The other day I told my mother about starting this blog. The first question she asked me was what I was going to post on it which was a very good question. My answer was simple; Short stories, poems, the rare artwork maybe (Since I like to draw the characters I write about), book reviews and writing-focused apps/programs. It was at that point that she pointed out that blogs also included a personal aspect of things that affected what they are blogging about. For example, my mother reads homesteading blogs a lot so she told how if one of the homesteading blogger's children went to the doctor and found out they had a food allergy they would write posts about how they had to shift their way of doing things because of said allergy. Going with this flow of thought she said I could write about a few medical issues I had, but I pointed out to her that none of those really affected what I wrote.
However, within a few minutes, I realized that I did, in fact, have something that affected me personally as a reader and a writer; Dyslexia. I don't remember the exact time I was diagnosed with it but I do know it happened sometime during Elementary School. Now you may be wondering just how could I not remember such a thing as it would have a big impact on the rest of my life especially my earlier years of learning. The simplest answer is that my childhood was chaotic. Not in the bad I grew up in an abusive home type more along the lines of there was just a lot of things going on at the time. Plus when they found out I was Dyslexic and my mother asked what could be done to help me their answer was a simple one, "Be glad that computers are coming out with spellcheck." After all, I grew up and still live in a rather small Northern California town which at the time was starting an economic slump that, at least I think so, has not recovered yet. The school I went to had resources for various things but Dyslexia wasn't one of them.
Now the first time I can really remember it affecting me was in Third Grade. My teacher, who to this day I am thankful for, decided to test the class reading level. My results put me at Second Grade Reading Level. I was not the lowest one in class as a few tested at First Grade, I believe, yet the startling thing was if I remember correctly about half of our class tested below level. Scary, right? The thing is before Third Grade besides the books I owned I don't remember reading much for the school outside of school work. My teacher's solution was to lead us all to the respective classes our reading levels were at and ask to borrow the reading books from them. I didn't mind as I got to say hello to my second-grade teacher who was just as nice as my third-grade teacher.
Once we had these books her plan became rather simple. Every night we were to read stories out of the book aloud to our parents and our parents had to sign a homework slip to prove we did it. As my mother was an LVN at the time that worked night shift this fell to my father who worked at a local molding mill when we were at school. Every evening I would crawl into his lap with this red book full of stories like the Little Red Hen and read to him. Then he would sign the slip and at the end of the school week I would turn it in. Did it help me at all? Yes, in fact, it helped a lot.
By being forced to read aloud like that made it to where my father could correct my mistakes and help me pronounce words I didn't know. By the time I was in Fifth Grade I became the fastest reader in my school as far as the AR Reading program was concerned. This was figured out because our Librarian would do different things each year to encourage us to read more and to show how much we read. Basically, she made it a contest. One that every could win as long as they read enough and would get an ice cream and pizza party at the end of the year. During Fifth Grade, we were given hot air balloons with our names on it and she had contents tacked around the Library above the bookcases as the theme was to Travel Around the World based off the book Traveling Around the World in Eighty Days I believe. So many points would move you to various contents until you came full circle and would be invited to the party.
By the time she was able to get the whole thing set up and start moving the hot air balloons around I had already gained enough points to have earned the ice cream party. I don't remember how long into the school year that was as she would try to get on it as soon as possible, but the only other person to have gone as far as I was a male student in my class. I remember this as I was talking to my friend telling her how I was the first one to make to the end. He picked a verbal argument with me about it saying he was the first one to reach the goal but the Librarian stepped in and said that I had indeed been the first one around the world as far as the reading points where concern. It is probably thanks to this argument that I still clearly remember this.
That wasn't the end of it though as I will be Dyslexic for the rest of my life. Still, my mother continued to encourage me to read aloud once she realized how much it helped me. By the time I was in Eighth Grade my reading level tested out as an Eleventh Grade student. I wasn't the highest as one of my friends was at Twelfth grade, but I was certainly proud of myself. Still, its not like my Dyslexia has magically fixed itself. I still have issues reading words correctly and it's even more obvious when I read aloud. It is rather annoying actually. I can read a word correctly within my head but the moment I try to read the same word aloud to someone suddenly I can't say it. This normally happens with longer words or ones I'm simply not used to coming across but thankfully I grown up with parents and a sister that have no qualms correcting me if I read something wrong because they know its the only way I will ever read that word correctly. They are so used to doing this for me that when one of my sister's ex-boyfriends was reading and pronouncing things incorrectly they would automatically correct him much to his annoyance.
As such, dear readers, if you ever spot a spelling mistake or a grammar error feel free to point it out (This post alone had over fifty of the darn things). I won't get upset with you I will welcome it. Since this has gotten a bit long the next post like this will be focusing on the spelling aspect of Dyslexia and how much it has affected my writing as a whole. To show this I will gather up some of my old writing to show the improvement. Heck if I dig hard enough I can find an assignment my third-grade teacher gave me that sort of helped me decide later on to focus more on my writing. Plus a story I wrote from middle school and maybe something from high school compared to now maybe? We'll see what I can find :D
Want an example of what it's like to have Dyslexia? This site is coded to show someone without Dyslexia what its like (though for me it's a bit off. Words don't move as I read they are just wrong when I do. Which is why I don't connect to Percy Jackson's version of Dyslexia). While a book by Blake Charlton, an author with Dyslexia, called Spellwright tells an interesting story of a wizard with Dyslexia, though called something else on his world, that is very talented but hampered by the fact that he has to spell his magic to use it. Its the first one in a series and one I grabbed when I found out Blake Charlton has Dyslexia like me. To me it does a better job of showing what its like to have Dyslexia. Plus the entire story is creative and I have never seen magic work quite like how he wrote in this.
However, within a few minutes, I realized that I did, in fact, have something that affected me personally as a reader and a writer; Dyslexia. I don't remember the exact time I was diagnosed with it but I do know it happened sometime during Elementary School. Now you may be wondering just how could I not remember such a thing as it would have a big impact on the rest of my life especially my earlier years of learning. The simplest answer is that my childhood was chaotic. Not in the bad I grew up in an abusive home type more along the lines of there was just a lot of things going on at the time. Plus when they found out I was Dyslexic and my mother asked what could be done to help me their answer was a simple one, "Be glad that computers are coming out with spellcheck." After all, I grew up and still live in a rather small Northern California town which at the time was starting an economic slump that, at least I think so, has not recovered yet. The school I went to had resources for various things but Dyslexia wasn't one of them.
Now the first time I can really remember it affecting me was in Third Grade. My teacher, who to this day I am thankful for, decided to test the class reading level. My results put me at Second Grade Reading Level. I was not the lowest one in class as a few tested at First Grade, I believe, yet the startling thing was if I remember correctly about half of our class tested below level. Scary, right? The thing is before Third Grade besides the books I owned I don't remember reading much for the school outside of school work. My teacher's solution was to lead us all to the respective classes our reading levels were at and ask to borrow the reading books from them. I didn't mind as I got to say hello to my second-grade teacher who was just as nice as my third-grade teacher.
Once we had these books her plan became rather simple. Every night we were to read stories out of the book aloud to our parents and our parents had to sign a homework slip to prove we did it. As my mother was an LVN at the time that worked night shift this fell to my father who worked at a local molding mill when we were at school. Every evening I would crawl into his lap with this red book full of stories like the Little Red Hen and read to him. Then he would sign the slip and at the end of the school week I would turn it in. Did it help me at all? Yes, in fact, it helped a lot.
By being forced to read aloud like that made it to where my father could correct my mistakes and help me pronounce words I didn't know. By the time I was in Fifth Grade I became the fastest reader in my school as far as the AR Reading program was concerned. This was figured out because our Librarian would do different things each year to encourage us to read more and to show how much we read. Basically, she made it a contest. One that every could win as long as they read enough and would get an ice cream and pizza party at the end of the year. During Fifth Grade, we were given hot air balloons with our names on it and she had contents tacked around the Library above the bookcases as the theme was to Travel Around the World based off the book Traveling Around the World in Eighty Days I believe. So many points would move you to various contents until you came full circle and would be invited to the party.
By the time she was able to get the whole thing set up and start moving the hot air balloons around I had already gained enough points to have earned the ice cream party. I don't remember how long into the school year that was as she would try to get on it as soon as possible, but the only other person to have gone as far as I was a male student in my class. I remember this as I was talking to my friend telling her how I was the first one to make to the end. He picked a verbal argument with me about it saying he was the first one to reach the goal but the Librarian stepped in and said that I had indeed been the first one around the world as far as the reading points where concern. It is probably thanks to this argument that I still clearly remember this.
That wasn't the end of it though as I will be Dyslexic for the rest of my life. Still, my mother continued to encourage me to read aloud once she realized how much it helped me. By the time I was in Eighth Grade my reading level tested out as an Eleventh Grade student. I wasn't the highest as one of my friends was at Twelfth grade, but I was certainly proud of myself. Still, its not like my Dyslexia has magically fixed itself. I still have issues reading words correctly and it's even more obvious when I read aloud. It is rather annoying actually. I can read a word correctly within my head but the moment I try to read the same word aloud to someone suddenly I can't say it. This normally happens with longer words or ones I'm simply not used to coming across but thankfully I grown up with parents and a sister that have no qualms correcting me if I read something wrong because they know its the only way I will ever read that word correctly. They are so used to doing this for me that when one of my sister's ex-boyfriends was reading and pronouncing things incorrectly they would automatically correct him much to his annoyance.
As such, dear readers, if you ever spot a spelling mistake or a grammar error feel free to point it out (This post alone had over fifty of the darn things). I won't get upset with you I will welcome it. Since this has gotten a bit long the next post like this will be focusing on the spelling aspect of Dyslexia and how much it has affected my writing as a whole. To show this I will gather up some of my old writing to show the improvement. Heck if I dig hard enough I can find an assignment my third-grade teacher gave me that sort of helped me decide later on to focus more on my writing. Plus a story I wrote from middle school and maybe something from high school compared to now maybe? We'll see what I can find :D
Want an example of what it's like to have Dyslexia? This site is coded to show someone without Dyslexia what its like (though for me it's a bit off. Words don't move as I read they are just wrong when I do. Which is why I don't connect to Percy Jackson's version of Dyslexia). While a book by Blake Charlton, an author with Dyslexia, called Spellwright tells an interesting story of a wizard with Dyslexia, though called something else on his world, that is very talented but hampered by the fact that he has to spell his magic to use it. Its the first one in a series and one I grabbed when I found out Blake Charlton has Dyslexia like me. To me it does a better job of showing what its like to have Dyslexia. Plus the entire story is creative and I have never seen magic work quite like how he wrote in this.
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