I realised quite a lot of my friends have not heard of 'dyslexia' so i shall devote a post to it :)
I've always had difficulty in spelling since young and it was only till the TIME issue on dyslexia tt i realised that i might have dyslexia. By that time, i was already in sec 4 or J1 and it was too late to diagnose it with the singapore dyslexia association. Anyway, i'm thankful tt i didnt cos i found out later from the family physican clinic i was posted to that it cost about $4000! I discussed this with my dad before and he thinks that if i have sort of overcome and survived this problem, i should just leave it alone :)
I always use this analogy to explain to my friends. I learn the spelling of words not in text files but in image files. It's like taking snapshots of pictures in my head and I rmbr the rough shape of the words this is why i have difficulty recalling the correct spelling if a long word has a string of letters of the same height. My favourite word to illustrate this is restaurant. It took me ten thousand years to learn what comes after rest-, cos auran is abt the same height. Thank goodness that aura is word and i overcome the difficulty to spell restaurant after i knew the existence of aura. :) Till now, restaurant to me is rest-aura-nt. These are little ways i use to help myself spell.
Of course, it is terrible tt i'm in medicine and my textbooks are packed with bombastic words. This is where i have to use sound to help me. For example, graafian follicle. graafian follicle to me is Gra-A-fian follicle so i wont forget the 2nd a.
Since i'm surviving ok with my spelling difficulties, i sometimes think that maybe it's just a maybe tt i have dyslexia. I've kinda forgotten abt it until lately actually. When i was posted to the gp clinic for my family medicine, the doctor had children with dyslexia. It was wonderful opportunity to bounce my 'symptoms' with him and he thinks tt i DO have it. I rmbr reading the writing i did when i was young. it was not only filled with bad spelling, it also had letters that are inverted!
I only managed to find one though...
The J is written the wrong way around and i also wrote some non-sensical things.. what is 月石胖? haha.. and if u noticed, i had the gou or 'tick' in the 月 the other way around. I also rmbr how to write chinese in image files :)
Ohyes.. the GP told me that in singapore, if u're diagnosed with dyslexia, u're exempted from chinese cos its characters are more difficult for dyslexics to cope. The interesting thing is i rmbr telling my mom that i like chinese words with symmetry, it makes it easier for me to rmbr how to write them.. like 黄 口 空 王. My mind will dissect the words with vertical and horizontal lines, which aids me in my learning :) Bet u nv knew tt!
When i see this picture, i rmbr i didnt do well for a sec 3 chem class test cos i spelled all my silver as sliver. Today, i have to pause and spell steroids in my head to decide if it is steroids or steriod.
I guess my mind has really worked around the problem. I rmbr in JC when we had bombastic bacteria and fungi names to rmbr for biotech, i could spell it backwards cos it's an image file in my head because all i had to do is read the letters backwards from what i 'see' in my head. One of them was saccharomyces cerevisiae :)
On an interesting note, this spelling backwards thing has revealed interesting things. Most of u know tt stressed is desserts backwards but i'm not sure how many of you noticed tt the evian the mineral water brain is naive backwards?
In a way, i'm thankful that i have a developed visual memory. Some pple rmbr tt i have gd memory for patient bed numbers. If you thought i was gd with numbers, u're wrong cos i rmbr them by the position of the beds :) Tt explains why i cannot rmbr the range of normal blood investigations :)
More validated symptoms of dyslexia below.. Thankfully i only have some of them!
There is no single pattern of difficulty that affects all dyslexic people. A dyslexic person might have any of the following problems:
- She might see some letters as backwards or upside down;
- She might see text appearing to jump around on a page;
- She might not be able to tell the difference between letters
that look similar in shape such as o and
e and c ; - She might not be able to tell the difference between letters
that have similar shape but different orientation, such as
b and p and d
and q ; - The letters might look all jumbled up and out of order;
- The letters and words might look all bunched together;
- The letters of some words might appear completely backwards,
such as the word bird looking like
drib ; - The letters and words might look o.k., but the dyslexic
person might get a severe headache or feel sick to her stomach
every time she tries to read; - She might see the letters o.k., but not be able to sound out
words -- that is, not be able to connect the letters to the
sounds they make and understand them or prounces it with the wrong syllable sequence; - She might be able to connect the letters and sound out words,
but not recognize words she has seen before, no matter how many
times she has seen them -- each time she would have to start
fresh; - She might be able to read the words o.k. but not be able to
make sense of or remember what she reads, so that she finds
herself coming back to read the same passage over and over
again.
It is important to understand that when a dyslexic person
*sees* letters or words reversed or mixed up, there is usually
nothing wrong with her eyes. The problem is in the way the mind
interprets what the eyes see -- like an optical illusion, except
this mismatch between what illusion and reality happens with
ordinary print on a page.
I rmbr in TIME magazine, there were few things mentioned that is not in the list above. A dyslexic has difficulty differentiating left and right. I havent really asked my friends but before how they tell it is left or right. i always have to look at my hand or move them subtly to remind myself which is "left" and "right". For example, if i'm driving and u tell me to turn right, i usually have to grip the steering a little tighter on the left and right to confirm that the right is right :)
Also, about the incorrect syllable sequence... i used to wonder if it is certificate or cerfiticate.
Wenyang, i hope u understand more abt dyslexia now. U can read abt it.. cos it's really interesting! Then maybe u'll understand why i have trouble reading the lyrics in time to sing a song :) Then u'll also understand why when i see 门 and i sing out 窗 and why i sing out words in inverted order :) U're the one who is interested in neuro.. fill me in if u discover anything more interesting!
edit: when i read my post again after i published it.. i realised tt i typed mineral water "brain" when i mean brand. Yup.. there u go... i'm bad with words and there's clearly sth wrong with the circuitry in my brain.
