Typos Everywhere: Dyslexia and Me
If you are a reader of this blog, you already know I can’t spell. I am dyslexic, and I just don’t see the errors. This morning, I reversed some digits and instead of reaching my heating company I was greeted with a loud ALOHA as I’d dialed Hawaii by mistake. Dyslexia has given me many misadventures, and some shame and embarrassment. The truth is, I don’t mind.
I have mixed dominance (not as sexy as it sounds)—in that although I’m mostly right handed my left hemisphere doesn’t dominate my right. So what? People are always trying to draw on the right side of the brain—I do it naturally. The old theory of dyslexia was that we dyslexics were smart if handicapped—and good at compensating. That is, our intelligence helped us fake what we couldn’t read. Turns out, new thinking says this isn’t true. Dyslexics are just plain intelligent, but in a minority way. We’re not compensating. We’re thinking differently. And apparently this different way of thinking is needed by human kind, and isn’t selected against.That is, no one refuses to have children with you just because you reverse digits.
I’m just speaking anecdotally, but I think dyslexics are sensitive to cause and effect, to patterns, and to disruptions in that field. No doubt at the dawn of human kind we were good at looking out over the savannah and seeing the moving pattern of the speckled or spotted predator. We just couldn’t communicate well about location—was it right or left?
My daughter, not a dyslexic, has guided me many times. I once made her walk AWAY from the steaming public hot springs in Iceland towards the freezing windy bay by insisting we go “right,” and then striding off to the left. Once she overcame my adamant opinion, she pointed out gently that we need to go “the other right” i.e. left to get to soak.
So here’s an interesting twist—my son-in-law has dyslexia. It’s a bond between us. Apparently my daughter likes an independent thinker who needs a bit of help reading WARNING: KEEP OUT! And of course we need her.
So why am I writing this? Just to say, if you see a typo, forgive me. If it seems important, drop me a note. I’ll correct it—and thank you!
Miriam's Well: Poetry, Land Art, and Beyond
Santa Fe Literary Scene, Poetry, Land Art, New Mexico
Miriam's Well: Poetry, Land Art, and Beyond 
Dropping a note – not to correct a typo, but to thank you for making me smile. I cannot tell you how many times I have been lost because my right was wrong. Or backwards. Sometimes sideways. Bravo to you for your great perspective.
Glad you enjoyed it–and thanks for the note!
Right is sometimes right, but sometimes only right is left. 😉 Your family sounds delightful! 🙂
I know of which you write. Sans serif fonts always are tricky for me to read. No serif “clues” that a c + l aren’t a d in my mind. But, hey, we adapt, right?!
There’s actually a font that was developed specifically for dyslexics- I’ve been thinking of trying it out on Tim! You probably don’t need that though.
I’ll be danged. I’d like to look into it anyway, jsut to see what it’s like. Right now, though, searching for my petroglyph font! 🙂
Is it dyslexia or your mind thinking quicker than you need it of the other letter before you have a chance to type out the previous one ?
It’s dyslexia because I can never see the error afterward…and I couldn’t read until I was 10 years old.