DYSLEXIA ADULTS
LINK.
website:
www.dyslexia-adults.com
Secretary: John Bradford
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Link
(but articles may be printed out for
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Dyslexia treatment.
Tell us about ways in which you manage.
This page is your page, so please send
us methods, little tricks you have developed, and other ideas you find helpful
in dealing with the difficulties that
accompany dyslexia. (You may choose to be anonymous.)
Numbers and Codes.
Remembering
numbers - When remembering numbers, like phone numbers, I usually say the
first three numbers as a whole number,
and the last four digits as two whole numbers. Example-827-1456: Eight hundred
and twenty seven, fourteen fifty six. This allow me to visualize the sounds of
the words, and makes it harder to forget them. (C.M., USA).
Codes - I use dates for telephone or door code numbers, like 1960 or 1845, etc. It works for me! . (Steve, Manchester, UK).
Multiplication - When trying to remember my multiplation tables. I I go to the nearest one I can remember and then I add one or double the number. ei. 3 x 8 is 24 so 6 x 8 is double that 48. (Michelle, California).
Remembering
numbers - I remember my PIN code and some telephone numbers by the pattern
they make on the phone pad. (J. B., East Sussex, UK).
How
many days in the month? - If I can't remember the poem to remember how many
days are in the month, I simply use my knuckles. Starting with my left hand, counting
from the first knuckle after the thumb, which is January, so 31 days, then you
have the place between the two knucles, which is Febuary, therefoe low, ie 28
days, then you have a high knuckle which is March, so 31 days, then you have another
crevice between knuckles of your middle and ring finger, which is April, low,
so 30 days.. and so on and so on, until you reach July on your last high knuckle
and have to start on your right hand, with index finger knuckle, high, therfore
August...31 days and so on. (Suzanne, Edinburgh).
Comparing
numbers - When I visually compare numbers I don't always see differences.
When I need to compare two large numbers I put one in my calculator's memory and
then subtract the other number. The resulting zero answer assures me the numbers
are the same. (Irv, Illinois, USA ).
How
many days in the month? - I still use elementary school tricks for remembering
everyday things such as 'Thirty days have September, April, June and November.
All the rest have thirty-one, except for February which has twenty-eight. (ST
from NY).
Counting out change - I am slow in counting out change, which can be embarrassing. My method of dealing with this is that I always have available a bill larger than the estimated amount of the sale. This way you get a lot of change accumulating. I get rid of this change by counting out the exact amount of a small purchase that I know the exact amount for and putting it into a change purse. When I buy my morning coffee the server must wonder why I always have the correct amount every time. The above may seem trivial but for me it is important and it protects my delicate self esteem. (Jim S, West Coast Canada).
One of my areas of difficulty is math. I've found that visualizing a pattern of the appropriate number of dots around a number allows me to count them and thereby solve the problem. (K.M., Cincinnati, Ohio) You can also remember the pattern of the dots on a dice to help, e.g. six is two rows of three, and five is a square of four with one more in the center - editor.
I couldn't remember a phone number
long enough to walk across the room and dial it, until I took a College Drawing
Class taught according to the book by Betty Edwards, "Drawing on the Right Side
of the Brain". It teaches right brain/left brain useage to "Normal" people. However,
for me, a dyslexic, it taught me how to organize and separate the right and left
brain's functioning for the first time. Now, with concentration, I can remember
a phone number for a minute or so. (Geo, USA).
Dealing with numbers: When dealing with numbers, like balancing my checkbook or paying bills, I read the number backward (from right to left) to myself and then write it. To check myself, I read the number I wrote the other direction and check it against the original. I find that if I break up the repetitive pattern, I recognize mistakes better. (Ted, Seattle, WA)
Number
7 - If your '7's look like '1' s put a line though the down stroke and then
there is no way it can be mistakern for a '1'. (Sam C., Worcester, UK).
Math and blue paper - A teacher told my niece that was having difficulty with math due to not always reading the numbers correctly to use blue mylar to place over the text and to work on blue paper. After this her math improved 100%. (Al N). Reading Through Colored Filters.
A method that you use.
Please send us an email with details of your own technique. Please put 'Dyslexia Adults Link - Hints and Tips' in the title of your email.
