Is it possible I have dyslexia?

[turbo]

Py, you might have a form of dyslexia. My wife often asks me to spell common words when she has to write them out, but she can be a killer at Scrabble. For some reason, the tiles on a rack change things for her. I don't know why. It's a puzzle.

I'm pretty sure that she has some form of dyslexia, but you don't want to challenge her at Scrabble unless you are good and confident.

 

[phinds]

You're saying an actual doctor ascribed this to dyslexia?

No, I was going by what my understanding had been about dyslexia, but reading your question, I did a little basic research and it appears that I have misunderstood the symptoms, which seem to NOT include malapropisms. Thanks for alerting me to that.

 

[zoobyshoe]

No, I was going by what my understanding had been about dyslexia, but reading your question, I did a little basic research and it appears that I have misunderstood the symptoms, which seem to NOT include malapropisms. Thanks for alerting me to that.

You're welcome but I actually had no sure knowledge it wasn't a form of dyslexia, just that I'd never heard it ascribed to dyslexia. It would have been news to me.

 

[phinds]

I just remembered an example of my dyslexia (and THIS one I think IS dyslexia) that was hilarious at the time.

I saw an on-line ad for a snow shovel that had a handle that came apart in sections and I decided I just had to have one for the trunk of my car, so I called the # and told they lady that I wanted to buy one of their show snovels.

There was a bit of a silence and then she said, very uncertainly, "uh ... what ?"

And I, not being the most patient person in the world, say. YOUR SHOW SNOVEL ... I want to order one of your show snovels !

There was another silence and then miraculously, she and I both realized at the same time what I had said and we both broke out laughing and had a very nice chat after we caught our breath.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I just remembered an example of my dyslexia (and THIS one I think IS dyslexia) that was hilarious at the time.

I saw an on-line ad for a snow shovel that had a handle that came apart in sections and I decided I just had to have one for the trunk of my car, so I called the # and told they lady that I wanted to buy one of their show snovels.

There was a bit of a silence and then she said, very uncertainly, "uh ... what ?"

And I, not being the most patient person in the world, say. YOUR SHOW SNOVEL ... I want to order one of your show snovels !

There was another silence and then miraculously, she and I both realized at the same time what I had said and we both broke out laughing and had a very nice chat after we caught our breath.

This particular error in speech is called a "Spoonerism":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoonerism

Dyslexia is:

...a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read,[1] and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid naming.

In other words, it's generally a problem with reading and writing, and not with speech.

I think Spoonerisms have gotten associated in people's minds with dyslexia because dyslexia is often described as the visual swapping of letters while reading. And, screening people for dyslexia often involves a test asking them to deliberately create spoonerisms:

http://www.york.ac.uk/media/psychology/crl/documents/YAA.pdf

Dyslexia wouldn't be suggested from someone demonstrating spoonerisms in speech, rather it would be suggested if a person were poor at creating them when required to.

Spoonerisms don't seem to be regarded as indicative of any pathology, that I can find:

http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/17/5/1173.full

http://mackay.bol.ucla.edu/1970 Spoonerisms 1970.pdf

 

[cobalt124]

note: not a health issue

I've taken several online quizzes/tests and I always get moderate or borderline results. Reasons I believe I might have dyslexia:

1) I'm left-handed
2) I can't tell where sounds come from. In some occasion, I think they're coming from exactly the opposite direction.
3) it's sometimes really frustrating and takes a lot of concentration to read blocks of text.
4) I mix up extremes (example: I never remember whether high-viscocity is more sticky or more fluid).

It's not stopped me from succeeding in academia, employment, or elsewise, so it's not detrimental to my health, just a curiosity. Things like 3) and 4) above can sometimes make parts of academia painful, but I assume everybody struggles in some domain or another in that regard.

I don't see these as dyslexia symptoms. 2) you should get checked by a professional. 3) and 4) I do experience, but would put down to just tiredness or possibly aging. I say aging because over the years some of the issues discussed in this thread I experience more and more. Having to write down words to visually check the spelling, having a long think about whether I need to use separate or separate, and so on.

 

[Pythagorean]

I'm getting old? :(

 

[cobalt124]

You possesses the secret of eternal youth and you're holding out on us!

 

[Evo]

I don't see these as dyslexia symptoms. 2) you should get checked by a professional. 3) and 4) I do experience, but would put down to just tiredness or possibly aging. I say aging because over the years some of the issues discussed in this thread I experience more and more. Having to write down words to visually check the spelling, having a long think about whether I need to use separate or separate, and so on.

The older I get, the more I spell phonetically.

Getting old isn't the fun time that AARP commercials lead you to believe.