[Misc] DYSLEXIA - NEURODIVERSITY

[raymondo]

This Spring I spent 3 months helping a friend's dyslexic son, part time, prepare for his Maths GCSE (foundation level). It wasn't easy, he tried hard,and we all have our fingers crossed as his school has said he needs to pass to get into the 6th form.
Here's a list of key thoughts from our work together:
- he reads slowly from the blackboard
- he is easily distracted by random noises or movement
- he understandably finds 'wordy' maths questions harder (IMO they need different questions so they test kids' maths ability rather than English comprehension!)
- he has REAL problems understanding and calculating with negatives
- if the question has too many sub-parts he easily becomes confused (of course I would take him through questions step by step but it was hard for him)
- he hated questions with too many symbols, especially algebra, going on
- when he struggled with a topic it was very important to back off, have a break, then try something different (maybe not unusual)
- his self confidence went up and down easily
- he was a whizz at 3D shapes, transformation, and decent at most geometry questions

- as a diagnosed dyslexic he and his compatriots (about 15 of them out of 100 ...) were allowed the following in their exams: an extra 20 minutes for each paper; coloured pens for underlining key info if needed, a separate exam room (library)

In my opinion:
- most schools don't have the resources to help these kids enough, although his certainly tried
- it's so important to identify it early if possible
- it would have been better for him(and class mates) to be studying for Foundation level Maths GCSE for the two year course, rather than being switched to it when they did badly in their mocks in January .

Bit of a brain dump, hope it helps.
Loads of info and advice available online, but everyone is different.

 

[Right Brain Ronnie]

I think it use to be referred to as Clumsy Child Syndrome.

I am very clumsy, always knocking things over, dropping things, walking in to things/people, my balance and muscle tone are poor, I'm always falling over and I am unable to stand for any length of time without leaning on something . I can't ride a bike and have trouble doing up shoelaces. I have poor eye hand coordination, so can't dance, hop, run or catch a ball. I have difficulty pronouncing certain words and have the inability to tell my right from my left. I no sense of direction, find following maps difficult and frequently get lost. Holding a pen and writing is difficult, I was always the last one at school to copy off the board.

Thanks for sharing that I had no idea how many things dyspraxia effected, so for example you buy all shoes without laces?
I have difficulty pronouncing some worse also like 3 I say as free, and words with too many syllables in, I'm not quite Eubanks or Woss but people pick me up on it time to time.
Does this happen to you?
Do you have any strategies employed so you can disguise the above, or don't you worry?

 

[Right Brain Ronnie]

This Spring I spent 3 months helping a friend's son, part time, prepare for his Maths GCSE (foundation level). It wasn't easy, he tried hard,and we all have our fingers crossed as his school has said he needs to pass to get into the 6th form.
Here's a list of key thoughts from our work together:
- he reads slowly from the blackboard
- he is easily distracted by random noises or movement
- he understandably finds 'wordy' maths questions harder (IMO they need different questions so they test kids' maths ability rather than English comprehension!)
- he has REAL problems understanding and calculating with negatives
- if the question has too many sub-parts he easily becomes confused (of course I would take him through questions step by step but it was hard for him)
- he hated questions with too many symbols, especially algebra, going on
- when he struggled with a topic it was very important to back off, have a break, then try something different (maybe not unusual)
- his self confidence went up and down easily
- he was a whizz at 3D shapes, transformation, and decent at most geometry questions

- as a diagnosed dyslexic he and his compatriots (about 15 of them out of 100 ...) were allowed the following in their exams: an extra 20 minutes for each paper; coloured pens for underlining key info if needed, a separate exam room (library)

In my opinion:
- most schools don't have the resources to help these kids enough, although his certainly tried
- it's so important to identify it early if possible
- it would have been better for him(and class mates) to be studying for Foundation level Maths GCSE for the two year course, rather than being switched to it when they did badly in their mocks in January .

Bit of a brain dump, hope it helps.
Loads of info and advice available online, but everyone is different.

Thank you for your excellent post

Your son's friend very much mirror a lot of kids including me, although like you said we are all slightly different.

You sir are a saint among us, what a fantastic job you do, he is a lucky lad.

My son left college at the first opportunity and his sister still struggles with her school daily, with virtually no help despite me pestering send.

I know resources are low but having the right people are key rather than numbers I feel. Dyslexic teachers can be excellent if they can get qualified to teach, I personally would like to see a 50/50 split in dyslexic to non dyslexic teachers. As they are excellent verbally communicators.

Please keep using your experience to change many lives.

Ps excellently set out

 

[Sue1983]

Thanks for sharing that I had no idea how many things dyspraxia effected, so for example you buy all shoes without laces?
I have difficulty pronouncing some worse also like 3 I say as free, and words with too many syllables in, I'm not quite Eubanks or Woss but people pick me up on it time to time.
Does this happen to you?
Do you have any strategies employed so you can disguise the above, or don't you worry?

Over the years I have found way's around many of the problems I have, so they are not so noticeable to others. When speaking, I try to avoid using words that I know I struggle to pronounce which often results when in a group to me just listening to the conversation and not joining in as not to embarrass myself. With my shoes, I do buy slipons to make it easy and I had a friend tie the laces on my trainers so I can just slip them on (using a shoe horn) and off, so no need to tie them each time. The things I can't disguise I just treat as joke.

 

[ozzygull]

I was told I was dyslexic by a teacher at school because my spelling was so bad. What I found strange, it was at the time BBC computers were put in to all schools and I found that I could spell words when typed on a keyboard but not write them down with a pen and paper. I think it is because my brain remembers the finger patterns for the words rather then I know how to spell them. I still break into a cold sweat if I have to fill out a written form.

If it a words I don't commonly type then I have to use spell check, but sometimes I am so bad it doesn't have a clue what I am trying to say,

 

[raymondo]

Thank you for your excellent post

Your son's friend very much mirror a lot of kids including me, although like you said we are all slightly different.

You sir are a saint among us, what a fantastic job you do, he is a lucky lad.

My son left college at the first opportunity and his sister still struggles with her school daily, with virtually no help despite me pestering send.

I know resources are low but having the right people are key rather than numbers I feel. Dyslexic teachers can be excellent if they can get qualified to teach, I personally would like to see a 50/50 split in dyslexic to non dyslexic teachers. As they are excellent verbally communicators.

Please keep using your experience to change many lives.

Ps excellently set out

Thanks for your feedback.

He's a lovely lad and so it was an easy choice to try to help him.

It was slow for me at first to understand where he had difficulties, and it was very hard for him to explain how/why certain tasks were difficult for him!
We learned to go with the flow rather than try to overcome every difficulty with too much practice.

Some things had to be dropped: e.g. "just don't attempt any question about polygons!!"

'My' lad was a group of 'partial' dyslexics (rather than extreme I guess) and the resources didn't extend to specific experienced teaching for them. His teachers were clearly helpful as best they could be.

On the 'plus' side for him:
- he's fantastic at sports (cricket and golf)

- he loves the outdoors (hates being cooped up indoors)

- and for a 16 year old has truly great verbal communication and eye contact . I have told him that he will interview VERY well, whether it's for 6th Form, college or a job .

Best wishes with continuing to help your kids

 

[Chicken Run]

Congratulations to Chicken Run junior.
My daughter graduated from uni of Nottingham with a 1st and was top of her cohort.

I said to my Lad when he said he had a 2:1 oh a Liverpool 83 then, he didn’t get it

 

[Chicken Run]

Well done that man, both my nephews have dyslexia and passed uni also not sure of the grading system my brother said they got top grades, but knowing him they could have had bottom grades!
Did you have to give him extra tuition at home or privately?
My sister in law spent many hours as she didn't work full time helping them.

No I didn’t, he was diagnosed back at the beginning of High School and had the use of a lap top throughout which i found strange, but for me to give him extra tuition would mean someone giving me some first

 

[Chicken Run]

Good thread @Right Brain Ronnie

 

[Zeberdi]

I don’t have any chronic health conditions but i’m exactly the same as you when it comes to numbers, could never get involved in darts or work behind the bar at the cricket club, i was terrified of the getting the change wrong , so is this a condition then? I failed Maths CSE yet got a B in English Lang & Lit O Level

Well apparently!

As I said above, until it was mentioned above by @Frutos, I never knew it was a thing/had a name - used to call it my ‘maths dyslexia’ and thought it was something that only I had a problem with. Still do, although my mental arithmetic is often much better than my ‘visual’ arithmetic.

I do remember sitting on my Mum’s kitchen stool every Saturday as a 7/8 year old having to recite my Times Tables over and over while all the other kids were out playing because I was seriously struggling with ‘sums’ at school.

- then when a bit older, coming home from Junior school and having to sit at the kitchen table each day for an hour while Mum cut up oranges into segments to try and teach me fractions because I had a complete mental block with them at school. I hated that big, bright, white table and the smell and sight of orange quarters laid out in front of me.

My parents didn’t know I was autistic (it wasn’t a thing in the 60/early 70s - kids were just labelled “disruptive” or “difficult” and sent to the school psychiatrist) - so not only did the extra maths lessons not work but I also developed a deep aversion to the colour orange - to the point I started having repetitive drowning nightmares every time Mum made up my bed with the orange sheets that we had as kids. I hated oranges for years - which was a bit of a problem when it came to handing them out at half time on match days

 

[LamieRobertson]

Good thread @Right Brain Ronnie

Totally agree

 

[Deportivo Seagull]

No I didn’t, he was diagnosed back at the beginning of High School and had the use of a lap top throughout which i found strange, but for me to give him extra tuition would mean someone giving me some first

One of my lads school friends has dyslexia and used a laptop throughout school. He was always ‘behind‘ at primary school but now has a 1st in marine design from Southampton university and works for company designing specialist boats and yachts.
it’s a case of being given the right tools and support.

 

[armchairclubber]

You're right. I make all of those and more the consistency is all over the shop due to my lack of focus on my ADHD. I sometimes might say wait, I am coming to pick you up (within a text), and another day, I could accidentally say weight I am coming......... I know the spelling, but I switched off for a split second and picked the wrong one.

I have also got to the point of caring less now in unimportant messages. If it's roughly right, I don't care.

Well, even though some of the posts on this thread appear inappropriate, I hope at the same time you may have some chuckles, brother.

Im sure there's so much we can all learn on topics like this, and with contributions like raymondos, it's good to have more adults in the room.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I have difficulty pronouncing some worse also like 3 I say as free,

I went to the Doctor as I have trouble pronouncing f and th. The Doctor said “you can’t say fairer than that then, can you?”

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

The people who are making gags are very disrespectful.

I hope you all burn in hull.

 

[Right Brain Ronnie]

Thanks for your feedback.

He's a lovely lad and so it was an easy choice to try to help him.

It was slow for me at first to understand where he had difficulties, and it was very hard for him to explain how/why certain tasks were difficult for him!
We learned to go with the flow rather than try to overcome every difficulty with too much practice.

Some things had to be dropped: e.g. "just don't attempt any question about polygons!!"

'My' lad was a group of 'partial' dyslexics (rather than extreme I guess) and the resources didn't extend to specific experienced teaching for them. His teachers were clearly helpful as best they could be.

On the 'plus' side for him:
- he's fantastic at sports (cricket and golf)

- he loves the outdoors (hates being cooped up indoors)

- and for a 16 year old has truly great verbal communication and eye contact . I have told him that he will interview VERY well, whether it's for 6th Form, college or a job .

Best wishes with continuing to help your kids

Cricket and golf, is impressive everyone I know who good at one is shocking at the other!
I interview well when I was an employee, I was fortunate to land all the jobs I went for, I think if you can come out of being an introvert you can explode your personality above most.

I was told I was dyslexic by a teacher at school because my spelling was so bad. What I found strange, it was at the time BBC computers were put in to all schools and I found that I could spell words when typed on a keyboard but not write them down with a pen and paper. I think it is because my brain remembers the finger patterns for the words rather then I know how to spell them. I still break into a cold sweat if I have to fill out a written form.

If it a words I don't commonly type then I have to use spell check, but sometimes I am so bad it doesn't have a clue what I am trying to say,

I totally get the form thing it often gets passed to my wife, unless it is very basic name and address!
If my wife isn't there and post dyslexia diagnosis I see sorry can you do it as I am dyslexic, as I might make a mistake, they then break out in to a cold sweat. The bonus of being diagnosed!
Spell Check does the same for me, I have just sent a WhatsApp to one of the football coaches I work with and started, our you going tonight, rather than ARE you.......!

No I didn’t, he was diagnosed back at the beginning of High School and had the use of a lap top throughout which i found strange, but for me to give him extra tuition would mean someone giving me some first

Yes, teaching your own is a tough task, with or without dyslexia!

Well, even though some of the posts on this thread appear inappropriate, I hope at the same time you may have some chuckles, brother.

Im sure there's so much we can all learn on topics like this, and with contributions like raymondos, it's good to have more adults in the room.

The inappropriate ones are just like when your 4ft 2 and 20 stone, and someone says aren't you short and fat, its obvious and something we heard a zillion times before. I suppose at least they find it funny, I guess they are lonely people.

 

[lost in london]

Interesting thread, thanks.

Surprised at the continual piss taking by some above however, strange place to chose to do it.

 

[Zeberdi]

Interesting thread, thanks.

Surprised at the continual piss taking by some above however, strange place to chose to do it.

Autistic people/neurodiverse/dyslexic people do have a sense of humour you know - ( well when we actually get the joke )

None of it is mauritius or really offal.

 

[Right Brain Ronnie]

Autistic people/neurodiverse/autistic people do have a sense of humour you know - ( well when we actually get the joke )

None of it is mauritius or really offal.

I thought he was referring about the trolls, but I can't see them now as I made the decision they should be put on ignore as they clearly didn't deserve any respect.

 

[Chicken Run]

Autistic people/neurodiverse/dyslexic people do have a sense of humour you know - ( well when we actually get the joke )

None of it is mauritius or really offal.

One wonders if similar jokes made on a mental health thread would be given similar tolerances?