I did not expect my daughter’s reading difficulty to be dyslexia. Her father and I were good readers and always performed well in school. My other children showed no signs of dyslexia. At least this is what I thought in the beginning. My husband and my son have no reading difficulties. My oldest daughter has some phonics issues yet she reads well above her grade level. While, my quirks never prevented me from academic success, it appeared that I had some signs of dyslexia. This was all very surprising to me. I ignorantly thought dyslexia was when a person inverted letters or numbers or wrote letters or numbers backwards. I did not realize there was more to the story or that it was a spectrum. Reading more answered questions about someone that surprised me the most. That someone is me.
As I read more about dyslexia I felt like it was describing me. I took some fun little quizzes to see if one should be tested for it. My quizzes told me that I should be tested further but my issues were mild. Now, keep in mind, these are internet quizzes and I was in the beginning of my research. I still am learning. However, I realized that my spelling issues, directional difficulties (left, right and north, south), my tendency to have to read a question several times before comprehending what I just read, and what I thought were ADD tendencies all were associated with dyslexia. The more I read the more I found myself and what I normally thought were quirks. Signs such as bad handwriting, embarrassed to read in public, hard time pronouncing words never seen, and feeling dumb, jumped off the screen. I was embarrassed to read in public because I would easily mispronounce words I had not seen before. I felt stupid for my constant spelling errors. I was embarrassed to share notes due to bad handwriting and again spelling errors. I had to think before knowing which ways was left or right. I still have no idea where West or East is and my sense of direction is seriously flawed. My son would ask me for help on an assignment and I would many times have to read a question several times before understanding what I read. These little quirks do not happen all the time but often enough it defined me. Now, I made it through school, college, homeschooling, and as a writer despite these little aspects of my personality. It only becomes important as a piece of the puzzle.
My oldest daughter has a quirk as well. She has a terrible time pronouncing words she has never seen. She also is not a good speller. In addition, if she sees a word in a book she has never seen she will not connect the word she reads with the spoken word. For instance, if she were to see “liberty” in a book but never saw it spelled out she would not connect it with the word “liberty” that she knows and has heard. If she never knew the word and I mentioned the book talked about it she would not connect the hearing of the word with seeing the word. However, these little quirks seem more like annoyances because she has always been able to work around them and read well above her level.
Our puzzle of dyslexia was being put together.
More pieces would be found and placed after my six year old takes her first reading test from a specialist.