To many, dyslexia is a life long curse. Crippling their schooling and severely limiting their employment opportunities. But it doesn’t have to be like this. There are ways to really beat dyslexia and not just working around the problem. Dyslexics, adults or children, can learn to spell, read and write just like anyone else.

Thanks to my Mum’s hard work I was quite a competent reader but my spelling was bad and my handwriting was that of an eight year old. It was something I was very conscious of in my working life. My spelling was erratic. Some quite complex words I could spell with ease but simple words eluded me. Knowing what I do now, its easy to spot a pattern. Longer words with distinctive consonant driven sounds (e.g. dyslexia) were easier than short, faster spoken words with complex vowels (e.g. enough, because ) or subtle phonic differences (e.g. th / f / v sounds). This was because my weak cerebellum was easily overloaded with information. Faster spoken words with sounds that required more time for my brain to decode were too much for me take in properly. Because I was not hearing the words correctly this compounded my problems in learning to spell. It also lead to some speech problems with mispronunciation TH / F / V / R / W / L sounds.

I left school at 16 and went to work for a computer company on a government training scheme known as YTS. For the next few years I was the typical shy, teenage computer geek. With poor social skills, my hobbies tended to be things that either didn’t depend on social interaction, such as reading or role playing games (Dungeons & Dragons).

More of how Chris beat dyslexia and more on from Myomancy on dyslexia.