Well, if you are reading this and asking ‘am I dyslexic’, then it’s a possibility you are! However, to be sure you need to get yourself tested. I’m afraid although the freebies may give you an idea of what to look for which is useful, to be truly clear, you need a professional consultation. The primary reason for this is that we are all different, and although dyslexia is a global term, it has many sub-types that manifest in different ways. It should then come as no surprise that the way that dyslexics may be helped will also differ. There is little point trying to get someone to do the backstroke when they can’t swim! Same with dyslexia remediation programs, they need to be tailored to the individual.

Here, we are just going to give you a selection of some of the possible signs of dyslexia that may seem out of the ordinary.

1. Do you make a lot of mistakes when writing cheques?
2. When making a phone call, do you often mix the numbers up when you dial and/or find it difficult to take messages and record them correctly?
3. Are you a bad speller?
4. Do you frequently find yourself mixing up dates and times and miss appointments.
5. Do you avoid filling out forms as you find them confusing?
6. Do you think you take longer to read a page in a book than other people?
7. Did you find learning your multiplication tables really hard?
8. Can you recite the months of the year out loud and fluently?
9. When reading long words, do you find it hard to get the correct sounds and to get them in the right order?
10. When following directions, do you find it difficult to tell your left from your right?
11. Can you do simple sums in your head without resorting to using your fingers?

So, “am I dyslexic”? If you answer ‘yes’ to the majority of the above, then this is likely.

Please remember this is only a quick dyslexia screening test, it is not a professional assessment and only indicates a pre-disposition towards dyslexia.

The next step should be a professional assessment that you can get via many local education departments or via a dyslexia organisation. They won’t be cheap I’m afraid, and if they offer a remediation program, that won’t be cheap either.

However, if you are still worried about taking that step and want a little more confirmation first, try one of the online dyslexia tests that you have to pay for. The reason for this is that some of these online tests have a lot more research behind them and have been developed by accredited professionals in the field. One such test can be found by CLICKING HERE. These tests are impersonal, so no one will make you feel silly. That said, there is no reason why you should feel embarrassed at a professional testing, you are expected to have difficulty with certain things and no one is going to be judging you.

So, am I dyslexic? Take the plunge, and change your life today.

Dragon Speech To Text

If you have grown up with dyslexia, you know how difficult and isolating it can be. A test for dyslexia online may be the way forward if you have been keeping your worries to yourself for years, or simply do not want anyone to know. You can find information about such a test HERE.

As a child, being dyslexic can lead to frustration and feelings of low self-esteem that will stay with you into adulthood if you don’t get the right kind of support. Even if you do, you are likely to have grown up compensating in some way for any difficulties. I’m not talking here about the way you avoid reading in public, I’m talking about the cognitive processes we use to read the printed word.

There is more than one theory of how the brain processes letter strings and I do not believe any of them can totally answer all the different ways that dyslexics read real or made up words, or in how they treat specific types of words. I’m not going to go into the ins and outs of this, but suffice it to say it is the subject of a great deal of debate amongst cognitive psychologists that has led to a lot of conflicting research. IMHO, the root of all this conflicting information is based in individual differences and that dyslexia should not be treated as a single group, rather as a collection of sub-types within that group and each sub-type showing more pronounced difficulties in a specific area. This is why you may not fit into what you have read as a definition of dyslexia.

However, there are several unifying factors that the majority of dyslexics will exhibit. These include poor spelling, slow reading speeds that can lead to poor comprehension. Frequently dyslexics will have problems with the order of numbers and confuse things like phone numbers for example.

A basic thing you can do is (for example) when reading this short article; try changing the background colour to a pale colour to reduce the contrast of black on white. Try a pale cream, blue/grey or pink and see how it feels. Increase the size of the font and change it to a dark grey or dark blue. Play around and see what works best for you. Copy the text and paste into your word processing software as this will give you more options such as a changing the line spacing and changing the actual font to Verdana or Arial. Some speech to text software works better than others but they will also work in reverse to read for you. We recommend Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Home Edition (PC) for speech to text and  Voice Reader Home for text to speech.

Also, stay clear of bright lights that cause a glare on your screen or pages. Tone down the contrast on your monitor as well – on mine, I press ALT and FN together and the down arrow.

This short report really focuses on adults who now believe they may have dyslexia. If this is you, and you are, you obviously grew up with the deficit.

How you cope now, depends on the type of problem you had as a child. May be you found it difficult sounding out printed words, if reading out loud, you tended to pronounce certain words (e.g. yacht, bough) incorrectly, or maybe you had difficulty remembering what you have read for example.  Unless you have a severe dyslexia, as you go through your education, you will gradually develop strategies to help you cope. That is, things you can do you tend to rely on more. For example, if you have a difficulty in sounding out words, you will listen carefully when others say them and add them to your lexicon by memorising them. Adult developmental dyslexics are often referred to as compensated dyslexics when they have found ways to cope with their problem.

You may cope perfectly well as an adult using these strategies and no one would ever be aware. But you may realise there is a problem and want to check it out for sure.  You can look at your spellings and see if there is a pattern. Do you regularly spell words you hear as they sound (even “yacht” or”bough”) for example.

One thing that research has shown is that there is nearly always a reading speed deficit, even as a compensated dyslexia, as an adult the reading speed will be slower than normal. If you are going to test your reading speed yourself,  do not use a paragaph where you can pick up the context as this obviously helps you. Construct a 200 to 300 word paragraph that consists of random 3 letter words that do not form a sentence.

Such a sentence may be along the lines of, “dog, the, may, cat, say, the, big, and”. Read it silently to yourself with a stop watch and get a couple of other people to read it as well. See if your speed is slower.

At this point, it must be pointed out that you may not dyslexic at all. If you failed to learn to read properly at school because you had poor attendance, moved around a lot, didn’t bother, poor eyesight or hearing etc., you may just be a slow and ‘garden variety’ type of poor reader. Take the online dyslexia test today and give yourself a proper idea.

CLICK HERE to go there straight there now.

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