That’s a good question and it makes me think – because being dyslexic is normal for me; I’ve always been
dyslexic, and I don’t know any other way. I don’t know what ‘normal’ is.
For years I thought I was ‘normal’ – while perhaps a little thick, or perhaps just ‘dumb’. I believed I was
always a little behind the eight-ball, I didn’t understand what the lecturer was talking about, and couldn’t
‘pay attention’ to the classroom situation, but with adequate effort, huge concentration, and a degree of
canny strategising I got through.
Being dyslexic is mostly associated with having reading and writing difficulties, and that is certainly the situation
for me. Eventually, somewhere around about my tenth birthday I figured I had mastered the art of ‘reading’
and grew to become an enthusiastic reader - for the next three days. Eventually I gave up exhausted, having read my first book
five or six times – up to page six – and finally realizing that while I could read, and speak each word, I
had no clue what they meant, or what the book was about. Now, as an adult, I will gladly dig your garden
or clip your lawn in preference to reading a book.
‘Dyslexia’ is about language, and about not being able to do language well. Difficulty with reading is only
one element of being dyslexic – but let’s explore that for a moment.
As a dyslexic, I know that words are the things that come out of your mouth – and into your ears. The things
in books, or in the newspaper are not in fact words at all – they are just pictures of words, they are things to
remind you of the words that you can say and hear. The really hard part is that they are made up of squiggles
– black characters on white paper – and these things have no recognisable resemblance to anything real at all;
and particularly not to whatever it is that they are meant to be referring to.
What I mean is, whereas the Chinese symbol for ‘mountain’ actually is like a mountain, the squiggles
called ‘letters’ bear no similarity to a tall hill at all. This might not be a problem to you, but I’m dyslexic, and
that means that I think in pictures, and with these ‘letter’ things, I don’t understand the picture at all.
I don’t know what you make out when you open a book, but the initial thing I see is flashes of lightening jumping
all over the page. When my primary school teacher asked what I meant, I drew a line where the lightening
went, and she said that it followed the gaps between the words down the page. I said yes, this is the same
as the ladders in ‘Snakes and Ladders’, and I always hit the bottom.
The same teacher asked me why I like to draw a line around my page, and I explained to her it is not a line, but an
electric fence – similar to on our farm – to prevent the words, and my eyes, from wandering off the piece of paper. I was not
permitted to draw my outline on school reading books, and that made reading too hard - the words wouldn’t
stay still long enough for me to work them out, and they kept leaping from one row to another. The teacher
put a blank card below the line I was reading, and that helped – but they wouldn’t allow me do it at high school.
Nowadays, as an adult with my laptop, I can finally write (neatly what’s more) because the computer puts all the
bits in the correct position. I know I can’t get a computer to understand writing for me, but the interesting thing is, comics work
really well for me because all the pictures are there and I can observe accurately what the message is. I can even
read the words in comics – and this is because they are all in square letters or capitals, which individuals like me
find easier to understand.
Author Resource:
Laughton King’s books REACHING THE RELUCTANT LEARNER, WITH, NOT AGAINST, and DYSLEXIA DISMANTLED are now available in both hard-copy and e-book presentation. He is available for short seminar presentations, two-day workshops, or as a demonstrational Conference presenter. For further information http://www.natalieart.com/ontour.htm http://www.dyslexiadismantled.com or email laughton.king@win.co.nz
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