One of the questions I get asked most is Does dyslexia go away as an adult?
The short answer is NO.
The longer answer is .....that for me it is easier to deal with most situations as an adult but the underlying problems have not gone away. I still have problems with auditory processing, short term auditory memory, sequencing, reading aloud and writing.
The difference now is I can anticipate and plan for things I find difficult. I either avoid the situation, or if there is no way out I have strategies to cope. I'm not afraid to ask others to help me or to delegate. The sad thing for children is that there often is no escape. They often haven't developed helpful strategies to compensate. They usually can't delegate or avoid the task as it is an activity that the teacher expects them to complete themselves.
As an adult we often have more choices. I have chosen a job where I can play to my strengths - I spend my time interacting face to face, doing hands on, practical activities and being creative. I can use my strong verbal skills and general knowledge. While I do have to read and write it is in my own time and I can take as long as want (or need). Noone sees that I spend twice as long writing lesson plans or reports.
For me the main difficulty that remains is auditory processing difficulties. I need visuals as well as words to understand something. If I am talking to someone I need to see their face, see their body language to follow the conversation. As a result I have strong dislike of phone calls as I have misunderstood things so many times. If someone gives me address over the phone I am prone to mishearing it. Usually I have to write what I think I heard phonetically and then use a map to find the likely address. Even when someone spells out a name, my brain seems to scrabble the letters and I often can not write the letters down quickly enough. Again I have to find information from another source. Email and the internet has been such a help to me is this respect. Most of the time I don't have to make phone calls at all and I can communicate and get information with less risk of misunderstanding.
Reading aloud is another thing that remains embarrassing and painful. I am still unable to read aloud as an adult without stumbling over my words or making a mistake. Practicing before hand doesn't seem to make much of a difference. I particularly find names or longer polysyllabic words difficult, I do not seem to be able to break up the word correctly and will often change the order of the sounds or syllables without meaning to. It has taken me a long time to be able to say 'Vietnamese' as may brain wants to swap the n and the m. "Compartmentalise" is a word I wish I could say but I can never get the syllables to come out in the correct order so I have to find another way of explaining myself. As child I would invent names of characters in book when I couldn't read them, like "Mr T' for Mr Tomkinson. I remember as a student teacher that class teachers often thought an easy and fun task was to read a story to the class. For me it was my idea of a nightmare, trying to keep track of the text, while holding the book so the children could see the pictures, deciphering unfamiliar names without any practice and trying to keep an eye on the children to manage their behaviour all at the same time. As student there was no escape, I had to endure this stressful ordeal, hoping the children would not sense my fear or laugh when I stumbled over my words. As a young teacher I found ways around my problem. I learnt a few stories so that I could tell them without really having to read, I opted for story telling whenever I could and the children loved this, I used story tapes for longer stories or used confident readers to read for me. I still have to look for creative ways of avoiding public reading, luckily these days I am rarely put on a the spot. When I do staff meetings I use key words and 'ad lib', I never read from my notes. If I have to explain something at a meeting I read to myself and summarise the main points to share with others. If I do have to read aloud to the children, I read as slowly as possible to try and give my brain a chance to process each word correctly.
Mainly I just have to learn to laugh if I do make a mistake, we all have our weaknesses after all!
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