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Subject: As we age - does it get worse Author: Ellanorah [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 05:11:24 10/15/07 Mon I was "found out" very early; at about age 4 in 1962. I was part of an experimental group that they developed dyslexia programs with. I have functioned pretty well, thanks to my family working with me as much or more than anyone else. I am now 49 and for the last 8-10 years I have found my "symptoms" reverting back or getting worse. Has anyone else experienced this? Is it the age thing, stress or just normal to wear down and revert at time? Does anyone have an answer?? [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[> Subject: Re: As we age - does it get worse Author: Geraldine [Edit] Date Posted: 18:05:38 10/18/07 Thu I'm 50 years old and I've never been "officially diagnosed". I've always had difficulty with my speech, reading and writing as a child. I did complete college with some difficulty. Now it seems that some of my childhood problems are returning. Difficulty with spelling, and the ability to express my thoughts. I reverse phone numbers frequently and get my left and right confused. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: Re: As we age - does it get worse Author: monica [Edit] Date Posted: 08:03:32 11/14/07 Wed I am 23 and just delivered my first and only child i think that my symptoms became worse after that my childhood was cake i did very well in school if stimulated i ended up with a 3.1 gpa however i just enrolled into a university and i am worried about the fact these signs are just now surfacing i wonder if having the child did it or if maybe the is something else wrong but if it is true that i am experiencing dyslexia then it definitely has to do with age maybe not for everyone but at least some [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: Re: As we age - does it get worse Author: William [Edit] Date Posted: 10:04:47 12/02/07 Sun Over the years I have experienced my dyslexia is more prominent when I am under pressure or nervous. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: Re: As we age - does it get worse Author: Jeff [Edit] Date Posted: 11:36:52 12/02/07 Sun Speaking from my own personal experiences, I’m not sure that the problems “return”. I think that the problems we have and share stay with us throughout our lives. The difference is that we learn how to mold our problems for the specific task at hand and when the task changes; we find ourselves starting all over again. For example, when I started college, I found my dyslexia becoming a real problem again. However, I think that was because the techniques I learned to cope with dyslexia in high school weren’t working as well in college. So I had to revaluate my techniques in order to figure out a way to achieve success in college. Basically what I am saying is when you feel the dyslexia demon creeping up on you and not in a good way; take it slow and map it out. I found that dry erase boards are great for this. To help myself get out of these ruts and get back to the tasks at hand, I write out what I am having difficulty with on one board in different colors. Sometimes they are complete words and sentences and sometimes they are just pictures or symbols that I associate with. Then on another board I write or draw possible solutions. This might not work for everyone but it has helped me a lot because I found the more I wrote down frustrations, whether they were logical or only understood by me, it helped me find solutions. Geraldine, have you ever tried expressing your thoughts through poetry? Writing poetry has helped me a lot. Sometimes I don’t know what it is I’m writing but then I look it at on a later date and I’ll know what it was I was trying to say. Monica, one thing that I have learned is that professors are willing to go out of their way to help if you just ask and express interest. For example I don’t take exams anymore. I explained my situation to professors and we have worked out alternative ways for evaluating my understanding of material. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> Subject: Re: As we age - does it get worse Author: Sharman [Edit] Date Posted: 03:44:59 12/04/07 Tue I concur with all that Jeff says, especially that we have to regroup all our strategies for each new task/project we face. My difficulties (mix of ADD, dyslexia and dyspraxia) are also hightened by stress but also in my case by hormone imbalances (I am now 55 and on HRT to steady things). It is possible to succeed though... I have just been awarded my PhD following my research into working memory processing of children with educational related learning problems. Oh yes, I also scribble or type up what I am feeling/thinking (journalling) and poetry has been helpful in expressing difficult emotions. every blessing to all reading this... [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> Subject: Re: As we age - does it get worse Author: Graeme Wadlow [Edit] Date Posted: 09:04:43 12/05/07 Wed Hi All I am new to this forum. My dyslexia is cause by my Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), and it is running my APD coping strategies under stress that make my dyslexic symptoms worse. I have problems with reading what they call large chunks of text, no definition as yet of a large chunk, but i take it to be a paragraph or so. I think we all really need find out what the underlying medical causes of our dyslexic symptoms really are, or may be a conflicting learning style. When we can understand the nature of the issues that cause us to be dyslexic, like say Irlen Syndrome, the sensory information processing problems (especially visual and auditory processing processing disorders), the motor information processing issues, that can all combine to create and underlying page of clinical issues which we need to have identified. Each dyslexic has thei own set of underlying causes and this why it is not possible to fit a one size fits all solution or support package, and why some programs help one group of dyslexics and not another set. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: Re: As we age - does it get worse Author: Dee [Edit] Date Posted: 11:51:38 12/02/07 Sun When I was a child I was under IEP for a developmental delay, communication disorder yet dyslexia was never mentioned but I was continual reading failure. Recently tested I have it in three areas. I'm a college student, activist and under stress I forget lots of things. Recently I reversed an important email to Supreme court Judge Page. Writing to him because we are still face much discrimination in this system of things with IDEA being funded at only 17 percent. I get so upset I still cry just as I did as a child, because it is so frustrating when your mind does those reversals and the words move on the page and you can't understand what your reading and nobody acknowledges this disability and you feel dumb, in fact your discriminated against still in this day and age when people should know better. With no access to audio books or services I still struggle to learn just as I did as a child with no accommodations. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: Re: As we age - does it get worse Author: Chendore [Edit] Date Posted: 13:45:55 12/02/07 Sun Over the past three years my dyslexia has made itself far more obvious at times. I am not sure if my dyslexia has worsened as such, but rather that changes in work and also my personal life have altered patterns with which I had been comfortable. I have always had problems with math, in fact the only phone number I could remember has now altered....and I hate it when people ask for your number and I stand there looking totally blank...thank goodness for mobiles....maybe in another ten years I will remember my new one! Stress and altered environments definately have an impact on dysexia....it's yet another trial of life. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: Re: As we age - does it get worse Author: Jim [Edit] Date Posted: 14:45:36 12/02/07 Sun I am also 50, I think stress has a lot to do with it. My job is very stressfull now and seems to pull the dyslexia out when I least need it, tripping me up. Try and stay calm and think things out. To much stress gets me overloaded. Good luck Jim [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: Re: As we age - does it get worse Author: vanessa [Edit] Date Posted: 04:17:07 12/03/07 Mon i am 45.I was never told at school that i had dyslexia but when my children started school the diffuculties they were having were exactly the same as mine I still cannot tell which is left & right without making an l with my thumb and forefinger but i agree does seem to come back but also I have quite a stressful life and I think like others have said it does affect because your brain is so active [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: Re: As we age - does it get worse Author: Deb [Edit] Date Posted: 12:17:36 12/03/07 Mon I am over 50 and now diabetic. I was doing fine until I got sick. I notice that if I am exhausted, or sugar is high, my dylexic tendencies return to a maximum - even to the point that I can't follow directions. I would like research to be done in this area, but it seems we know very little on the longitudinal issues of dylexia. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: Re: As we age - does it get worse Author: jack charters [Edit] Date Posted: 14:04:24 12/04/07 Tue [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: Re: As we age - does it get worse Author: Steve [Edit] Date Posted: 10:08:56 12/10/07 Mon Well I really don't know where to start other than I have an eight year old daughter that has been diagnoised with the beast about a year ago. I have never been tested but there is no doubt that I have this terrible disability and blame myself for all that my daughter is going through.I need help with everthing because not only do I give my daughter an extremely hard time why she can't do the thing that I think she should know, my relationship with my wife is suffering in the process. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: As we age - does it get worse Author: Kurt [Edit] Date Posted: 06:05:26 10/23/07 Tue I too have the same problum at the age of 40. I am in the prosess of look for some kind of PDA (handheld computer) to help me at work. My spelling is realy bad my thought run a hundred MPH I will let you know what I find out there. My organizational skills are next to none. Also I seem to remember going to a seminar a few years back and the speaker said something to the fact that people with dyslexia adults seemed to peak in their mid-20s after that things seemed to start getting not worse but don't get any better. This has something to do with the plasticity of the brain. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: Re: As we age - does it get worse...it doesn't have to!!! Author: Vincent [Edit] Date Posted: 16:35:30 10/30/07 Tue My two pence on the topic. I have previously responded to aging and the dyslexic brain but that was a couple of years ago. My point of view both as a dyslexic and a scientist hasn't changed. As we age, there will be deterioration of every part of us, some more some less. Just like we cannot run as fast anymore, our brain ages. What does this entail. The human brain is incredibly versatile. dyslexics have an advantage in that we have connections in places other people do not. It is also a disadvantage since we tend to lack connections or have weaker connections between neurons than others in other places. Overall, as a dyslexic, it very important to keep using your brain and keep exploring both new and old topics. That means keeping that brain engaged. Famous dyslexics are not mathematicians who burn out after their 20's. In fact, I would claim the opposite. Many got better with age. An Einstein, Edison, Churchill, Yeats or Christie were very productive in their later years. Because of the plasticity of the brain, we need to keep using it. I know with age a degree of complacency can set in, as well as the drag of daily routine. But dyslexics, require more than that to stimulate our brains to become better or to maintain themselves. Once we are no longer challenged, or we are wrongly challenged and stressed, we do not build up our neuronal pathways. Then things can deteriorate. My advice is to find space and time for two things, one to organise aspects of life (and doing those one by one after making a priority list (a spouse or friend can be a useful sparring partner in putting something like that together)), the second is to dedicate some part of the day or week to a hobby that gets your mind going. If that is reading (or audio book), playing a complex card game, doing puzzles, or a creative pursuit. Any of these will enhance your plasticity by reducing your stress and keeping your mind engaged. Use it or loose it! [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: As we age - does it get worse Author: Stephen (Nutreal / Questioning) [Edit] Date Posted: 18:03:03 12/17/07 Mon I am 38 and I have had to deal with the same issues. I have used numerous technologies to cope (I phone, Stereo Digital Recorder, Digital Watch, and etcetera). I have noticed that I have run out of goals and challenges. I received my BA In English literature because I was told I could not get one. I have achieved much but have run out of steam, the spark or whatever you want to call it Enough with my rant. Does anyone have any good ideas that I can dissect and use from this post to “get the spark back”? Thanks! [ Post a Reply to This Message ]