Batting for the Dyslexic Team

I’m Dyslexic.

I went for a Dyslexia test with a psychologist, and it was proven that I am definitely dyslexic.

I had always thought that I may have been dyslexic from when I was in Secondary School I suppose. When in English class, I used to panic about being asked to read out loud. I used to always lose my line and the letters would jumble and form other words – ashamedly swear words (maybe a case of Torrette’s Syndrome too?). However, I still got straight A’s and was very successful in college.

At my new place of work, there are no barcode scanners so I have to manually type in the characters. I have found that I have been mixing up the characters quite often. If there was a sequence such as 12334567, I would write 12344567. Or, if there was a T, I would put a 2. And so on. There are loads of examples and has been occurring increasingly. So I thought that I need to have it checked out – especially as I have a dissertation to write and it could cause a problem.

When I was being tested, I didn’t realise that I was having an IQ test too. The result of my IQ test was that (if I remember the term correctly), I am in the 96th Percentile. Which means that I am more intelligent that 96% of people my age.

Not bad for a dyslexic eh? However, that could be the reason why no one had ever picked up on me being dyslexic. My mum taught me how to spell words by saying them how they were spelt – for example, with ‘Wednesday’, my mum would say it as ‘Wed-nes-day’ so I could learn to spell it correctly. I must have picked up this way of learning and carried it on throughout my life, as my spelling has always been to a very high standard. And me being the proud and very determined that I am wouldn’t have let anything get in the way of me being the best in the class. I had learnt loads of tricks to help me, and just regarded them as normal.

With reading and writing, I am apparently a very slow reader and writer. So it takes me longer to do stuff.  My vocabularly isn’t good either. I write very different to how I speak. When I am writing I think carefully about what I say. Where as when I speak, I often say things such as ‘like’ and ‘you know’, while my mouth tries to catch up with and translate what I actually want to say. Also, I have quite a bad short term memory too. So someone could tell me something – such as directions to get somewhere – and two minutes later, I would have forgotten it. I always hate asking for directions because of this (I didn’t know dyslexia is the cause).

Someone told me that you can always spot a dyslexic. If you ask them directions, they will say things like ‘go down the road opposite the big blue house, then face the statue’. Instead of saying ‘go left, then another left, walk straight and the take the  fourth right’.

It does make a lot of sense though. Dyslexics are naturally visual people. Which is why the Arts industry love dyslexics. We think in a different way to normal people. When I first started Central Saint Martins, we were told what I have just said.

Which is also why if I was in any other industry, I would not have taken the test. In the Arts industry dyslexia is seen as a good thing and is very much welcomed – possibly given bonus points too. However, if I was going into any other industry, such as accountancy, it would be a totally different story. Yes, Ok, there is the Equality Act which is supposed to give equal opportunities to those who are disabled (Yes I am now going to be registered as disabled). On the other hand, how many companies actually follow this act? I know for a fact that a hopeful employee will be discriminated against just for being ugly. Any excuse can be made as to why they are not good enough. Let alone having the risk of mixing up two numbers in an accountancy statement. Or misreading the change that is supposed to be given from a till. And so on.

It’s only a little scary to be honest. I just hope I succeed well enough in the Arts industry that I will not need to go into any other industry, but at least I now know why I do have trouble and am more aware of it.

On second thoughts, I think its quite a small risk seeing as I am going to be getting a brand new Apple iMac, A3 Printer / scanner, Microsoft Office, dictaphone, software and £200 for ink and books. For free. To keep forever.

=D *smug* =D