How can you write with your Dyslexia ? (Tips for Dyslexic Writers)

Many times people ask me:  ''How can you write so well and be dyslexic ?''

The thing they don't understand it's that dyslexic people can read and write just like you with some practice and tips.


So here I give some of my personal tips to helps every Dyslexic writers in the world to write better.


1. Practice,  Practice,  Practice, and Practice reading books and writing;  learn news words,  keep a notebook,  enjoy it and never feel down or discourage when you don't know how to write something just ask and learn.  


2. Plan your writing with Bullets points.


3. Take your time,  it's important to take your time.


4. Content is the most important thing in your writing not your spelling. 


5. Write in different colors,  this can really help you.  Like me I prefer write in  red and blue this is more easy for me to read later.



6. Do some research.


7. Write Note before you put it on paper or on the computer  (bullet point note).


8. Fill your bullets points (pc),  just add more informations.

9. Don't rush, the more you rush the more mistakes you will make (take an hours or more if you want to write something very good).


10. Use technology like Microsoft corrector,  spelling check,  autocorect, detected word,...


11. Use a dyslexic font, there are several available online to buy and download. Find the one that works well for you.  They are fab and finally for me,  at least,  it has stopped the B and the P getting muddled up.


12. Write short, simple sentences.  For me I realize than when a sentence it's too long I just get lost.   So I decided to write simple sentence using subject-verb-object.   And also to keep my paragraph short as well to don't get lost. 


13. Avoid any type of Abbreviation.  Me I just cannot keep track with this when I write and I forgot if WA means weight average or something else.


14. Give your work space, like using one more space after the period.  This will help you keep in track with your essay. 


15. Read at least 4 times each sentences to see if their is a mistakes in it (read it latter not just before you write it, and correct it.  And do it also later.).

  
16. FINALLY NEVER GIVE UP, YOU CAN DO ANYTHING IF YOU WANT IT.

How MOOCs change the face of the education ?

MOOC is the abbreviation of Massive Open Online Courses; this means this free massive online course that everyone that can have an Internet connection can use to learn. Like Malcolm Forbes said It's never too late to learn.

Malcolm Forbes

This type of websites have really emerged on the web and as the new contender for the next new education technology. Many web sites are very contradictory about this subject some said that this not equal to real study in classroom and other said it's the becoming of a news type of education.

Some MOOCs web sites

So I decided to test it for you and what I fund out about it; it's that this is really educative and enjoying. There's every weeks a chat room with the teachers and we can ask question, their is homeworks and study. But like it's online you can cheat more often, but me I didn't and you have to study event so it's on the Internet to past the course; if you're serious or want to learn you will get nothing of this online course like in real classroom. And what is great about this it's that this is totally free, but the certificate some site give you at the end have no real value in job interview only this give some new knowledge.

What is the advantages of MOOCs and why this is so interesting ?

MOOCs have 2 fundamental differences from the previous online educational :

1. MOOCs are available for free, anywhere, at anytime, they have a platform easily to use and to learn form anytime and any situations.
2. MOOCs have social engagement communities of students that can chat together, help each another, pose problems, resolves questions, add additional material to the class, and support other students in their study or learning.

More Information about MOOCs

But what it's the most important differences it's that MOOCs are made for large numbers of students to study and learn at the same for free, school like MIT and Harvard invest $30 Million of dollars in the website EDx to help student that cannot afford to study to have some kind of free education.


One of the big problems I see it's that most of the course that they offer are just some kind of introduction, if you want to develop it in more details you will have to paid for real class. But like Malcolm Forbes said It's never to late to learn something news and when it's free and available so easily why not learn something news ?



MOOCs Web Sites:
https://www.coursera.org
https://www.edx.org
https://www.khanacademy.org/
https://www.udacity.com
http://www.mooc-list.com/

Stop this CAPTCHA verification, I'm not a robot, I'm just dyslexic.

This post is borne of my big frustration against CAPTCHA has dyslexic user. Once against society decided to lock us more out and make a new barrier that made it very more difficult to use web site.

Each time when you want to create an account or just write a comment on site, they want us to verify if we are human or robot using this indecipherable CAPTCHA image.

CAPTCHA is an acronym for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.”

You have to read the text, then enter the characters you see into a form. Then, and only then, can you complete the transaction, but if you're dyslexic like me and have difficulty to read event normal letter; this job become a difficult one. And some site have limitations time to try to do this and after you get block for all the days; it's happen to my often to be block after 5 times on forums.

CAPTCHAs are meant to prevent robots from spamming or overvoting or whatever it is that computer robots do in their spare time; but what if I'm not a robot but just Dyslexic. Some sites  using CAPTCHA have added an audio option, thinking this will probably makes them feel more good about helping dyslexic or blind people. But really did someone try to do it, those audio CAPTCHAs are far more difficult to do than the textural one, and some of them are just impossible!

I'm not a robot because I'm dyslexic and cannot read this CAPTCHA; Dyslexics are 'Humans'. But I doubt when they invented this they didn't think about it and didn't think this would be one of the more insulting & effective barrier to the dyslexic web user to be tell that because they cannot read this they must not be Humans. And event me sometime I give up on my registration on some web sites because of this, this make them lost many users like me.

Let take an example look at the picture belows, I'm dyslexic and I cannot for the life of god decipher the last image in the graphic, or just figure out whether the second is an U or a V or an I that is so near the first b, nor whether the fourth one is O or Q or an over sized lower case a.

And of course when you fail the first round they give you another one to do like this one bellows. The 3 one is a h or li or a 1i, I cannot figure this out and if you lose this round some site block your account for all the days till tomorrow and you get really frustrated, because they tell you that you failed the test so you're not human.

The problem with this of course, it that why they wanted to create these barriers this is simply unnecessary. This are supposed to be created to detect internet spammers, who use software bots to post advertisements, links to malicious software, or to attempt to launch denial of service attacks on web sites. Not to block dyslexic people from it or blind people.

There is other alternatives like calculus image; these are other tools that web designers can use to trap or trick the spam-bots, without creating barriers for their human users.

For me the difference between a human and a computer is simple, and should not be tested with these CAPTCHA. A computer is a robot or a machine and an human is someone that deserves to be treated with equal chances and some respect.

A petition to sign to stop these CAPTCHA TEST: http://webbism.com/2013/08/05/fighting-to-end-the-reign-of-the-captcha/

How Manga help me with my Dyslexia ?

First of all let me tell you What are manga?

This is stories told using the medium of comic, with a lots of pictures accompanying the text. However, this definition is a little to simplistic. A Manga is a medium of visual storytelling with graphic and pictures, that is originates from Japan. A Manga book is usually slightly thinner, that means that they require reader to start from the back of the book due to Japanese language being read from right to left.

A Manga can be in so many distinctive style, with large text, eyes. An anime is its a film do from a manga and that use the same artistic style.The most popular manga and anime in the world was Pokemon or Dragon Balls. 

Some people assume that manga is only for children because of the success of children's cartoon, like Digimon, and possibly due to the cuteness appearance of some manga characters. This is not the case, people of all ages can read manga, and it covers a wide variety of topics like: action-adventure, romance, sports and games, historical drama, comedy, science fiction and fantasy, mystery, suspense, detective, horror, sexuality, and business/commerce, among others. Likewise, some other people when they think of comic or manga only think of superhero or geek reading but this is far from the truth, and it's come to same thing has judging all books based on one genre, such as magical or horror.


Let me show you some example of Manga bellows: 

 

Remember Manga are read right to left (This Death Note and Welcome to The NHK)

Now let tell you more about How Manga help me with my Dyslexia ?

If you have read my previous post you all know that being dyslexic means you have problem at reading and with letter.  What is great about Manga is that there is pictures to help me will I'm reading, that really help me has a reader to keep in track with the plot event when I'm struggling with some words and letter. For me the fact that there is less text to read per page make this less hard for me to read with my Dyslexia and allow me to keep focus and also to finish these books much more faster that with normal novel. I remember myself starting reading novel and having so much problems with world, and how the text is little that I totally give up, but with the larger characters and the pictures in Manga this never happen. This help me boost my confidence has a reader, and make me fall in love with the interest of reading books against.

Dyslexic people like me struggle sometime to remember some details of the stories so like me they lost the focus and give up, but because of the pictures and designs in manga this rarely happen. Also the effort of reading some words make it so hard to understand their meaning at the same time. For me, I realize that I have so much better memory with picture than sounds and words. I also have some trouble remembering names but never faces, and place. This means for me book which use pictures are as well more accessible for me to read than the one that only have text.

Finally Mangas, are so much more fun and interesting to read than novel, because most of them are based on popular Anime or TV Shows. I would like to recommend every Dyslexic or People that hate reading to start reading Manga this can give you the like of reading again. 

Some Resources:

1. A Research about how Manga and Comic help Dyslexic: http://design-cu.jp/iasdr2013/papers/1259-1b.pdf
2.  Some free websites to start with Manga: http://www.mangareader.net/ http://beta.mangafox.com/ http://www.mangahere.com/ 
   

I swears I know how to write, but why it's so toughs by hands writing

I realize this society become so addicted to technologies event teachers ask now for our paper research to be print and write in computer. The new generation star to forget how to use a pen and how to write by hands writing or just have a so bad one. And I realized myself too, my hand writing is so bad. So I decided to change it, and practice each days to get a better one.

I fund this great resource online for adult like me that want to get a better hand writing: http://www.nala.ie/sites/default/files/publications/better_handwriting_for_adults.pdf. This resources is very helpful and in one weeks my hands writing star to get better (n.b: with each days 30 min practice). It's will take time but everything can be change and ameliorate if really want it.


This resource is very simple to use with clears exercise and 100% free,t it's only to you to work hard if you want some result and to ameliorated your hand writing like me.

Book Cover

Example of exercises from the Books

I will keep in tracks with my progress this 2 pictures bellows are take one week for each other the first one at the beginning the second after one week; I'm very happy to see some progress and amelioration in my hands writing.

Good Luck everyone, with this great resource !

Dyslexia a word that sound strange, what it's ?

Now let open The Larousse Dictionary and read the definition:

dys·lex·i·a 
disˈleksēə/ 
noun 

1. a general term for disorders that involve difficulty in learning to read or interpret words, letters, and other symbols, but that do not affect general intelligence. 

Yes this is a cleaver definition but this not so specifics and telling you what really Dyslexia is.

First let me tell you a little story.  

John is a young boy, he just started primary school todays. He was so happy to find news friends and to see his class. The second days in school the teacher start teaching alphabetic letter, they all have the homework to know the alphabet. The next days in class John was ask by the teacher to tell her the alphabetic letter he wasn't able and all the other student start to laugh, but John did study. The teacher ask to see his parents and tell them that John need to study and stop doing the clown in class, but John didn't want to be like that. 

John grow up past some class and still hates write, but also he hate reading aloud in class. He's never been good with letter, or reading, and even he seems to have trouble to recognizes the words on page. School's never been his favorite place anyway. He often gets lows self-esteem, laugh at, and discouraged thinking that he's not good enough or smart like the other kids. But John always past his class and he's good in sport and math. He found that he had talent with calculus and equations.

But what everyone doesn't have realize : John, his parents, and his teachers is that John has Dysliexia.

So now let me be more specific and tell you What's Dyslexia ?

A dyslexic person is a person with a learning disability with processing words or numbers. There are several type of learning disabilities; dyslexia is one of them and the term used when people have difficulty learning to read, even they are smart people and motivated to learn.

N.B: Been Dyslexic isn't a disease. It's a condition that you are born with, and it often runs in families. People with it are not slows, stupid or lazy. Most of them have average or above-average intelligence, and they work very hard to overcome this learning problems. 

Now let talk about the signs of Dyslexia so no more children like John didn't know and think they are stupid all their life.

• Learning to read - the child, despite having normal intelligence and receiving proper teaching and parental support, has difficulty learning to read.


• Milestones reached later - the child learns to crawl, walk, talk, throw or catch things, ride a bicycle later than the majority of other kids.


• Speech - apart from being slow to learn to speak, the child commonly mispronounces words, finds rhyming extremely challenging, and does not appear to distinguish between different word sounds.


• Slow at learning sets of data - at school the child takes much longer than the other children to learn the letters of the alphabet and how they are pronounced. There may also be problems remembering the days of the week, months of the year, colors, and some arithmetic tables.


• Coordination - the child may seem clumsier than his or her peers. Catching a ball may be difficult.


• Left and right - the child commonly gets "left" and "right" mixed up.


• Reversal - numbers and letters may be reversed without realizing.


• Spelling - may not follow a pattern of progression seen in other children. The child may learn how to spell a word today, and completely forget the next day. One word may be spelt in a variety of ways on the same page.


• Phonology problems - phonology refers to the speech sounds in a language. If a word has more than two syllables, phonology processing becomes much more difficult. For example, with the word "unfortunately" a person with dyslexia may be able to process the sounds "un" and "ly", but not the ones in between.


• Concentration span - children with dyslexia commonly find it hard to concentrate for long, compared to other children. Many adults with dyslexia say this is because after a few minutes of non-stop struggling, the child is mentally exhausted. A higher number of children with dyslexia also have ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder), compared to the rest of the population.


• Sequencing ideas - when a person with dyslexia expresses a sequence of ideas, they may seem illogical for people without the condition.


• Autoimmune conditions - people with dyslexia are more likely to develop immunological problems, such as hay fever, asthma, eczema, and other allergies.

But really what are the cause of Dyslexia ?

There still no real cause of it, you're just born with it or not.

Did there is a treatment to cure Dyslexia ?

No there is no cure to dyslexia but with proper care and education a dyslexic children can do big study and become whatever he/she want doctor, scientific,....

Dyslexia Nigthmare: - How hard can it be? - Seriously! you can’t spell that ? It’s soooooo simple!

Dyslexia some have hear of it, other have read about it, and some people never see this word before. But does anyone really know what it's ? I do, but the majority doesn't.

Some people make fun it, call dyslexic people slow or stupid.

The schools that are supposed to be there to help them in all honesty don't do anything and said ''University doesn't teach us Teacher how to help you.'' That the sentence they usually use to put the job in the hands of someone else.

When I was in primary school I didn't get any help, basically I was struggling alone with this learning disabilities, and I was trying so hard to don't slow down other student by the time it's was taking me so much more time than other to build a small sentence.

I've struggled so much to keep up in class, to past my class and had been called stupid or slow by many students & also teacher, after a while I start to believe it.

Every time the teacher said to me to read out loud in the class, I heard giggles and people calling me stupid and such because I couldn’t pronounce the majority of the words.

You know what this leads to? Low self-esteem…. I stopped raising my hand during class, I avoided working in groups, it went so far that I actually stopped speaking in class completely.

So I become the quiet one in the corner of the classroom in the last seat of the class and I barely ever said any word for approximately all my primary school. And when I did open my mouth to talk I was forced to do so by a teacher.

Finally in high-school a nice teacher see what was the problem, and call my parents to tell them that I was probably dyslexic and I need to past some test. And after the test I finally know that I was not stupid or slow and that all these people saying ''how hard can it be? or you just have to practice and you'll be better or how stupid you're ? or seriously! you can’t spell that ? It’s soooooo simple!”.

Didn't know anything because no it isn't so easy to a Dyslexic Person !


It's not good and it hurts so much when you don't know what you have, and constantly you're reminded that you are not as good as everyone else ? You see with your own eyes that everyone around you can do it,  but you didn't and you ask yourself : why can’t I ? And after you start to feel left out, alienated,  feeling that you don’t belong or deserve to be there or you just want to give up…

I think it's one form of bullying to call a dyslectic stupid or slow… it’s a disability that the person can’t do anything about…

And this won't go away with time !

So stop and think before you question someone's spelling or grammar!

There could be many reasons why it's this bad ?

* The language the person is writing in might not be their first language, critic is alright when it comes to fan-fiction or any other from of writing, but be nice! There is no need to bash on someone and degrade them for trying ! Help them improve until next time !

* The person might have dyslexia, it appears in different degrees (mine is classed as a quite severe one), if the person has made it clear that they are in fact dyslectic then you should not point out their mistakes because there is no point ! They already know that there are mistakes but they can’t be improved with “a little more practice”.

* The person might have been born with a condition making it hard to learn any languages and speaking over all.

This advices was giving to you by a dyslexic person so please next time try to take this into consideration before you comment on someone’s spelling and/or grammar or just before you call someone stupid or slow. It’s just basic respect, if you want to point out at someone else flaws then don’t just yell it in a form of insult, it’s just an unnecessary action which can hurt. And before judging others people flaws try to looks at yourself before !

If you had read all this, I would like to thank you for your time and I hope I've made a point.

A dyslexic person.

Why did I created Dyslexia Association in Lebanon ?

Dyslexia is an important disabilities in our society. As you may know, according to the United Nation one over five persons in the world are dyslexic and 1 over 3 have a learning disabilities, it's the time for people to know more about it and to be awareness. 

It's the time to start a awareness about Dyslexia!

So there come an idea in my head to create a page and blog to help people understand that Dyslexia is a Way of Thinking and not as a disability & to celebrate the strengths of people with dyslexia.

Dyslexia is the most common reading disability, if you know that more of 20% of the world population are struggling with dyslexia and are untreated this is a shame. In fact the person that write this and created this page and blog is a Dyslexic and a proud one.  

Dyslexia crosses racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines, and with proper instruction and accommodations, they can learn to write and read properly. However, the diagnosis and treatment isn't done in public schools and in private school they see us as slow. Lebanese and MENA country try to doesn't see the problem.

This is to the government and to school to see the problem, and to teachers to adjusted in front of Dyslexic. How we can teach a Dyslexic well if we doesn't know what is Dyslexia and event that the person is Dyslexic ?

Children who cannot read are marginalized and left to struggle and ultimately risk falling completely through the cracks, dropping out of school and facing dismal futures.

With proper identification and intervention, this is preventable. More awareness of and testing for dyslexia, along with remediation for those diagnosed with dyslexia, especially in minority communities, can improve literacy. Considering the struggles and marginalization of many dyslexic children—and those children who remain undiagnosed—and all of our shared vision for a more inclusive and innovative world, it seems natural to reform dyslexia as a civil rights issue.

To conclude, it's because no one see and know about dyslexia that no one reacted  and want to help children having this disabilities. And it's why I create Dyslexia Association in Lebanon ? To awareness people and help them understand this learning disabilities more.