Ep130 Transcript: Spotting Dyslexia – Quick Fix Friday

Andrea Vahl: In episode 128, I talked to Steve Weaver, who found out later in life that he had dyslexia. So today’s Quick Fix Friday is all about spotting dyslexia. And this might be as a late starter, or for someone in your life that you might know, because Steve was very interested in helping people learn about their dyslexia earlier, when their children so that they can have more success later in life.

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So I’m no dyslexic expert, but Steve provided a whole bunch of books, articles, YouTube videos, and resources to help people learn more about dyslexia. This was a list that he was compiling for his family to help them understand his condition.

And I think it is so beneficial that we all know a little bit more about this condition because a lot of people may have it. Some studies have shown between five and 10% of the population. There are also interesting studies that show between 20 and 40 percent of people in prison have dyslexia or some sort of similar learning disability.

And that is a really big clue to us that if these people may have had better help as a child, they might have had better opportunities and been able to stay out of the prison system.

So I wanted to start with one of Steve’s articles that I thought was really interesting because this is something I didn’t know. And it was talking about clues to dyslexia in early childhood. Of course we think of the whole thing about not being able to read. But there are also clues even earlier.

So in the preschool years, a child might have trouble learning common nursery rhymes, such as Jack and Jill or Humpty Dumpty. There might be some difficulty learning the letters of the alphabet and possibly unable to recognize letters in their own name. They might not recognize naming patterns like cat, bat, rat, and they might mispronounce familiar words or do a little more baby talk than normal for a toddler.

Dyslexia often runs in families as well. So if you have a family history around it, you might get that checked out. If you’re suspecting that in your child or grandchild. And of course the early grade school years come the reading errors and difficulty reading. And there also could be some other issues that I wasn’t aware of, like an understanding that the letters have a particular sound or can’t even sound words out. Obviously if someone is complaining about reading, that’s a big clue.

But as Steve found, it’s harder to spot when you’re an adult because you’ve had workarounds your whole life. You don’t recognize that the way you do things might be different. So there are testing facilities, but they can be very expensive. So one of Steve’s resources was actually going to a college or university.

And being a test subject for them. So he mentioned local schools here in the Denver area, but you might check out your university, if you’re in a different area, find out if they’ve got PhD students or students who are learning about language and need subjects to help test dyslexia.

If you or someone, has dyslexia, definitely get tested. Get some assistance, but dive into some of Steve’s resources that he’s provided and see if it might be something that you’re suspecting in yourself or someone close to you. And then go about the process of getting them tested because the more we know about conditions we have or things that are affecting us even later in life means that we can continue to be successful in a bigger way and maybe just learn a little bit more about how we operate.

Hope that was helpful and make sure you grab the free guide top tools for late starters on the website at latestartersclub.com and let’s turn dreaming into doing.