Contribute to this page
We would love to receive your suggestions as to improve our website. Whether it is something as small as a typo or as large as a full new page, everything is welcome!
Please note that we cannot use copyrighted material. If you have found a text that may be worth adding to our website, please add the source (such as the internet address) and we will look into it.Also, we cannot guarantee that your text will be published, but we do promise to read it carefully.
Living with dyslexia
To find out how people experience dyslexia, we interviewed 50 Dutch dyslectics. The questions are based on our own knowledge about the consequences of dyslexia and what seemed interesting to have answered.
Contrary to our earlier findings about left-handedness amongst dyslectics, only 3 out of the 50 interviewees were left-handed and another 3 were ambidexterous.
Results of our interview
People are born with dyslexia, every interviewee indicated they were aware of that. Several interviewees experienced symptoms of dyscalculia and dyspraxia as well. Only one person indicated having solely dyscalculia, and not dyslexia or dyspraxia.Dyslexia is often come across at secondary school. At primary school there are assumptions, but a low IQ is considered the alternative. As soon as dyslexia was diagnosed, the dyslectic received a dyslexia certificate.
Unfortunately, this is not true for all of the interviewees. Some of them may have had no explanation until their 30th. It was tough for them, and being finally able to name the problems they suffered from and find that they were not alone was a relief.
The dyslectics have accepted their disorder. Although it poses trouble, they were born with it and simply don't know any better and things can only get easier with the proper help. Even though, they experience difficulties regularly, noticing how other people have to take less effort to reach the same goals when it comes to reading, writing and spelling. That can be a bother, but the interviewees also agreed that things could have been worse.
Thanks to a remedial teacher, Kurtzweil 3000, a DAISY player or other programs the problems of dyslexia were reduced. The earlier dyslexia was diagnosed, the better it was handled. Those dyslectics thought of themselves as lucky. They were offered additional help and learned to go about with it. On the other hand, several interviewees indicated their problems had grown over the years because the diagnosis was made in a late stage.
Difficulties often experienced by dyslectics
- Writing at an acceptable tempo
- Reading long texts
- Writing tidy reports or letters
- Converting thoughts into words
- Concentrating
- Reading out loud
- Spelling
- Foreign languages
Dyslexia is a hereditary disorder and is therefore found in almost all of the interviewees' families. There is no lack of motivation for dyslectics to read because of their problems. Similarly to other people, some like reading and some don't. One interviewee even indicated she really liked reading, because she could enjoy a book for a significantly longer amount of time. Someone else said that it was the exact reason for them to read as little as they could.
We expected to find many dyslectics to experience fear of failure, which turned out to be correct. Especially at primary school and the first years at secondary school were tough. They were afraid from the beginning that things would go wrong, particularly reading out loud. On the other hand, a large part of the interviewees indicated to have no fear of failure.