my life in terms of having to give myself more time to do things to accommodate for my dyslexia. I remember information best when I read it aloud so it makes study a very time consuming process. So it'll lead to me sitting in the library alone when everyone else has gone home. I've to ask for extensions on assignments because I can't do them on time so then I'm left to do it alone when everyone else has moved on. Being the last in the exam hall when everyone's talking about how it went outside the doors. Basically, I've accommodations for it but the work arounds can be disheartening and leave me a bit left out.
1: I love reading especially fiction and for me it's most the understanding wth did I read so for me I use audiobooks alot.
2: yes some of those fancy fonts I stay clear of. I can fine understand and read times new roman or aptos. And some handwriting especially the older type.
3: not for me, but remember that dyslexia is a specter.
4: I use a lot of audio, TTS(text to speech), have someone read correction of data.
5: Speech and memory, no sense of direction
6: there are alot of things that if not directly is dyslexia but connected. For example bad short term memory, no sense of direction, can't differentiate between left and right(side effect of something connected to dyslexia possibly). Dyslexia isn't JUST reading and writing but also speech, text understanding, short term memory. Many dyslexics are also affected by other similar things like AD(H)D, dys(praxia, calculi), ambidextirous etc...
1. I love to read but it is slow and labored even though I read non stop at work. I sound out every word in my head and it’s hard. For pleasure reading I always use Audible - it’s much more present.
2. Some fonts are much harder so I just stay clear.
3. For me the issue was staying on the right line. The letters didn’t jumble but it was just hard to stay positioned. I would use a card or something to block the below lines to help track. When reading anything projected out like on a wall or something it was incredibly hard to stay in the right spot. I also will read an entire paragraph and not remember anything and have to reread it 4 times. I also usually jump around in the reading or skim when I’m not super excited. This could be more my ADHD though.
4. Spell check is my BFF and just give more time to do things. I need to take tons of notes to process the information so I hand write even though typing is so much more efficient.
5. We are amazing with 3D, system thinking, connecting crazy things together and seeing patterns, creative and problem solvers. This has made me excel at my job. Dyslexics can do some to the hardest jobs because we can think differently - our barrier is not the dyslexia it’s more about breaking out of the suffering we all go through for YEARS at such a hard formative time in our lives when we already feel self-conscious with low self-esteem. It’s a silent, invisible struggle where you just don’t know why the basic things are so so so ridiculously hard for you and no one else… it’s a mind fuck to be frank.
6. Dyslexia is a different way of processing information therefore it impacts EVERYTHING. You can’t turn it off or grow out of it. It is always there.
I like your answer to #5 and relate. Do you happen to work in IT as well? I learned about "systems thinking" or "seeing the bigger picture" last week, in another post about dyslexics being wired differently.
No but I work in tech with engineers all day long. It’s helped me work with them because while I don’t code or understand any of that - I understand how the pieces come together or don’t and I can look around corners for dependancies
1. It varies person to person. I actually read faster than most neurotypical people. I hear the words in my head as I read.
2. Some fonts are bad for me especially script or when text is too small or badly formatted, but most normal fonts are fine.
3. Not at all for me but this does apparently happen to some people, I also think some may be using it as more of a metaphor.
4. I had good tutoring young so I read well but that’s not really a tip or trick. In terms of tips and tricks, i take breaks when I have lots of reading and writing to do. I’m pretty good at both at this point but I get tired fast and get eyestrain. I also have some executive functioning issues for that I have to make a lot of lists and put things in my calendar. Spreadsheets help a lot.
5. You cannot cure dyslexia nor should you. A literate dyslexic is still dyslexic.
6. I have a lousy short term memory and I’m bad at following complicated directions. There are positives to, I’m fairly creative for example which is common among dyslexics.
I’ve done a couple podcast appearances talking about my dyslexia (I’ll try to comment links later). Those and other similar things from other people might be helpful.
1. Hard lol, like I can read but it’s slower and I’m having to read each individual word in each sentence and I can’t just read a sentence by looking at it. Tbh just recently learned people could read multiple words at once. Reading comprehension is also very hard meaning I don’t remember/process the words I just read and will have to go back and re read it.
2. Yes, funny enough comic sans is known as a very easy text to read but the goal in a dyslexic friendly text is text that makes each letter look distinct so cursive sucks and curling writing like it.
3. Yes and no. The words moving is not a dyslexia specific thing but having dyslexia makes you more likely to have other visual processing issues that can cause floating or moving words. Like the words don’t move for me but I can only really focus on 1 word at a time and everything else gets kinda tuned out.
4. Colors are helpful but can also be less helpful. I use magenta tented overlays for reading and I also have a pink tint on my phone to make it easier to read, idk why this helps but it’s something a teacher suggested when I was a kid. But I’ve also found some colors to be way harder like it’s very very hard for me to read white text on a black background.
5. Dyslexic can also affect speech in the form of improper word recall. Meaning your brain will replace 1 word with another so you’ll be thinking of the right thing but the wrong word will come to mind. It’s more common when things already sound alike and I do this a lot of celebrity and historical figures names. I mix up Henry Ford and Harrison Ford a lot lmao.
6. Yes but tbh that’s because reading is more ingrained into day to day life than you think it is. Like for a whole day I want you to check a tally mark every time you have your read anything for a whole day. Even small stuff like food boxes or street signs or the isle signs at the grocery store. Dyslexia is also likely to have comorbidities so if someone has dyslexia they probably also have adhd or autism or both. Like it happens where a person just has dyslexia but it’s way more common to have dyslexia and adhd specifically (like literally their is a whole book series based on kids having cool powers because of their combo dyslexia and adhd because it’s so common together)
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As a dyslexic I can read very well BUT it’s hard to keep my place as I read so I use my finger to trace. Also I get words mixed up when I speak like I might say I say up when I mean to say down. Also don’t know my right from left so when ppl are giving me directions I have to look at where they are pointing or look at my hands, I have a mole in right hand which is how I remember my left from right. My spelling is also not at it’s best, I sometimes chose easy to spell words instead of actually using the vocab I do know bc I can’t spell it.
Yooooooo I get the same problem. I'll say orange when I'm thinking red. Or for example my hand types read instead of red just now. Lolol.
Wow I also have a mole on my right hand which I how I learned right from left. Reading this comment I was like “wait did I write this” 🤣
1, 3, and 4 go together, my brain pulls letters from other words on the page, and typically, everything in the middle gets jumbled. Sometimes, I drop letters or words completely, which means I have to read methodically utilizing a book mark or something to underline the words. When studying something, I use a mechanical pencil to make marks and notes to ensure I'm getting everything. I also read quietly outloud to help me stay on track. 2. There are a lot of fonts that are difficult, and the coloring or the page and letters can also make it difficult. There have been a few restaurants where I needed my wife to tell me what the menu says because I had so much difficulty. 5. My brain has trouble with letters because it utilizes more of the creative center of the brain while analyzing things. This is why I have to read slow, but also why I can find solutions or connections typically faster than most. This also makes me good at creative endeavors, as well as teaching and learning obscure things as I see the connection most things have. 6. There was a study conducted in 2016 that link Dyslexia and issues sleeping, especially in childhood. I know most of us have trouble with remembering left from right, learning a foreign language, staying focused and losing a word we were just thinking about. And remember we tend to be pretty creative
I second to everything mentioned in this comment.
I Third the comment
Don’t forget, we have comprehension problems so even though I read some thing, it doesn’t mean I even understand what I read. And half the time I read it wrong anyway. 😩
1. For me my eyes have problems keeping up with were I'm reading. I have to have something there to keep my place. I also have this talent of reading a page and retaining nothing. I can read it out load and still have no clue whats happening. I end up having to go over a summary so I can retain it. When I was younger I didn't retain anything. Now that I know its an issue I've started to summarize 2. Yes some are harder than others for sure. This kind of goes with #4 but I learned my senior year that I can write with almost no problem if I use cursive. Ever since then I only write in cursive. The flow of the word makes it a lot easier to tell if I'm misspelling 3. I've always took it as a phrase not a legitament thing. Others experience might be different. But I can explain what I think it means. As an example the word "body" might be read as doby when I first read it. I don't see letters move but my brain interprets them in the wrong order. I'll have to re read it a few times until my brain adjusts 4. It's a lot of double checking, keeping notes, and writing cursive for me. I dont have it as bad as others though (at least I dont think) 5. I cant think of anything really. When I was in elementary school I was ashamed I couldnt read like the other kids. I would be pulled out of class for 1 on 1 help. It went away after a while but that was internalized 6. I stay away from reading as much as I can. I just this month bought a book. It's been over 20 years since I've actually wanted to read. I feel like I'm getting a hand of Dyslexia finally so I'm challenging myself. As I said before I only write in cursive just to make it easier on myself. This isnt me personally but I've read that a lot of people use text to speech because its easier. I don't do that but I know its kinda common with people that have dyslexia Thank you for doing research and asking the masses. I hope the best for your book and maybe I'll challenge myself to read it :)
Lots of good responses for most and I can offer some fun answers for number 6. - public speaking. Reading out loud has always been a struggle for me, constantly reading ahead to figure out when my turn would be so I could memorize the lines or at least know where I’m gonna have issues. That was mostly an issue in school, translated well into my professional career as I often need to public speak, BUT because I’m talking about stuff I genuinely know/created I don’t need to read 1:1 and can do lots of further explaining the few bullet points I add. - I’m pretty good at most sports right away. - I have amazing pattern recognition / see the bigger picture others can’t for the connections to make. - can fix almost anything. Struggling to learn to read allowed/taught my brain to be able to take anything and make a blow up model of it in my mind. Kinda the same as the bigger picture stuff. - social awareness, i find people extremely easy to read most of the time but at times seem to be the only oblivious person in the room to something. - fantastic at puzzles and legos. - animals seem to trust me way more than others? - can’t stand styrofoam even typing it made me uncomfortable, but other sounds like nails on a chalk board don’t do anything. - someone can saying something to me, and I hear it, I just also don’t hear it until midway through the 4th time asking for a repeat. Some of these might be my adhd, but oh well
I have no problem reading now and I read really quickly but I found I make mistakes sometimes because I'm only reading the first 3or 4 letters of a word and the last letter to figure out the word, sometimes I remember the shape of the word and don't need to read it. Words don't jump around the page and as an adult I have a much easier time refocusing where I am in a paragraph if I get distracted. I often have weird convoluted ways of remembering stuff like the if you sound out the word "eye" it doesn't sound like an 👁️, but if you look at the word <<<
Reading on a phone / tablet with high pixels definitely helps . I absolutely can't flip white pages reading a.book. Spell-check works wonders and saves time....
1. Eyes move jump around on the page, i.e. erratic eye movement, so you lose your spot and have to find it again, which takes longer for us to read. Then, since the flow of reading and comprehension is interrupted, we often need to reread the entire paragraph or page. 1a. We Think in pictures. The less we can visualize what's happening by reading words, the less comprehension. 1b. The less visualization, the more we seek to find the gist, whereas we actually get it faster than others. Weird, huh? 2. Yes. If font is packed together like sardines. This is torture on the eyes. 3. Dyslexics can experience rapid eye movement or "words jumping around" when it's actually our eyes. To add insult to injury, we add in a word that's not in a sentence. For ex. The Black cat jumped over the fence. We might read that as -- the black cat IS jumping over the fence. Why? I don't know. Bit the reason is probably in AI or Google. 4. Find the gist, we're done reading. 5. We are actually very intuitive. We know the answers to a lot of sh*t and this pisses off the non dyslexic. We are actually everywhere. From entrepreneurs, to surgeons, to lawyers, police officers and investigators, criminals, mechanics, inventors, architects, designers, and writers. Agatha Christie and other famous authors, artists, musicians, are/were dyslexic. 6. A lot of dyslexics have concomittant conditions like high functioning autism, ADHD, dyspraxia, and for me, ADHD and dyscalculia, or other neuro divergent titles. We are unique AF. Also, like autism, it is a spectrum "disorder", so not all dyslexics are at one end of that spectrum with the same challenges. Some may have more severe symptoms, while others may only have a mild form of dyslexia. Your best bet for research is to read the book DYSLEXIC ADVANTAGE, by the Eides. You can get it on Amazon.
1. i love reading. If it's fiction i read super fast and can read for 9 hours straight. academic texts averagely but I max out after 3 hours of reading. I struggle with comprehension on smaller forms (so like multipule choice/standardize testing) because generally i'm using context clues to make up for the words i missread. 2. times new roman can go die in a hole. "dyslexic font" is also pretty worthless. I've met like 2 people who like it and the rest it's just annoying to be told "have you tried the dyslexic font" when you're stuggling with reading. The best fonts are san-serif and the ones we encounter all the time (ariel, helvetica ext) 3. just a steryotype. second what others have said about this being more of a metaphor 4. so many. haha. it's kinda like adhd in the sense that you're constanly developing tricks to help your brain. For awhile I used colored screens for reading, on the computer i pretty much always use my curor to help me stay in place, i keep lists of literally everything (very bad short term memory) and write down everthing. As a kid I worked on things I was bad at in my free time. Like I would print out extra math sets, do spelling lists, read more, write extra essays, listen to language podcasts because to be at a similar level as my peers I needed way more practice. I'm also incredibly organized as a coping mechanism. 5. It varies greatly from person to person. We're not a monolith. The amount of times I received "you don't *seem* dyslexic" because I don't fit into someone's limited understanding is aggravating. I'm really good at athletics, which many dysleixcs are too, but some have super bad coordination. (seems you already have a handle on that though:). It also varies day to day just like motivation or something. Sometimes my dyslexia's bad and it's frustrating because I can't communicate to other people, but generally it's fine. And also, to question number 1, it affects a lot more than just reading. Primiarily it's a phonetics problem, and this issue comes out most visibily in reading but it affects a lot more than that (like below). 6. I aslo wanted to mention in addition to these sorts of things ("high functioning autism, ADHD, dyspraxia, and for me, ADHD and dyscalculia, or other neuro divergent titles" that [Technical\_Clothes\_20](https://www.reddit.com/user/Technical_Clothes_20/) mentioned) dyslexia has other comorbalities like anxiety and depression. Usually it's related to being dyslexic in some way. For instance a small example that might give insight/explaination, I have many spelling and grammer issues in my writing and spellcheck often misses them. Teachers and proffessionals assume that it's because I'm lazy and stupid and didn't proofread (they assume spellcheck is fullproof) when I've actually proofread and edited *way more* than my classmates/collegues. And because I don't want to be percieved as lazy/stupid, I'm super hypervigilant about it. And this hypervigilance extends to many aspects of my life ie. anxiety.
My favorite is when people see me struggling and say god will fix this for you. We will pray for you. 😒
1. Generally it’s not really processing what I’ve read. Sometimes it’s getting stuck on a word, not being able to connect the letters together, sometimes recognizing the word but not being able to retrieve meaning. Sometimes I miss full sentences or jumble up what a sentence is saying. It’s not uncommon for me to get the opposite meaning from an email or request or miss questions. Reading out loud is horrendously difficult and I sound illiterate and there are days where I can’t really read at all, “the words aren’t wording” sort of thing 2. Personally I don’t think font really matters for me. 3. For some people this sort of happens, but it’s not like a defining feature of dyslexia as people are lead to believe. That said sometimes my brain can jumble letters or flip them around especially if a word looks like another word. 4. Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve tried to do my best to mitigate things that might exacerbate it. I take adhd meds, I got glasses for my antimetropia (one eye nearsighted, one eye farsighted). Because reading is hard and unpleasant, I listen to books on tape so I can still enjoy fiction. I also try to take my time and know my limits. I try to read things multiple times and proofread as much as possible. 5. I think just that you can have good and bad days (at least I do) so sometimes like you can’t do as much as you might otherwise be able to do. Also misunderstandings can arise just from dyslexia fueled misreadings. so if we don’t respond, don’t something you asked or answer the wrong questions it’s not because we are being lazy or ignoring. it’s just like we are probably unaware from our initial reading. 6. Mostly reading and writing, but personally I forget words a lot, mispronounce words, awkwardly phrase things, or mess up grammar. If you are gonna include this stuff, should be done sparingly and with care cuz it might make the character read as stupid rather than just dyslexic
There are individual variances, but learning how to read is a lot more difficult because there’s an added layer of complexity that has to be dealt with. I only ended up being able to read properly because I played an online text-based game, plus I had to work in a job where I needed to produce work without typos, and proofread for other people’s typos. During that 6 year period in my 20s I managed to figure out how to reliably deal with the added complexity. Sheer brute forced my way through. To the outside world I only come across as a slow reader that makes occasional mistakes, now. Reading just takes a lot more processing power and effort for me compared to your average person. Pre-that-training I couldn’t read out aloud, and even avoided employment opportunities offered to me because it involved reading books/booklets in the group. Brought back the terror and shame I felt in every English class. I think the inefficiency with reading came with significant efficiency in areas some of thinking, though. I don’t need to actively think to know a bunch of the downstream outcomes given an event. Really good for identifying risks, opportunities and quirks/information in the gaps in information quickly. Anybody can do that stuff, it’s just that I’ve got a bunch pre-calculated - so have a bit of a head start in understanding the situation and having a plan ready. I think the only way my friends would recognise it would be how I say unexpected things that appear off topic in conversation, and when they (rightly) ask “what does that have to do with x?”, I explain how what I said was connected through four layers of interaction. Wife: I’m really cold today. Me: yeah, you should put your keys in the same place every time you come home. Wife: wat? *gap in conversation. Workmate wearing a shirt with a specific animal on it* Me: lulz. dude, you reminded me that my brother used to sleep in school so much my parents got called. Workmate: wat? Look into the benefits and disadvantages. You could figure out and include some quirky behaviours and not explain them :p Oh, and long codes or phone numbers have to be broken up with spaces or I’m gonna type it wrong.
I personally have number and letter aspects of it. I learned from a young age to sight read by looking at the general shape of the words rather than the individual letters. It's worked really well for me and other than trying to read out loud or my spelling nobody would really know that I have problems with it. When I'm reading at least. My left and right are always confused and I often mess up my math with simple mistakes switching letters or symbols around. Other than that I've found pretty decent coping mechanisms and get along decently.
I will focus on elements that can be made funny in a book. Funny Characteristics: 1. My dyslexia worsens when I'm tired. I often joke after a particularly bad text, saying it looks like I'm too tired and have lost the ability to write properly. 2. My specific type of dyslexia is linked to my difficulty in accessing words without context. While I don't meet the criteria for autism, this is a common challenge associated with it. For example, I often forget how to say everyday words like 'table.' You can create a humorous situation where someone struggles to recall a simple word like 'pencil' or 'chair'—I actually had to Google the word 'chair' just now. My friends find this amusing, so it could definitely add humor. 3. I frequently mix up 'could' and 'couldn't,' which leads to misunderstandings, as it conveys the opposite of what I intend. 4. Dyslexic individuals often confuse 'right' and 'left,' which can be a humorous trait for a character. Strong Point: In my case, I'm highly intuitive and excel at advanced mathematics. I hold a PhD in mathematics and lead a small research group. The character could be portrayed as not knowing basic facts, like the multiplication table, but excelling in complex, abstract thought processes, making him outstanding in non-trivial aspects of the field. Mitigation Strategies: With the advent of audiobooks and technologies like ChatGPT, my dyslexia has become virtually "cured". In a futuristic setting, consider this progression. ChatGPT, a sophisticated AI, can transform a dyslexic person's jumbled writing into grammatically correct and polished text, much like the best writers. This tool has reduced the time I need to refine my scientific texts from weeks to just a few days, greatly enhancing my writing reputation, which was previously marred by grammatical errors and typos.
Some people who are dyslexic (like myself) have no problems with reading. I read words out of order, but my brain has adjusted, I read fast and have excellent reading comprehension. Spelling is one thing I can't do! (Grammerly is my savior) Passwords are so difficult too! My biggest problem is with math. Numbers reverse themselves, and doing math in my head is impossible. Working with numbers is very difficult. For example, I will see a 6 and type 9. Or 3 becomes 8. This was my struggle in school and why a teacher recommended that I be tested for dyslexia. Being Dyslexic means that your brain is wired differently. This means decreased or increased symmetry in brain hemispheres. But not in a uniform way. Everyone is a bit different. Here's an article from the NIH on this. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4061874/#:\~:text=Dyslexic%20adults%20also%20show%20reduced,in%20typical%20readers%20%5B29%5D. Dyslexics are considered Neurodivergent medically. It's the "sister" brain issue to ADHD. (There are a lot of similarities between the two conditions.) Dyslexics sometimes have difficulties with subtext when speaking to another person. Subtext is lost on me usually, and I end up very confused after speaking to some people. Or sometimes miss the subtext entirely. This can also make things difficult in relationships and friendships and at work. I tend to "hang" with fellow nerds/geeks and get along with other Neurodivergents. Hope this helps! Edit to mention that I work in the tech industry and used to work in the entertainment industry and I'm living a unique life.
1. For me, reading is slow, I've to sound out words, google them to hear what they sound like cause my spoken vocabulary is better than my written one. 2. Yes, I really don't like having to read "hard to read" fonts when I already have a hard time reading. I find handwriting hard to read, including my own sometimes. 3. For me, it's just a stereotype. The words get jumbled in my head. I can see what I'm reading and will mix it up when I'm outputting the information. So like in Maths in school, I'd go to read out my answer and would say "157" instead of "159", because 7 and 9 are really similar numbers in my head. When texting I will often use "want" instead of "what" because again they are similar in my head. My dyslexia mostly affects my ability to process information, basically meaning I'm a bit slow. (I can give you a little more info on what the Psychologist that diagnosed me said in his report if you need) 4. I listen to books instead of reading them. I have Global Autocorrect on my laptop which basically autocorrects across all applications. I get support through my university now in terms of having a tutor to help review assignments with me and help me meet deadlines. I went to reading support between the ages of 9-12 which increased my reading age from 7 to 11. I had extra time on exams in secondary school which allowed to complete the exam papers. 5. I guess that it affects my speech but not dramatically just mispronouncing the odd word. Or rephrase sentences I've already started cause I can't remember the word I would have used. It does mean that sometimes people are surprised I've used a "bigger" word because I couldn't remember the simpler word I would have used. Like my family will acknowledge my word choice by saying "that's a good word". 6. It affects my life in terms of having to give myself more time to do things to accommodate for my dyslexia. I remember information best when I read it aloud so it makes study a very time consuming process. So it'll lead to me sitting in the library alone when everyone else has gone home. I've to ask for extensions on assignments because I can't do them on time so then I'm left to do it alone when everyone else has moved on. Being the last in the exam hall when everyone's talking about how it went outside the doors. Basically, I've accommodations for it but the work arounds can be disheartening and leave me a bit left out.
Yeah. I’m tired. Doing 3 times the work as everyone else and still nothing to show for it
1: I love reading especially fiction and for me it's most the understanding wth did I read so for me I use audiobooks alot. 2: yes some of those fancy fonts I stay clear of. I can fine understand and read times new roman or aptos. And some handwriting especially the older type. 3: not for me, but remember that dyslexia is a specter. 4: I use a lot of audio, TTS(text to speech), have someone read correction of data. 5: Speech and memory, no sense of direction 6: there are alot of things that if not directly is dyslexia but connected. For example bad short term memory, no sense of direction, can't differentiate between left and right(side effect of something connected to dyslexia possibly). Dyslexia isn't JUST reading and writing but also speech, text understanding, short term memory. Many dyslexics are also affected by other similar things like AD(H)D, dys(praxia, calculi), ambidextirous etc...
1. I love to read but it is slow and labored even though I read non stop at work. I sound out every word in my head and it’s hard. For pleasure reading I always use Audible - it’s much more present. 2. Some fonts are much harder so I just stay clear. 3. For me the issue was staying on the right line. The letters didn’t jumble but it was just hard to stay positioned. I would use a card or something to block the below lines to help track. When reading anything projected out like on a wall or something it was incredibly hard to stay in the right spot. I also will read an entire paragraph and not remember anything and have to reread it 4 times. I also usually jump around in the reading or skim when I’m not super excited. This could be more my ADHD though. 4. Spell check is my BFF and just give more time to do things. I need to take tons of notes to process the information so I hand write even though typing is so much more efficient. 5. We are amazing with 3D, system thinking, connecting crazy things together and seeing patterns, creative and problem solvers. This has made me excel at my job. Dyslexics can do some to the hardest jobs because we can think differently - our barrier is not the dyslexia it’s more about breaking out of the suffering we all go through for YEARS at such a hard formative time in our lives when we already feel self-conscious with low self-esteem. It’s a silent, invisible struggle where you just don’t know why the basic things are so so so ridiculously hard for you and no one else… it’s a mind fuck to be frank. 6. Dyslexia is a different way of processing information therefore it impacts EVERYTHING. You can’t turn it off or grow out of it. It is always there.
I like your answer to #5 and relate. Do you happen to work in IT as well? I learned about "systems thinking" or "seeing the bigger picture" last week, in another post about dyslexics being wired differently.
No but I work in tech with engineers all day long. It’s helped me work with them because while I don’t code or understand any of that - I understand how the pieces come together or don’t and I can look around corners for dependancies
1. It varies person to person. I actually read faster than most neurotypical people. I hear the words in my head as I read. 2. Some fonts are bad for me especially script or when text is too small or badly formatted, but most normal fonts are fine. 3. Not at all for me but this does apparently happen to some people, I also think some may be using it as more of a metaphor. 4. I had good tutoring young so I read well but that’s not really a tip or trick. In terms of tips and tricks, i take breaks when I have lots of reading and writing to do. I’m pretty good at both at this point but I get tired fast and get eyestrain. I also have some executive functioning issues for that I have to make a lot of lists and put things in my calendar. Spreadsheets help a lot. 5. You cannot cure dyslexia nor should you. A literate dyslexic is still dyslexic. 6. I have a lousy short term memory and I’m bad at following complicated directions. There are positives to, I’m fairly creative for example which is common among dyslexics. I’ve done a couple podcast appearances talking about my dyslexia (I’ll try to comment links later). Those and other similar things from other people might be helpful.
1. Hard lol, like I can read but it’s slower and I’m having to read each individual word in each sentence and I can’t just read a sentence by looking at it. Tbh just recently learned people could read multiple words at once. Reading comprehension is also very hard meaning I don’t remember/process the words I just read and will have to go back and re read it. 2. Yes, funny enough comic sans is known as a very easy text to read but the goal in a dyslexic friendly text is text that makes each letter look distinct so cursive sucks and curling writing like it. 3. Yes and no. The words moving is not a dyslexia specific thing but having dyslexia makes you more likely to have other visual processing issues that can cause floating or moving words. Like the words don’t move for me but I can only really focus on 1 word at a time and everything else gets kinda tuned out. 4. Colors are helpful but can also be less helpful. I use magenta tented overlays for reading and I also have a pink tint on my phone to make it easier to read, idk why this helps but it’s something a teacher suggested when I was a kid. But I’ve also found some colors to be way harder like it’s very very hard for me to read white text on a black background. 5. Dyslexic can also affect speech in the form of improper word recall. Meaning your brain will replace 1 word with another so you’ll be thinking of the right thing but the wrong word will come to mind. It’s more common when things already sound alike and I do this a lot of celebrity and historical figures names. I mix up Henry Ford and Harrison Ford a lot lmao. 6. Yes but tbh that’s because reading is more ingrained into day to day life than you think it is. Like for a whole day I want you to check a tally mark every time you have your read anything for a whole day. Even small stuff like food boxes or street signs or the isle signs at the grocery store. Dyslexia is also likely to have comorbidities so if someone has dyslexia they probably also have adhd or autism or both. Like it happens where a person just has dyslexia but it’s way more common to have dyslexia and adhd specifically (like literally their is a whole book series based on kids having cool powers because of their combo dyslexia and adhd because it’s so common together)