
I am dyslexic - 80mph
https://matthewsag.com/dyslexic/
======
jdietrich
There are no clear criteria to distinguish dyslexia from poor reading ability;
multiple studies have found that reading ability is unimodally distributed,
with no clear distinction between dyslexics and "ordinary" poor readers. We
have identified no interventions that are particularly beneficial to
dyslexics; dyslexics and non-dyslexics appear to respond at similar rates to
training and practice in reading skills.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20051220004651/http://www.nrdc.o...](https://web.archive.org/web/20051220004651/http://www.nrdc.org.uk/uploads/documents/doc_166.pdf)

Colored lenses or special fonts do not appear to be beneficial in any way.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27580753](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27580753)

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26993270](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26993270)

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29204931](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29204931)

~~~
frereubu
Without having dug into those studies to check the statistics and how they
were done, the linked blog post gives a pretty compelling account of how
coloured lenses do with for at least this person. It's quite possible that
there are types of dyslexia which do respond to coloured lenses that are
averaged out in a bell curve of general "dyslexia".

~~~
jdietrich
_> the linked blog post gives a pretty compelling account of how coloured
lenses do with for at least this person_

I could link you to any number of blog posts giving compelling accounts of how
drinking bleach cures autism. Belief is not evidence.

~~~
yummypaint
So you are accusing the author of making this up? Your arrogance is sickening.

~~~
jdietrich
No. I think that the author genuinely believes that colored lenses make it
easier for him to read; I know that several carefully conducted clinical
trials have found no benefit.

------
nerdbaggy
It’s weird how much Dyslexia and ADHD overlap. Looking at the symptoms of
Dyslexia [https://www.dyslexia.com/about-dyslexia/signs-of-
dyslexia/co...](https://www.dyslexia.com/about-dyslexia/signs-of-
dyslexia/common-characteristics-of-adult-dyslexia/)

~~~
selimonder
align these ideas and check out the autism spectrum and get ready for your
mind to be blown.

~~~
nerdbaggy
Mind is pretty blown. There really is so much overlap

------
thybag
Dyslexic's of the world untie!

I actually think a lot of people underestimate quite how many dyslexic people
are about in industries you wouldn't expect them. I work in software
development for instance and have worked with vast swaths of dyslexic devs,
QA/test automation engineers and all sorts of other technical roles. A lot of
the time its never really brought up as thanks to syntax & spell check its
fairly hard to go wrong (I'll admit to having been responsible for a couple of
pretty questionably spelt variable names tho).

Its really only in fully written out text it can become obvious as even with
spellcheck, if you bungle a word bad enough (or somehow skip a few which i
also do more frequently than i'd like), what gets fixed can sometimes be far
more bazaar than the spelling error itself.

For the most part I think people develop coping mechanisms for the majority of
day to day issues it gives them, although some bits Ill admit I've never been
able to fully work around (I feel most 6 year olds would likely out do me
trying to alphabetise a stack of books for instance) - not that its something
that comes up regularly in my day job `book.sort();` :)

It's probably also notable that the stuff under the term "Dyslexic" vary's a
lot - both my wife and i have it (future kids are doomed), and although we
share a lot of stuff, some symptoms are entirely different. Its actually a
pretty interesting thing to read up on - especially as a remember some of the
info being pretty much none existent only a decade or so ago - while now there
is are ton of research about in to what on earth is going on with it.

~~~
GeekyBear
I tend to rearrange the letters in a word, and also add letters that are not
there and/or remove letters that are there.

For instance, I read The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy and
genuinely thought that the Wizard's name was Grandalf.

I had a tough time in grade school learning to read and write, but I credit my
Grandmother constantly reading to me for giving me a strong desire to learn to
read myself.

------
gnicholas
I'd be interested to know if folks here with dyslexia agree with the sentiment
that dyslexia affects their visual ingestion of words, and that visual aids
(like the colored filters he discusses) can improve their reading ability.

I ask this because many dyslexia experts in the US (and some outside the US)
insist that dyslexia is purely phonological, and therefore non-visual.

As someone who works in the field but does not have dyslexia, I have to
reconcile these academic's edicts with the personal descriptions I hear from
individuals with dyslexia, which clearly indicate that dyslexia can have
visual causes and aids.

~~~
mikekchar
I'm with the phonological camp. In fact, one of the things that surprised me
greatly is that I can read Japanese dramatically more comfortably than
English. I can read the symbolic characters very easily and since almost all
of the phonetic characters in Japanese are grammar, I tend to gloss over it.
However the grammar is very regular, so you can usually figure out what's
going on without having to read every character.

In fact, I get very frustrated when I read children's books because they often
omit the Chinese characters for words and replace them with phonetic
characters. I just can't read it without a massive struggle.

It's also interesting that I vastly prefer computer programming languages that
use symbols rather than words. One of the common "coding practices" in Ruby is
to replace "if !whatever" with "unless whatever". I literally can't understand
the latter and I'm always rewriting it in my editor to "if !whatever" so that
I can understand the code. You might think I'm just used to it, but if I write
"if not whatever" \-- bam! I can't understand it. Weird, isn't it!

~~~
dasmoth
Have you ever tried an APL-family programming language? If so, I’d be curious
how you found it.

~~~
mikekchar
I have, indeed. I studied APL at school (which shows you how old I am!) I
enjoyed reading it and hated typing it :-) I tend to prefer things that are a
little bit in between. APL has quite a lot of unusual features, though (some
of which were intuitive for me, having been a FORTH programmer, and some of
which were not -- having a pretty poor math background). I've been thinking of
playing with one of the modern APL variants. I think I would really enjoy it
these days.

------
npo9
It’s crazy how different his dyslexic experience is than mine. I think there
are differently several different things going on under the umbrella term
“dyslexic”.

Colored glasses do not help me. Reading is slow, but doesn’t cause headaches.
Spelling is near impossible. After a slow start by high school my reading
comprehension was at or above my peers.

------
Jaruzel
I have always thought I had dyspraxia[0], which although totally unrelated to
dyslexia, made teachers think I was dyslexic when I was young as I was unable
to (and still can't) write in a legible way unless I write slowly and in block
capitals, however I can read very well, and when in the mood can consume books
on many topics at quite a fast rate.

That said... I've just read the list of dyslexic symptoms[1] and I'm shocked.
I can legitimately tick about 80% of that whole list. So maybe I _am_ dyslexic
after all ?

\--

[0] [https://dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/dyspraxia-
adults/](https://dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/dyspraxia-adults/)

[1] [https://www.dyslexia.com/about-dyslexia/signs-of-
dyslexia/co...](https://www.dyslexia.com/about-dyslexia/signs-of-
dyslexia/common-characteristics-of-adult-dyslexia/)

~~~
toxik
Sorry but that list of symptoms is absolute BUNK. "Had it tough in school"?
What kind of horoscope level bulls--t is this? "May be able to sense energy of
others"? Really?

C'mon dude, maybe you have difficulties, but don't turn to these tricksters
for diagnose.

~~~
afandian
(removed, misunderstood parent, wasn't constructive)

~~~
toxik
I am aware of the word’s multiple uses, and I resent the suggestion that I
don’t.

Dyslexia is a diagnosis about reading text. That page very clearly uses
underhanded horoscope type wording to make you think it applies to you
individually.

Hogwash. Absolute hogwash.

~~~
afandian
Sorry I misunderstood your comment. Sometimes metaphors _are_ taken over-
literally on HN. I didn't assume ill intent.

Dyslexia is obviously caused by _something_, but its forms and manifestations
do seem to be varied.

There are specific tests that can be done, and no doubt they are accurate. But
you can't test every single child, and I think one should be open minded to
the kinds of behaviours that are co-incident with dyslexia in case it might
lead someone to a diagnosis.

Diagnosing based on that list is obviously wrong, but I don't think it claims
to be a list of falsifiable, scientific characteristics. More something to
prompt. I'd rather have a more open funnel than a closed one.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Of course you can test every single child. In America we test every single
child, every week or two. Starting from childbirth and continuing pretty much
uninterrupted until they leave school.

In the US the Federal Govt requires schools to test every student for dyslexia
and provide appropriate services.

~~~
afandian
I don't know how things were done in the US. But I get the impression that the
educational authorities are keen on automated multiple-choice tests. At school
I failed pretty comprehensively at the 'standard' testing until the dyslexia
was taken into account (although I don't recall more than a tiny handful of
automated tests).

From my dim memory (over a decade ago), my own dyslexia diagnosis was a few
hours long, included a variety of tests, both hand-writing, physical, an
interview etc. That would he hugely expensive to do for every child.

------
moopling
I was diagnosed with dyslexia at age of 8. At the time I couldn't spell my
name with any reliability (it's not a complicated one), and I was failing
primary school across all subjects. My reading level was, perhaps
surprisingly, about average for my age, although I do find to this day I have
to be very careful not to skip lines or misread words while reading (I usually
use my finger IRL or highlight the text I read through as I go along online).

I see dyslexia now as an umbrella term for a wide class of learning related
symptoms. The justification for receiving additional support and understanding
as a means to reduce waste of potential. If there is such a large gap in one
area of development that that it overly impacts the measurement or development
of the other areas then failing to compensate for that seems negligent.

------
nevster
It's a funny thing. I'm almost certain I came up with that dyslexic agnostic
insomniac dog joke. I thought of it while delivering pizzas in my uni years
around 1989.

Would be happy to be proven wrong though if someone can find an earlier
reference to it.

~~~
EvanAnderson
It's a Steven Wright joke from sometime in the 80's. (I don't have a reference
handy and I'm on a phone...)

------
adreamingsoul
I was diagnosed with auditory hearing dyslexia when I was a child.

I find it to be very useful, but it also can be extremely taxing when I'm
trying to process information in a noisy (visual and auditory) environment.

It's hard to explain, but I actually am capable of processing a lot of
information. I often imagine that I have a hyper-threaded brain that is multi-
tasking. However, the issues start when I'm processing conflicting or too much
information. Which can be many things, like multiple conversations, unusual or
loud noises, smells, lights, odd patterns of any kind, etc...

------
chrismatheson
I’m also dyslexic, however my experience has been completely different from my
fathers (also dyslexic). Where as he struggled though school and university
and eventually attended night school lessons to help with work, and still to
this day has real trouble communicating effectively through written text, I
went through the unitsofsound[1] course before the age of 10.

I can say that for 90% my of day to day I really don’t notice it. With more
intensive written work (writing a CV or a formal letter) i need to “double
think” myself quite a bit and follow processes to write & then review &
refactor my work before letting out the door.

Obviously it’s a sample size of 1, but I think unitsofsound really helped me,
and when about 15 years ago my dad started work on converting the course into
a program that could be delivered easier for more people that was great. 7
years ago I got involved converting it to flash so we could deliver it on the
web and reach even more people, and this year we sold it to another company
who can hopefully take it to the next level again and help even more.

I hope people will not dismiss my praise of unitsofsound as just self
promotion, the ideas were not mine/ours, the theory goes back to the 70’s, but
I do believe it has the potential to help lots of people.

Anyone wanting to try it out for free please get in contact and I can set up
some accounts (just now still anyway). One of the great perks of doing
something like this is giving it away to those who genuinely need it.

[1] [https://www.unitsofsound.com/](https://www.unitsofsound.com/)

------
Fjolsvith
Dyslexics of the world, untie!

------
childintime
The dyslexic folks at HN might have the special responsibility to come up with
some sort of solution. Only you know what works, and have the tech smarts to
figure something out.

So, for example, what if this:

> de – et – te – ct – ti - io – n

were actually displayed as

> de.tec.ti.on

Would that help? Maybe you can up with some other scheme, like coloring
syllables? Or positioning of syllables spatially (across 2 lines) to help
synchronize them?

Maybe you've already tried these or other things. It would be valuable to
share your experiences.

------
mgamache
I am dyslexic. Recently my father reminded me as a child (1st grade) I had
this crazy ability to write in mirror image with my right hand while normally
with my left. By 3rd grade it was gone (I didn't practice at all). Literally
you could hold it up to a mirror and read it (allowing for a child's
lettering). Is this common? I've not known anyone else that could do this.

~~~
simonebrunozzi
My wife (age 37) thinks she's mildly dyslexic. What's the best and most
effective way to test that? (if you happen to know)

~~~
gnicholas
There is no one test, especially because dyslexia co-occurs with various other
neurological differences (ADD/ADHD/dyscalculia/processing disorders, etc.)

I run a startup whose technology is used as an assistive technology for people
with dyslexia (and also as a speed-reading aid for non-dyslexic readers). Some
reading specialists have suggested that our tool could be used as a litmus
test for certain types of reading issues, including dyslexia. For some (not
all) people with dyslexia, the first time trying our line-wrapping color
gradients is life-changing. (For most people who use it as a speed-reading
tool, it's a cool lifehack, but not a quantum leap.)

She can try it by just looking at the demo on our website. [1] Protip: we're
going to launch a fully-functional, free, version of our browser plugin later
this week. It will require occasional tweeting, but not a Twitter auth or any
PII gathering whatsoever.

1: [http://www.beelinereader.com](http://www.beelinereader.com)

~~~
stefanve
tried it, seemed a bit easier to read. Maybe a nice option would be to adjust
background color, font size and line width. Pure black on white especial with
long sentences makes it really hard for me to read. That is why most of the
time I rather read form my phone than from a printed book.

~~~
gnicholas
Thanks for the feedback! We do offer all of these features in our browser
plugin. Background color has been configurable since the beginning, and we
added the layout and sizing options last month!

------
OJFord
> When I forget to change back to my tinted lenses all my old symptoms come
> back. This is as close to proof as you can get that colored lenses work for
> me and that this is not just a placebo effect.

I'm glad it works for OP (and, really, he doesn't need to care _why_ it works
if it does!) but I don't think that really does anything to show it's not
placebo?

~~~
yummypaint
The placebo effect is supposed to remain effective even if the person knows
its a placebo. If it is placebo, it should be possible to get an improvement
by putting on a "reading necklace" or something else that obviously shouldnt
help. Might be interesting to look into

------
axelrosen
Interesting how most of the issues cased by dyslexia he describes have a
strong social component.

Seems like having people be more aware and tolerant of its symptoms would help
a lot.

------
RickJWagner
Wow, a dyslexic lawyer. (A very text-intensive occupation.)

Kudos to the author. Helps people (me) relate, and offered with a healthy dose
of encouraging can-do attitude.

------
chris123
What you are describing is something other than dyslexia, which is a
phonological thing, not a visual thing.

~~~
mikekchar
To be fair, from the article: "Dyslexia can mean a lot of different things.
The term is used as an umbrella term for a combination of auditory, visual and
attentional disorders that manifest as learning disabilities. I can’t say what
it means in general to be dyslexic, I can only say what it means to me.

My type of dyslexia is visual/attentional, but mostly visual."

I have the phonological thing, but I was _not_ diagnosed as dyslexic as a
child because I'm also not so typical in many ways. These kinds of issues are
often like that. Our words are imprecise.

------
mcs_
Another one here...

------
selimonder
that’s inspiring.

