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HarryVanWinkle -> RE: A little patience please. (1/29/2013 3:36:26 PM)
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Fast Reply having read only the OP.
quote:
ORIGINAL: MariaB
As a dyslexic, I have always found it hard to structure sentences. My punctuation is bloody abysmal and so is my spelling…. Thank goodness for spell check.
I have to admit, being online and typing as much as I do has hugely helped me in certain areas of written comprehension. I still get things wrong though and I still constantly worry about getting those things wrong.
One of the most difficult things for me is getting my thoughts down on paper. In my head I know exactly what I want to say but expressing it in the written word is often hopeless.
I can’t tell you how many posts I write and delete before posting. I sometimes read them out loud to my partner who more often than not says, ‘I didn’t understand a word of that’!! We are able to laugh about my odd tangents of the written word, as we are both dyslexic. I also have Dyspraxia, which makes things even more hilarious when I can’t pronounce a big word and sometimes can’t pronounce a simple one. People who know me would tell you that my speech is fluent and confident. They are right; it is fluid and confident providing I know to avoid certain words. It’s a little bit like someone who stutters avoiding all words beginning with ‘t’
Steve is a physicist and his background is engineering. His IQ is through the roof but its seldom he puts pen to paper unless its for a mathematical equation. I’m not so bright. He tells me I am which is kind of him but when it comes to keeping up with him I’m way back there.
And then of course we get the grammar and spelling pedants. I have been pulled up here far too often for grammatical mistakes. Only yesterday I was publicly belittled because of my paragraphs. My paragraphs are bloody awful and this is one thing that has just never improved no matter how much I write. I let it upset me, I shouldn’t but I do. I go away and dwell on it, question my intelligence before coming back here and hovering my finger of the ‘delete my account button’.
When you are dyslexic its very easy to spot other dyslexics. In general, Dyslexics will spend some time trying to get the spelling right and when they aren’t sure they have a tendency to use alternative words that they can spell. To someone else this often doesn’t read with any fluidity, especially if they have added or omitted words to modify its meaning.
I was diagnosed with Dyslexia and Dyspracxia at 13. Steve was diagnosed with dyslexia at 15 both of us were in the dunces class at school up until our diagnosis, both of us have been given an enormous amount of help and encouragement from the Dyslexic society, universities and colleges we attended. Both of us are over sensitive about our intelligence or lack of it. It’s easy to get paranoid, especially when you fail at something.
If we read something and we notice odd grammatical terms or strange spellings but we comprehend what that person is saying, should we pull them up publicly?
Do you really believe that Dyslexic people are so because they are lazy or just need to take an English class?
I know a lot of people claim to be Dyslexic when they haven’t been diagnosed and I believe there are far more undiagnosed Dyslexics than diagnosed ones.
Can we all be just a little more patient?
I saw the post yesterday and the criticism about your paragraph. I remember thinking it wasn't that long, considerably shorter than your post above, and thinking that the criticism was unjustified. I had no problem understanding your post.
In fact, I enjoy reading almost all of your posts.
I was raised by a grammar nazi and go to a lot of effort NOT to emulate her. I remind myself that not everyone can touch-type, which I finally taught myself twenty years ago, and remember how hard it was to catch mistakes and correct them when typing by the hunt and peck method. I also remind myself that here on the Internet English is not the mother tongue of quite a few people. I remind myself that not everybody had proper grammar and spelling ground into their heads at a young age like I did. I remind myself that just because a person might not be extremely proficient at writing does not mean she doesn't have anything valuable to say, nor that I can't learn something from her. And, I remind myself that being dyslexic does NOT mean a person is stupid and that I too make my share of mistakes and don't catch them.
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