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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.)

Study, Work and School.

Managing tasks - Put all your personal and work tasks on one sheet of paper. From there, grab a notebook and assign your tasks to certain days of the week use one piece of paper for each day of the week. Also, assign your tasks a time. When you are done, put the remaining tasks on a single page. These will be your long-term tasks. As you complete tasks during the day, cross them off or re-organize them. The ones that you don't do, roll them over to another day. You can also insert birthdays and reminders. An update each day takes me about 5-10 minutes. When I re-do my plan for the next week, which is usually over the weekend, it takes me about 40 minutes. If you are a visual person who learns best when writing things down, this WILL work for you. It has for me. One key benefit is that I feel confident because my tasks are managed and I have it all captured on paper so I won't foget things. (S. Caron, Chicago, IL).

Finding a quiet place - I need a quiet setting and a quick outline to get my thoughts straight and then I close my eyes and start typing. I don't worry about spelling on the first draft just the quality of what I'm trying to convey. My creative side soars using this method. If I run out of ideas I brainstorm aloud. Reversing the order of things really confuses me. To conquer this problem I take it in steps by drawing pictures and talking to myself. A quiet place is needed to concentrate.
I also get lost easily. I find that noticing landmarks allows me to find my way around better than street names. I find my favorite restaurant by remembering it's next to a Bank of America and KFC. I don't even know what street it's on. My husband is impressed that I can find things this way. He's a whiz at reading maps, but there are times he gets lost and I can find our way. (Maddie Smith, WA, USA).

Highlighters - When I read books, I read with several highlighters close by me. That way when one 'disappears' I can continue. Almost every book I own is 'highlighted' to some degree. I do have 2-3 copies of several 'how to' books. I try to keep some 'clean'. This is not something you want to do to library books. I have paid for many! (Charlene, USA).

Mark up all the key points - In college I used to keep my books and circle/mark up all key points when reading. Just before each test I would just read the key/circled points. This method worked very well and made school easy. I got good grades. But the books were trash for anyone else to use after the class. (MJ, Ohio).

Grading tests on content - In school I always asked my teachers to grade on content, not spelling. Most teachers had no problem with this. (H.C., Michigan).

Remembering what I read - I have a hard time remembering what I read when I study. So when I get to the end of a page in my textbook I write down everything I can remember before moving on. It takes time but helps in the long run. (T.W., Mt. Pleasant, Michigan).

Get the lighting just right - I have found that I can read better if the lighting is just right. Bright light tends to slow my reading down. A soft white light helps me focus- just make sure you are not sleepy. . . (J.J., Chicago).

Too much information - I am a college student, much older than most, and I work weekends during school year. When I'm under pressure I tend to get too much information and I am unable to focus. So I take a long walk outside or go to a library and pull my thoughts back together. I frequently use an outline of each class for what I want to do...that allows me to focus in a logical order. If I don't understand what I'm reading (my biggest problem is comprehension) the outline helps break the lesson into parts to create a smaller area to focus on. Light is a factor that can help or hinder me, and definitely sounds around me. (akwildflower(Wen), Alaska).

Before academic work - Just before undertaking academic work, go for a walk, or preferably a run, to get blood ciruclating. After excercise a person will be buzzing, and will be far more receptive to learning! (John, Illinois).

Avoiding writing at a course - When I attend a course, I always wear a skin plaster (Band Aid/Elastoplast) on the finger of the hand I write with. Then, if anyone suggests that I write what the group has been discussing on a flip-chart, I say that I have a sore finger and avoid an embarrassing situation quite successfully! (Mary, Texas).

Taking tests - When I take tests, if they are multiple choice, I make each possible answer a true or false question. It helps to eliminate possible choices. (JB, Richmond, VA, USA).

For my college exams, I have asked the tutor to put three lines of blank spaces between each question on the paper. It's still hard, but at least I can see where one question ends and the next one starts. (H.L., Denver, Col.).

I asked my tutor to print, rather then write, the important words on the board in lectures. This helps me a lot with note-taking. (I.P., Sydney, Australia).

Work manuals - Read manuals on to a tape recorder. Then you can play them back as many times as you like and it sticks in your head! (Gary, UK).

Planning study time - As a student, I find planning my time hard work. I make a plan of all the time slots in a normal day, then color all the used time in red, then fill the blank slots in green. This helps me visulize the time availiable for study and other life things. (Adam, Scotland).

Videos and study - I have great difficulty in reading, so when a task from university is given, I go to the library and find videos with the subject I need to study. I find reading much easier to tackle once I know the basics. Remember - the brain can only process twenty minutes of information then shuts off!. (A.J., England).

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.