Monday, February 18, 2008

It's a left left left left brain world

So my next phase in my reading research was to find some tips to help me read better. Erica said she heard of some studies where people occupy their right brain while they read, like turn on some music or hold a ball. So I looked into some tips for reading and came across the issue of dyslexia. Now, I have struggled with reading my whole life. I have been in several reading improvement classes since Jr. high school, and the subject of dyslexia has never come up. So for purposes of thorough research, I read some symptoms and took some quick online tests. From a quick overview of the topic of dyslexia, like most unknown learning disabilities, there is more to dyslexia than reading letters and numbers backwards. Dyslexia was more of a visual learning block in linear subjects (english, reading, math, sciences).

Here is a website that I found regarding DYSLEXIA SYMPTOMS. Of the 37 main symptoms, I had about twenty.
-Appears bright, highly intelligent, and articulate but unable to read, write, or spell at grade level.
-Labelled lazy, dumb, careless, immature, "not trying hard enough," or "behavior problem."
-Isn't "behind enough" or "bad enough" to be helped in the school setting.
-High in IQ, yet may not test well academically; tests well orally, but not written.
-Feels dumb; has poor self-esteem; hides or covers up weaknesses with ingenious compensatory strategies; easily frustrated and emotional about school reading or testing.
-Talented in art, drama, music, sports, mechanics, story-telling, sales, business, designing, building, or engineering.
-Seems to "Zone out" or daydream often; gets lost easily or loses track of time.
-Difficulty sustaining attention; seems "hyper" or "daydreamer."
-Learns best through hands-on experience, demonstrations, experimentation, observation, and visual aids.
-Extremely keen sighted and observant, or lacks depth perception and peripheral vision.
-Reads and rereads with little comprehension.
-Difficulty putting thoughts into words; speaks in halting phrases; leaves sentences incomplete; stutters under stress; mispronounces long words, or transposes phrases, words, and syllables when speaking.
-often confuses left/right, over/under.
-Can do arithmetic, but fails word problems; cannot grasp algebra or higher math.
-Excellent long-term memory for experiences, locations, and faces.
-Poor memory for sequences, facts and information that has not been experienced.
-Thinks primarily with images and feeling, not sounds or words (little internal dialogue).
-Extremely disorderly or compulsively orderly.
-Can be class clown, trouble-maker, or too quiet
-Unusually high or low tolerance for pain

I also found a book called The Gift of Dyslexia. You can read some of it through Amazon's Online Reader. (Which is a cool online tool)

I ran out and bought the book because he said dyslexia was like a switch, it can be turned off with the right instruction. Visual people think in visual, 3-D pictures, and reading is 2-D, straight linear left brain thought. Right brain people with dyslexia because they are visual learners. I was inspired because for the first time, I might have hope to finally make reading easier. Most of the articles I read stated that most people with dyslexia usually give up with reading and drop out of school (like I did) because they cannot keep up with everybody else with their work and constantly struggle. Once people with dyslexia figure out that they are dyslexic, they have a huge burden lifted off their shoulders and can start to work towards learning how to read better. I felt so relieved that my problems with reading is ONLY because I am dyslexic. It made perfect sense to how I see things differently enough to process visual information for photography.

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