I've been crappy at spelling ever since I can remember. In second grade they put me in a slow reading group. Nobody ever hinted that I may have had a problem. I was just slow, at least that's what I thought. And I couldn't spell simple words. Again, I thought the world was telling me that I was stupid. My mother's boyfriend use to constantly tease me about reading only short books. I hated reading and I guess I couldn't ever tell people why because I didn't know I was seeing things differently.
My frustrations were compounded by the fact that I couldn't tell time to save my life. My mom even bought me a special Jack and Jill watch, it had blue from 12 to 6 to let you know that was "after" and red from 6 to 12 to let you know that was "before." It didn't help. It still took way to long for me to figure out time. I was really happy when I got a digital watch and I could just tell people it was 9:15 instead of trying to figure out quarter after nine. I remember getting so frustrated that I would just show people my watch when they asked me for the time.
Also, I cannot tell my left from my right without visual cues. People say turn left and I have to look at my left hand. You should see me giving directions, I'm yelling "TURN RIGHT! TURN RIGHT!" and I'm pointing left which is pissing off the driver because I mean left. I've learned to tell people to go where I'm pointing and not where I am saying.
Most people find the left/right thing funny. But those same people think my inability to spell and tell time indicate that I'm stupid. I've hidden my spelling problems for as long as I can remember. People would not believe that I graduated with honors and I can't spell. I tend to use small words and stick to things I can spell, that also adds to the stupid stigmatism. It probably didn't help that all my friends were really smart in the language arts which added to my inferiority complex.
Thank heavens my math skills were really good. The best thing I ever learned was how to find transposed numbers really quickly (if the difference is divisible by 9, then a number is probably transposed). But math was always my friend except geometry where I would take the longest way possible to solve problems. It was so bad my teacher would look at my answers on the board and tell the class not to copy my answers. They were right, but long. I took 15 steps to solve a three step problem. My brain just didn't work like other people's. It got things, but not in the same way.
It's gotten easier as I've gotten older. The more I read, the more I can see word patterns. Even if I don't see the letters in the right order, I know what the word is because I've seen it a million times. I learn to see things in context (which makes me a crappy editor/proofer because I make the words right in my head even when they are wrong). I guarantee you there is a completely wrong word in this piece somewhere that I will find at a much later date because my head is seeing it as right.
I've only just starting letting people know that I have a problem. It took me quite some time to prove that I wasn't stupid and now I think I can let them know that I can't spell, tell time, or tell my right from my left. I know (edit: found the word! it should be no) longer care if people think that I'm stupid because I know that I'm not.
P.S.
Right now I'm reading more about dyslexia. It's crazy. Kids with dyslexia often grip the pencil too hard which I did. I still have a bump on my middle finger from the pressure I put on pens and pencils. My 1st grade teacher would wipe her hand across my paper smudging all my words as a way to tell me to write softer. She failed me in handwriting.
OMG! Kids with dyslexia are confused about yesterday and tomorrow. I had the hardest time understanding that. I remember saying "the night after the day before today" for last night because I just couldn't make sense of time in that way.
Some facts about dyslexia:
- People with dyslexia are often gifted in math.
- People with dyslexia have extreme difficulty telling time on a clock with hands.
- People with dyslexia have difficulty learning multiplication tables (I was so upset when my fourth grade teacher held me back in math because of those stupid multiplication tables when I could solve problems faster than anybody in the class).
- People with dyslexia have difficulty tying shoelaces.
- People with dyslexia have an extremely difficult time organizing their belongings. (Many people think I'm messy. HA! There a reason for that.)
- People with dyslexia misspell many words—even though they often use only very simple one-syllable words that they are "sure" they know how to spell. (I just wrote about that above!)
Read more here: Bright Solutions for Dyslexia, Inc.
