It's not likely I'm dyslexic, is it?

[TippyTinkleTrousers]

I posted on here recently (chat probably) about struggling being able to proof read my essays, I struggle with grammar, spelling and generally proof reading despite buying books in grammar using spell check and carefully and slowly proof reading.

I contacted my uni and my local Fb page as a call out for a proof reader as clearly I'm useless.

I lost marks constantly during my last degree and came out with a bare 2:2

The uni doesn't provide a service, just one for students who's first language isn't English but I found loads of people willing to be paid via Fb.

The head of health science has asked me to a dyslexia test (which I already completed 7 months ago) and I told her it said I was borderline.

Now I'm in a tangle trying to figure out a time to take an actual test.
I will do it but I feel like it's massive waste of time.

Surely I can't have got this far in life not knowing I'm dyslexic? I'm 34.

On the other hand it was asking me questions that are fitting for me, unable to follow written instructions, inability to sit still, very fidgity and some other things.

All nothing to do with spelling and grammar

Any insight I'd be grateful for.

Ha, DaisyMay As a historian trying to help blind leading the blind
with revision and proof reading for my DD's University Science likewise apart from helping with structure and development of argument. We could have swapped....

A friend of mine was diagnosed late - when we were students, in fact. She went from 3rd class marks/borderline fail to a good degree and is now a professor in a hard STEM subject. (My DS has been diagnosed recently - like a previous poster, he's in the high 90s in percentile terms for reasoning/intelligence, and in the bottom 15% for processing speed. He's had a nightmare at school this year because the teacher loved giving them "beat the clock" maths tests - his confidence is now in shreds, grrr.)

The posts in this thread have been really really eye opening for me.

Whether I have or haven't got it, I had absolutely no idea about any of the information given on this thread. I must have been living under a rock.

I'm now seeing the test in a different light and grateful for the option rather than seeing it as a ball ache to go through.

Ghosty I've got to the dyslexic test by talking to my tutors about my struggle to proof read. So if I have this test and I'm not, they basically said my other option is to source my own proof reader. But gave me 3 pages of what a proof reader is and is not allowed to do. Painfully obvious stuff, such as 'make suggestions or contributions to the assignment' 🙄

Thank you to the person who suggested software that reads out my work. THAT would seriously help me and I didn't even know it existed.

My mum suggested reading aloud my work. But when I read allowed I may as well be reading Spanish, absolutely no information goes in. She kept saying "yes, but if it flows..." But I wouldn't know. When I read something aloud NO information enters my brain.
However if something is read aloud to me that's a completely different matter.

I'm going to google that right now, I get my student loan this month as well. Huge thanks for that tip.

Don't spend your own money until you've had the testing done. As if you are diagnosed dyslexic you may be entitled to dsa software for free.

Oh and I do the reading aloud and nothing goes in thing too.

Ah Ok, good point.

In the mean time though I've managed to find one called 'Speak It!' Which seems to be made for my laptop (Chromebook) as all the others I found tended to be for android/Mac/iPad and not for other laptop makes.
It seems to have good reviews.

I feel like I've had a bit of a revelation there, hearing it aloud will be incredibly helpful.

I have severe dyslexia and dyspraxia but at pushing 40 have developed natural coping mechanisms. I am on track to get a 1st at uni, do a very attention to detail job, that requires me to write and read and research a lot & produce professional materials for external dissemination. I do this by:

• Using a screen for everything: I can't read/write on paper without coloured overlays and even then I'm slow.

• I use spell check, grammar when it counts (ie not now). I also read everything I've written in different font sizes as it helps focus my eyes.

• I rock climb as it focusses my attention and has really helped long term.

ADHD is also a possibility, it is just as common in adults as in children. Symptoms can be similar to dyslexia.

I actually find it much easier to write in hand.
Well for one page then it goes incredibly tits up but it starts off great.

At least in my opinion.

Although I never show anyone that, so how would I know, thinking about it.

DH has dyslexia. It was officially diagnosed at the start of his Masters, when he was about 30. He'd been told at school he couldn't be dyslexic because he read for pleasure . On assessment he was found to be over 90th percentile for most things except reading speed and processing speed, which is down below the 50th percentile.

He got extra time with his essays, extra grammar support from the university (although by that time I was acting as his proof-reader) and was allowed longer to complete his dissertation.

Dyslexia is a bit of a bucket term. One of the benefits to having a full EP test is that you get to see and understand your strengths and weaknesses. My ds was assessed at 6/7 and shown to have issues with his working memory, it was helpful as parents to have strategies specifically around that (including specialist tutoring). He also has poor fine motor skills, so terrible handwriting. No particular visual issues but he's not great managing a string of instructions (although I think that's his memory rather than oral problems.

We've been told that his childhood assessment is not valid for university (not in the UK) so I guess some issues may change over time.

emwithme I told myself exactly that today after I got the email to tell me to get a dyslexia test. I thought if I read for pleasure - i.e have a clear ability to read at ease and take the information in, then surely I'd be wasting their time getting a test?!

I've read this thread now and realised it's way, way more than that. Like I said, I've clearly been living under a rock.
Thanks for your post that's given me even more insight.

nooka my 6 year old is struggling at school and I'm really embarrassed to say that I've been brushing it under the carpet and saying he'll grow out if it. My 10 year old struggled a bit (in my opinion) but grew out of it.
The opposite is happening with my youngest, the school is picking up on things where as ive waved it away saying he'll grow out of it like my eldest did but in hindsight he IS struggling more than my eldest and its taken ( the test I did again today, also did it 7 months ago) to realise he featured on it and I've been poo pooing the schools concerns when actually I shouldn't have been.

I feel really bad about that. Although I've done everything the school has asked of me and seen all the people and done what they asked I just didn't take it seriously.

I will be from now on.

Im dyslexic. It got picked up at university. I struggled at primary but did well at middle and high school. When I got tested they said that I had naturally compensated. I studied alot and despite struggling at primary school once I had built up a word bank by reading by shape of work I was a good reader who tested above average. I am a very visual learner. The person who tested me aaid its really common for it to be missed if you are doing well at school or average. People think if your dyslexic its all about reading. For me it has meant I have awful spelling, read what I think I have writen, find organisation hard, switch letters around and find it easier to talk about subjects rather than write about. Get tested as the help is invaluable. The things I struggled with improved alot and I no longer felt as if I was thick

Just to add my daughter is struggling at school like your son. There is a genetic factor. She is very creative. Ive told the school I think its dyslexia as she is struggling with same things I did and they have agreed. They wont till later so really dont feel as if you have failed with your son. I am also like you that I can read clearly and I read alot for pleasure. The teat really is worth doing

Bookworm - that's interesting - I get the impression my son is begining to get there with reading as he develops a repertoire of sight words (he struggles with decoding because of the working memory issue - by the time he's decoded the last syllable of a word he's forgotten what the first one was).

Like others on the thread (including Tippy if I'm reading your posts right) I'd got completely the wrong idea about what dyslexia was from newspaper articles and the like - I thought it was struggling to read and flipping bs and ds and that sort of thing. It was a chance session at work about supporting dyslexia in the workplace that made me realise it was a much more complex and varied condition (and led to me getting DS tested).

I wonder if I have it, lots in my family. But mine mostly spelling as I can read ago. I can type back to front letters like b or p but I can tell straight away I have done it. Have problems with prof reading too, agree having it read out really helps.

But it's costs over £1500 and can't really justify the cost now, just never going to be able to spell!

I wonder about DH. Dyslexia wasn't on the agenda when he was at school. He appeared to be the least academic in his family but muddled through sufficiently to go to polytechnic in a technical subject, he then did a degree via his employer, then a PhD. However, ask him to read a picture book to the DCs and a load of gobbledygook comes out. I had to go through the torturous task of turning his written garblings in his PhD into comprehensible English so that it could then be proof read for its technical merits. There is a clear, significant discrepancy between his literacy skills and intelligence level.

You mention your 6 year old, again we have a 6 year old who is struggling, again a clear discrepancy between intelligence and literacy skill. Learning to read is going slowly. Theoretically meeting expected standards for writing as he can cope with the higher skills of punctuation to meet the targets, but in reality still struggling to write his name (though very proud of his split diagraph!). Sequencing poor, letters and combinations of letters flipped all over, doesn't recognise words he read 2 sentences before...

Where practical it is worth investigating as it gives access to some support and appropriate coping strategies. I've got a friend identified with another specific difficulty that had been affecting his relationship with employers. To know that it's a specific recognised condition and not any deficiency of his work ethic makes a significant difference and gives him some protection with reasonable adjustments.

Another one saying get tested. The tests will show you what your personal pattern of strengths is, and it will hugely help you to figure out how to cope best.

I am moderately dyslexic. My mum realised early on, but she/I spent years being told I was just lazy/thick.

I got through an undergraduate degree and a master's before finding out during post grad (in a psychology department ) that I was dyslexic....
It's really not about reading (i learnt to read fluently). My working memory is kaput though and this effects lots of tasks. I find the understanding of my strengths and weaknesses (from the Ed psych test) really helpful. I now use techniques and technical support that makes life easier....

Of course uni will fund stuff like proof reading if you get a diagnosis- they have to!!!

It's called supporting disability and they are LEGALLY obliged to.

Well, they might not, but they should.

My daughter who is 6 struggles with the decoding to. She can memorise spellings and words but finds it hard to use phonics. I was same. She finds it hard to follow the sequence after they have been told what to do. Luckily I can help her as was a primary school teacher but not helped by schools dont tend to teach more than one method of reading. My daughters writing has improved with colour paper. They tend to test at 8. I think its only been recent years its been on schools radars. My parents just thought i wasnt as academic as my sisters and more artistic

My DD who had problems with reading, writing and spelling was incredibly lucky to have a teacher in Year 2 who recognised the problems and with the SENCO at school put her through an intensive literacy programme tailored to her learning style. She was not actually formally diagnosed until she was 7, the earliest age that you can, but the programme was one that worked for her and brought her up to the average level. She is still grateful for the skills and coping strategies it gave her. A LOT of hard work at home though practising those skills but that in itself taught her that Dyslexia isn't an excuse, you have to work harder.

The government has trashed amongst many things the playing field for students with SpLDs. They tightened up the rules on extra time in GCSEs and A levels with six weeks to go to DD's AS levels such that to qualify, the scores for working memory, processing and speed of writing have to be in the bottom 14% of the population. This is regardless of your reasoning scores, which is completely idiotic as the source of disability lies in having scores that are significantly below your reasoning ability and therefore prevent you showing your ability. It was all Gove playing to the Daily Fail who had run a campaign saying far too many pupils were getting extra time because middle class parents were buying diagnoses from Ed Psychs as opposed to with 1 in 10 having SpLDs more were getting the support they needed with the imposition of an exam system that marks you on memory and the ability to show your ability in timed conditions. It looked as though my DD might find herself without the extra time she was used to with only six weeks to develop coping strategies but with Ed Psychs deluged with requests to update assessments we were lucky that we managed to bring forward the assessment scheduled befor uni and her scores were in the bottom 10 per cent. A lot of pupils lost their access to extra time though. It particularly discriminates against the bright pupils with problems 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡 My DD was also in the last year to benefit from DSA which funded lots of equipment eg that scanned text so that she could use it to cut and paste quotes, that recorded lectures with links to her own notes so she could play back if she did not understand what she had written (which she does in the shape of memory maps rather than formal notes). More 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡

I am a little surprised that the proposed support from uni would come in the shape of a proof reader as for both DDs and Neice the support was in in the form of a yellow sticker on their work which flagged to the marker that the student had a SpLD and they were not to be penalised for spelling, punctuation, grammar or syntax mistakes. Also at the beginning of each module the tutor was contacted by DDs' mentor and fully briefed on their specific issues and the implications. It may well be that your issues are not just with proof reading?

They've taken away the FDA ...I would never have been able to get through my doctorate without it... The extra time will be mad news for ds too. 99th centile but low processing and working memory

Although DSA to a large extent disappeared the universities now have to provide the support themselves in order to be disability act compliant. Where I work we have been investing in technology that supports to reduce in the long term reliance on one to one support.

So if a uni is not providing the support to level the playing field then you need to be reminding them that due to the Disability Act they need, that they have had notice if this change and had funding from HEFCE to assist in the transition to having to self fund students...

I do wonder how long before a uni gets taken to court over this...

They cannot use the withdrawal of DSA as an excuse!