Personal Narrative: My Dyslexia As An Excuse For Failure

Ever since I was young, I knew something was different about me. I’ve always had an active imagination and would write all kinds of stories, sometimes through pictures and sometimes through words. Not until I was in first grade did I notice my writing was different than my friends. It didn’t bother me though because I was too young to realize something was wrong; I was just different. One weekend, after playing restaurant with my mom and brother, my mom contacted my teacher to talk about some concerns she had with my reading and writing. She was told that I seemed to be progressing on an age-appropriate level with my peers and that nothing appeared to be wrong. But my mom persisted, and insisted that I be tested for a reading disability. My dad is dyslexic and my mom, knowing it can be passed down, was watching for the signs in my older brother first and now me. After testing, one of SV’s school psychologists announced that my results showed I had a learning disability. I then went to my pedestrian to talk about it and then to a special learning center in Sewickley for further

I’m a senior at the University of South Carolina Upstate and have been diagnosed with dyslexia since childhood. This label could have caused for a disastrous college experience, but there has always been something in myself pushing beyond the stigma.

However, I refuse to let it hold me back. English homework that takes classmates thirty minutes to do takes me twice as long. When teachers ask students to read out loud, I never raise my hand because of fear I’ll mess up. I slump down in my chair praying the teacher doesn’t call on me. Instead, I participate in other ways like answering questions teachers pose to the class. When people ask what it’s like to have dyslexia, I try to explain, but there’s nothing I can say that will allow them to truly understand. Often, I share one of my earliest memories. In preschool, we were learning the difference between right and left. The teacher kept saying your left hand is the one that makes an “L.” I stood there staring at my hands in confusion. I didn’t know which way “L” faced. It’s hard for those who haven’t experienced this to fully comprehend the obstacles I’ve had to overcome to get where I am.

Several studies have shown that when dyslexia is undiagnosed, it can cause a lot of frustrations and anxieties in the individuals involved (Riddick & Edwards as cited in Glazzard, 2012). Dyslexia is a ‘hidden’ disability, as there are no obvious external signs for people to recognize (Riddick as cited in Glazzard, 2012). It is not like some other disabilities, as for example down syndrome, or cerebral palsy which people can recognize from the moment they see them. People can get confused and assume different reasons for the children’s poor performance in school. That is why, when dyslexia is undiagnosed, the characteristics like ‘stupid’, ‘thick’, and ‘lazy’ are commonly used to describe students with dyslexia. People who are not aware about dyslexia cannot find any other explanations for them who are not doing well at school. Lack of assessment may result in low self-esteem compared to non-dyslexic students (Humphrey as cited in Glazzard, 2012 ). On the other hand, lack of appropriate help and support can have long-term effects for people with dyslexia when reaching adulthood (Morgan & Klein,

Throughout my life, I have been through many different things. I have been through struggles and successes. I have been through multiple setbacks and breakthroughs. There is one specific setback, however that is very important to me that I overcame. It was not easy, but I finally did it. This setback took place during the time between when I entered high school and the end of my sophomore year.

I am a student that has had to work hard for as long as I can remember in achieving my goals, dreams, both personal as well as academically. After many years of testing, I was diagnosed with dyslexia in my sophomore year of high school. Dyslexia is a congenital language process disorder. It can hinder reading, writing, spelling and sometimes speaking. Dyslexia is not a sign of poor intelligence

Dyslexia is a lifelong struggle with constant challenges with reading and speaking. About five to ten percent of the United States population deals with the learning disorder dyslexia (Van den Honert, n.d.). It is a neurological condition that is mainly caused by genetics but there are some rare cases in which it is acquired. Dyslexia interrupts the normal processes of reading and speaking (Van den Honert, n.d.). All of which are used in daily life and this makes life and school so much harder for dyslexics. They must learn to live with the condition for their entire life and there is not really a treatment for it. With the constant struggle and reminder of their

Once a week I would attend my dyslexia class to learn how to read,write, and speak english right. I had a hard time learning how to spell and pronounce long words. I would always walk into the class and get right to work because I wanted to be able to read the same as the other kids in my class. In and out of the class I would work on my reading by reading books or just looking at billboards why we drive from place to place.

My struggles grew or are growing into strengths, but before I could take on such a feat, I had to overcome dyslexia. Every day, I was reminded of my dyslexic mind when I read. Even when I was little I would cry because I didn’t want anyone to force me to read. I was not properly diagnosed with dyslexia until the fourth grade. I used to add or remove letters to the words I read. Instead of strawberry I may see it as stray merry. When I was eventually tested, I could see a large group of dots near the end of the slope. This meant I was above average in this area. However, there were two dots much further up on the slope, and these two dots were reading and spelling. My struggles began to show in third grade when we started reading independant novels. When I read, I had an extremely difficult time. When everyone started reading faster and more fluently than I did, I felt stupid. I truly believed their brains thought the same way mine did. I ended up doing twice the work just to maintain a good grade. I would come home from school exhausted. When I was in fourth grade, I really began to notice something else was going on in my brain. I was falling behind, reading ½ the words per minute than my friends. When we found out I had dyslexia, I was sent to the Key School. Here, I became slightly above average in fifth grade, then I became closer to where I should be in sixth grade, then this year, my reading has really taken off. I am able to read 165 words per minute, and my scores in reading vocabulary have skyrocketed. I am now scoring in the 12th grade level in reading vocabulary. From being below average, to being way above average, my reading skills have evolved immensely. Something else I struggled with has a similar story. This is my ability to

According to The International Dyslexia Association, the impact that dyslexia has is different for each person and depends on the severity of the condition and the approaches of the remediation. The

No matter who you are, or where you came from you are going to have road blocks. You can either sit around and let those blocks take over your life, becoming a slave to them, or you can pick yourself up and fight even harder than you were before. When I was diagnosed with dyslexia I choose the latter, using the tools that I had to become stronger and to eventually become the person I wanted to.

In today’s world there is so many disabilities that nobody could keep up with. Some people are already born with some disabilities and others might get it later on down the road. Having a disability can come from family history or some genetic bonding that does not get complete while you are still in your mother’s womb. With that being said based off the history sometimes determines how severe the disability might really be or it could just happen when they are being born as a birth defect. Now out of all the disabilities in the world one seemed to catch my eye more than the rest and that disability is Dyslexia.

When I was five years old I was diagnosed with dyslexia. So in elementary school I never wanted to read books and learning was extremely hard for me. When I would be called on in class to read outloud I would stutter, mix words up and become extremely embarrassed. I was put into a lot of “special” classes for being dyslexic but being put in those classes has been the biggest handicap of all. The standards for the classes were extremely low so I was never taught the basic reading and writing skills all the other kids learned. Dyslexia became a seemingly insurmountable wall that I

Since being diagnosed with dyslexia, I've always had to redo my work multiple times to understand. With cars if everything isn’t working, then the car isn’t working. Dyslexia has made me better with cars because naturally I double check my work. Dyslexia has helped me instead of pulling me down . It has actually helped realize the organization is everything. If I'm not organized It will take me twice as long to do something. Just like in a car's moving parts, if it's not organized and tucked nice and away, then it will rub or not work. what I am reading because of this It made me committed to whatever I do. When I can't figure something out with cars I can't stop trying to figure it out. Cars are kind of like reading and they can only work a couple ways, and if you can’t comprehend your car it will not run just like if you don't understand reading. Dyslexia has helped me find what I enjoy It has helped me learn how to adapt to difficult situations. My difficult situations may not be the same for others like something as simple as doing a project worksheet if there is always the thought in my head that I can’t mess up and if I read the wrong thing, then write it down then I just got my group points off for something I

What many don’t realize is that many of the people that made an impact in our world overcame these very diseases. Leonardo De Vinci was the ultimate Renaissance man, and although he had many talents he had an equal amount disabilities of which were dyslexia, ADHD, and many other disorders. (Kilmartin 4) Despite his many difficulties, he is not known for them but rather for his ambission and creativity. Charles Darwin is widely known for his theory of evolution. What is unknown to many people is the fact that historians have recently claimed that Darwin suffered from dyslexia as well as obsessive compulsive disorder. (Kilmartin 3) Agatha Christie, a successful mystery author, was unable to read and write legibly, and she suffered from dysgraphia. (similar to dyslexia affecting writing, spelling, and math) (Kilmartin 3) Inspite of this, her creativity and writing changed the world and many writers were and are inspired by her life. All these people had one thing in common. They persevered and did not let statistics or opinions get in the way of their dreams that later changed the