Adult Dyslexia

Nonfiction, Health & Well Being, Psychology, Testing & Measurement, Creative Ability, Cognitive Psychology

• Author: Desmond Gahan
• ISBN: 9781386089728
• Publisher: Desmond Gahan
• Publication: June 9, 2017
• Language: English

Most adult dyslexics will exhibit at least 10 of the following traits and behaviors. These characteristics are often inconsistent, and may vary depending upon the day or situation.

Career

• Employed in job/position that will hide difficulties or not require dealing with problematic areas.
• Hides difficulties from co-workers, friends and even family.
• Becomes frustrated at “planning meetings” and sequential tasks – already has the answer and how to do it.
• Becomes frustrated or overwhelmed with long forms or sequential processes.
• Thrives in careers where visual-spatial/kinesthetic talents can be realized: For example – Entrepreneurs, Engineers, Trades (carpentry, plumbing, electrical), Artisans, Interior Decorating, Actors, Musicians, Police/Investigation, Athletes, and Business Executives (usually with staff/assistants).
• May pass up promotions or advancement opportunities that would require more administrative work.
• Has difficulty focusing and staying on task – may feel more comfortable managing many different tasks simultaneously.
• Difficulty with tests – passing standardized tests can be a barrier to career advancement.
• Highly successful/over achiever, or considered “not working up to potential.” Either way, displays extreme work ethic.
• May be a perfectionist and overreact when they make a mistake.
• Out-of-the-box thinker or operates with very strict rules for themselves.
• Learns best through hands-on experience, demonstrations, experimentation, observation, and visual aids.

General

• Highly intuitive – known to have “street smarts.” Is often “dead on” in judging personalities of others.
• May be able to sense emotions and energy of others.
• Remembers struggling in school.
• Frequently have dyslexic children and experience guilt when seeing own child struggle. Insecurities arise while reading to own children or helping them with homework.
• Easily distracted/annoyed by noises and other things in environment.
• May appear to “zone out” and be unaware that it is happening.
• Enjoys video games.
• Misspeaks, misuses, or mispronounces words without realizing it.
• May have poor balance or is/was very athletic.
• May have excellent recall of events that were experienced or not remember at all.
• May confuse past conversations or be accused of “not listening.”
• Difficulty remembering names of people without tricks, but remembers faces.
• Difficulty remembering verbal instructions or directions.
• Poor recall of conversations or sequence of events.

Reading, Writing, and Spelling

• Difficulty reading unfamiliar fonts.
• Avoids reading out loud. May dislike public speaking.
• Will commonly perceive that they “read better silently.”
• Has adopted compensatory tricks to remember spelling and homonyms (their, there, they’re), or misuses homonyms and has poor or inconsistent/phonetic spelling.
• Reading fluency and comprehension fluctuates depending upon subject matter.
• Frequently has to re-read sentences in order to comprehend.
• Fatigues or becomes bored quickly while reading.
• Reliance on others (assistants, spouses, significant others) for written correspondence.
• Uncertainty with words, punctuation, and spelling when writing. Reliance on spell-check and grammar-check.
• Words out of context look “wrong.”
• Poor handwriting – masks spelling mistakes.
• Writes with all capital letters, or mixes capital letters within words. Abbreviates words frequently.