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[zombie killer]

Anyone have any advice for someone with minor dyslexia?

[Grek]

It depends significantly on what kind of dyslexia you have. Can you:

Read?
Read out loud?
Understand what you read?
Write?
Spell words?
Spell words from memory?
Copy words?
Do math?

In my case, I specifically had trouble with confusing the letters d & b; q & p and i & e. The first two pairs because they're mirrors of eachother and the last pairs because they sounded the same to me. Math was fine. Spelling was fine except where it involved i and e. Writing was difficult because I didn't know how to hold a pencil correctly and would get hand cramps. Once I corrected my pencil-holding technique, learned to write bs and ds differently from eachother and learned the difference in the short I sound vs. the long E sound, I was basically "cured" of dyslexia.

[Funk]

i have minor dyslexia as well, mosty with all the stupid spelling rules that english has about not spelling things phonetically.
oddy i know when someing thing is spelled wrong.

remember that sady the two main images of dyslexia/aspergers are forest gump and rainman, and for a some thing that affect between 5 and 10 percent of the population is really crap.

do you find your self going how to spell a word when you can pronce and read it fine?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

On this topic: Does anyone know if it is possible to have dyslexia relating only to numbers? My grandfather was dyslexic, and my parents have been repeatedly worried in the past when I managed to read digital clocks backwards, only to see it correctly upon re-checking it. It doesn't happen very often, but it looks weird as hell from my perspective when it does.

[cerapa]

On this topic: Does anyone know if it is possible to have dyslexia relating only to numbers? My grandfather was dyslexic, and my parents have been repeatedly worried in the past when I managed to read digital clocks backwards, only to see it correctly upon re-checking it. It doesn't happen very often, but it looks weird as hell from my perspective when it does.

Maybe its dyscalculia?

Reading the list of symptoms on wikipedia, "Difficulty with everyday tasks like reading analog clocks" is one of them.

[Ultimuh]

I may have a mild case, but only when it applies to typing on a keyboard. May be because I tend to type fast.

But any advice? not sure.. What have already been mentioned could help?

[ISP]

Only with db and i before e except after c, even if I say the things after every time I still wind up writing b instead of d or veiw, evil evil 'veiw'.

My younger sister has it worse so I can blame my mother for not being able spell the street she lives on properly, 'longveiw'.

[kidhedera]

I have dyslexia. Mostly aural, which is pretty weird. I have a lot more trouble with spoken language than written language, particularly anything a bit unfamiliar. (Music, people saying strings of numbers, trying to learn a foreign language etc). Of late though, I have been having more trouble with written language, or perhaps have been more aware of my trouble with written language... mostly because I've been back at school studying programming, and all of a sudden its noticeable that I get letters mixed up, and can't remember acronyms/abbreviations.

Anyway, things that help that might help you, that helped me and my brother (My mum, me, and my uncles are all dyslexic... my brother is OFF THE CHARTS scientists-want-to-study-him dyslexic)

- Balance exercises. e.g. Fitness balls, wobble boards, balance beams, juggling, rubbing your belly and patting your head... all that stupid kids stuff. It helps a surprising amount. My balance has deteriorated since I stopped doing my exercises, as has my ability to tell apart certain letters.

- Console games with a game pad. Preferably fast paced platformers. I *suck* at platformers with a game pad that has analog sticks. My girlfriend always yells 'NO GO STRAIGHT, YOU HAVE TO JUMP THAT STRAIGHT AHEAD! HOW HARD CAN IT BE TO RUN IN A STRAIGHT LINE?'. Really, really, really hard. Anyway, my games of choice are Assassins Creed and Prince of Persia. I can't get past the first hour or so of game play... but hey, one day right? If you don't have any trouble with game pads, then eh, this probably wont be something that helps.

- Find a font that works for you. Something that you enjoy looking at, and seems to be nice to read. Just make that your system font on your computer. Turn up the font size a bit. Don't be afraid of comic sans. I know its a shitty font, but its actually been found to be one of the easiest for dyslexics to read. (Perhaps that's why its so popular among the semi-computer-literate masses?).

- Print your reading material on pale blue paper where possible. Avoid yellow, orange or red paper. Those are the most common colours, but something different might work for you. Experiment. Pale blue transparent plastic over reading material in cases where you can't get it printed.

- White space is your friend. Spread things out. I am a BEAR in group assignments for people following my formatting rules. I'm pretty sure it makes life easier for others too so I don't feel too bad about being such a dictator.

- Use 5mm grid ruled books instead of line ruled books. I love being able to line letters up on a grid to figure out what order they are supposed to be in.

- Practice navigating under someone's verbal instructions using left and right turns without looking at your hands.

Thats all I can think of off the top of my head. Hopefully something in there will help.

Funny dyslexia story: At one of my workplaces I screwed up really badly cos I got a 6 and a 9 mixed up. It was quite devastating for one of my colleagues and unfortunately only a couple of days before I was scheduled to go on leave, so I couldn't even help fix all of my mess. Anyway, when I got back from my leave I found my office PLASTERED with learn to count paraphernalia from Sesame Street. When my boss found out he freaked that I would be upset, but I thought it was HILARIOUS. There were post it notes on my key board pointing out the difference between 6 and 9, and pictures of The Count and Big Bird. Anyway, everyone got their revenge, had a good laugh, and the situation all came good in the end.

Also, sometimes I stare at dwarf fortress and think 'How the fuck does this make any sense to me, when I can't answer a simple programming question correctly if it has too many single letter variable names?'

Its a freaking mystery.

[Grek]

veiw, evil evil 'veiw'.

THIS. I am terrible with ie vs ei in words.

Also, sometimes I stare at dwarf fortress and think 'How the fuck does this make any sense to me, when I can't answer a simple programming question correctly if it has too many single letter variable names?'

Its a freaking mystery.

It makes perfect sense to me. The little symbols in dwarf fortress don't represent sounds or words or numbers or anything, they're just abstract shapes. Once you grok that a dwarf is shaped like a smiling face, a human is shaped like a U and a tree is an upward arrow, then it's just looking at the pictures. I imagine there's an unusual number of dyslexics that like Dwarf Fortress. Pretty much all dyslexics eventually realize that letters and numbers are just arbitrary symbols so making the symbols mean dwarves and unicorns and stuff isn't that big of a leap.

I know that I never had any trouble getting over the "what do all of these little symbols mean" hump when I started playing. And I bet it was the same way for most other dyslexics.

[martinuzz]

Wihle wtih noraml spillneg, a dlyscitec preson wuold be at a dsiadvatnage, he/she srcoes equlaly good at raednig tihs sentnece rihgt in one go, as narmol perosn wulod. The key lies in how our brain processes words. First and last letter, and total word lenght are more important for word recognition than the order of the letters in between first and last. Our brain knows what is written before we consciously experience the exact words. This is undamaged for (common) dyslectics, hence they score just as good on reading sentences with garbled words, as long as the first and last letters of the words remain in the right place.

[ISP]

Brain sees the word's letters last, and the meaning first.

One of the requirements to being able to play dwarf fortress well is dyslexia.

Also I sometimes spell dawrven but never spell it out dawrf.
Probably because it sounds different, like D-warf instead of Da-wyvernwar-ven.

I also get lost when counting, around which exact digit goes next in the tens, meaning I have to use my fingers to count to 100 accurately, to prevent undercounting or overcounting.

[knutor]

   Sisters and Brothers, its hereditary isn't it?

[Jelle]

Well personally I've alwayd had some difficulty reading an analog clock, but I figure that's just because I keep forgetting wich arm is wich. That's not dyslexia is it?

It's never really been a concern of mine mind you, but I am somewhat suspicious of it sometimes.
I've never really been much of a talker, and when I feel I am mentally taxed with to much conversation I may begin to stutter and get stressed.
I can multitask fine, except when talking wich seems to demand every bit of my attention. During or shortly after mentally taxing exercises it's impossible for me to utter something coherent.
Are these symptons you think?

I've no problem at all with written language on the other hand, just oral communication.

[knutor]

Could be a symptom of it.  I'm no doctor. 

I always thought dyslexia had to do physically with the left and right occipital hemispheres that control passing incorrect data back and forth through a thin longitudinal fissure.  Thinner than normal.  However, I may have the wrong parts labeled.  That was how it was explained to me, by the experts.  I see things flipped around backwards, letters.

[Vattic]

My brother has minor dyslexia and it was thought I might. My main advice is to not discount your own abilities because of being diagnosed. My brother pretty much gave up on learning and for a long time thought he was stupid. Since then he's had to catch up and is doing pretty well for himself. Simply: don't let the diagnosis get you down.