I
learned
how to read, with the help of my
brother (10 years older than me.) He didn’t
teach me to
sound out words (it
didn’t seem to work for me.) He would
simply point at a word and say “That says dog” I had no idea
why it said dog, but I could
remember the
shape of the word. I knew how to read by the time I was in
kindergarten (
Stephen King and such, I was proud) I
never played any attention to all of the “
sounding it out” stuff because I could read,
what did it matter?
Of course I had hordes of trouble with
spelling, eventually I was tested for
dyslexia. Yup, I had it-- but, I’ve tried never to use it as an
excuse, I could
read, and with the aid of a
computer spell checker I could
write (though it took several years before I was able to pick the right word form the list the checker presented me) I used to spell every 3rd
word wrong. Now I only
misspell every 10th or so.
Words like “
does” and “
dose” look pretty much the same to me. The only way to learn the
spelling of a word was to
memorise the
sequence of
letters in a
little song:
D- O- S- E (
sung one way)
D- O- E- S (sung another)
That’s how I still do it to this day (but not
out loud,
thank God!) Needless to say, it takes a long time to learn a song for every word. If a word is less
common, or
very long I just guess and put down
a bunch of letters until it looks
sort-of like the word. If you say a word that
I don’t know and ask me to
write it down, I can get the first letter right but after that it’s
hopeless. “Is it a short word or a long one? Tall letters or short? How
bumpy is it?” This is
not an effective way to spell.
I tried learning to sound out words when I was about 15 and made some headway. But, mostly still using the little songs:
D and E de de de...
M and O mo mo mo ...
It helped a bit.
I honestly don’t think I would have learned to read or have been very successful at
school if my brother had not taught me to read with his
brute force method. I would have been
labelled as “
learning disabled” and I’d be flipping hamburgers now-- But, I learned to cope. It was hard though.
I
spell check my
emails my
greeting cards (I type them first then write them out by hand). I even check my
posit notes (so I can read them later.) I’m a firm believer that a
learning disability like
dyslexia should not hold anyone back.
Computers are great. I used to use a “
bad spellers dictionary” but,
how can you look up a word when you don’t know how to spell it?
How can you recognise a word if they all look the same? The
computer spell check gives me four or five choices and then, most of the time, I can remember the shape of the word when I see it. When that won’t work, I go online and search for a sentence where I know the word will be used, or I
look up all the words on the list in the dictionary. It takes me about 20 min to write a
five page paper and 2 hours to spell check it . . .
My point is that, some people will have more
trouble learning to spell.
I do my best, I know how important it is to be
clear and to
communicate. In fact, I work in a field where
communication is critical: the
theatre, I write
plays. I spend hours
checking them and there are still errors. But mostly,
I pass.
The words get through. Thank God!
Just to show you guys
how bad it is, here is the text of this node
before the computer spell checker. I have gone over it twice, and done my best to remove all the errors I could find.
I learend how to read, with the help of my brother (10 years older than me.) He didn’t teach me to sound out words (it didn’t seem to work for me.) He would simply point at a word and say “That says dog” I had no idea why it siad dog, but I could remember the shape of the word I knew how to read by the time I was in kinterdergarten (Steven King and such, I was proud) I never payed any attention to all of the “sounding it out” stuff becuse I could read, what did it matter?
Of course I had horeds of trouble with spelling, eventaully I was tested for dislexcia. Yup, I had it-- but, I’ve tried never to use it as an excuse, I could read, and with the aid of a computer spell checker I could write (though it took severl years before I was able to pick the right word form the list the checker presented me) I used to spell every 3rd word wrong. Now I only misspell every 10th or so.
Words like “does” and “dose” look pretty much the same to me. The only way to learn the spelling of a word was to memorize the sequence of letters in a little song:
D- O- S- E (sung one way)
D- O- E- S (sung another)
that’s how I still do it to this day (but not out loud, thank God!) Needless to say it takes a long time to learn a song for every word. If a word is less common, or very long I just gues and put down a bunch of letters untill it looks sort-of like the word. If you say a word that I don’t know and ask me to write it down, I can get the first letter right but after that it’s hopeless. “Is it a short word or a long one? Tall letters or short? How bumpy is it?” This is not an effective way to spell.
I tried learing to sound out words when I was about 15 and made some head way. But mostly using little songs:
D and E de de de...
M and O mo mo mo ...
It helped a bit.
I honestly don’t think I would have learned to read or have been very sucessful at school if my brother had not taugh me to read with his brut focre method. I would have been labled as “learning disabled” and flipping hamburgers now-- But I learned to cope. It was hard though.
I spell check my emails my greeting cards (I type them first then write them out by hand). I even check my posti notes (so I can read them later.) I’m a firm believer that a lering disibility like dislexcia should not hold anyone back.
Computers are great. I used to use a “bad spellers dictionary” but how can you look upa word when you don’t know how to spell it? How can you recognize a word if they all look the same? The computer spell check gives me four or five choices and then, most of the time, I can remember the shape of the word when I see it. When that won’t work, I go online and serch for a sentence when I know the word will be used, or I look all the words on the list up in the dictionary. It takes me about 20 min to write a five page paper and 2 hours to spell check it . . .
My point is that, some people will have more trouble leanring to spell. I do my best, I know how important it is to be clear and to communicate. In fact I work in a felid where communicaton is critical: the threatre I write plays. I spend hours checking them and there are still errors. But mostly, I pass. The words get through. Thank God!
Just to show you guys how bad it is here is the text of this node before the computer spell checker. I have gone over it and done my best to remove all the errors I could find.