books

I was able to read pretty much fluently by the time I was three. I can't recall if I could do it in both English and Spanish, but I don't think so. In any case, I could read. I was blessed to have a psychologist for a mother, who ran a battery of psychological tests before I knew enough to be able to cheat on them, and I was immediately discovered to have a mild form of dyslexia - and just recently, dyscalculia, apparently. Which is a bit absurd if you consider that I read lots and became an engineer, but there are reasons to this -. The early discovery allowed my mother to work on it with me so that by the time I got to school - when I was 5 - I was already good enough on my own to overcome difficulties.

This meant that I had to know how to read by the time I got to school. My mother was 19 and had bags of time, I was less than a year old and couldn't run away. So I learnt how to read. I was also fortunate enough that my grandparents owned a bookstore. I would spend the afternoons with them from the age of 4 on. It was fantastic to have so many books at my disposal. My grandparents took great care in not letting me reach books that they felt would corrupt me - which didn't limit me a whole lot because they are very good about knowledge and culture, it mostly just weeded out books that were, really, bad books. Books that if I read now, I would think they were bad anyway -, or perhaps, after this small explanation, books that they felt would corrupt my taste in good books. I would not know what a good book was.

I think that because I was the first grandchild and my mother's first kid, everyone just turned me into their little experiment, now that I look at it. Anyway. I was going somewhere. Where was I?

Right, books. Reading. I was taught all these things before I went to school. And so I love books. It didn't work that way for my friends, it didn't work that way for most Mexicans. Because that is not really how it works in Mexico. I was so very lucky. Had I not had enough tools to deal with the dyslexia by the time I got to school, I would have been categorised as "thick" - the official term - and put in a corner to play with crayons.

Cut to my life now. I live with a man who loves me and loves books - he has also become a man of Action, but how long that lasts remains to be seen! -. He loves books that, before he got here, I would have not even seen. I would not have registered. I have read different things, I have learnt different things. It has all - I feel - been good for me. I am so very lucky.

He is also a teacher. A teacher that knows "his stuff" enough to be able to actually help his students. I am so incredibly proud of the fact that we're together, I am terribly proud of the man he is [as if I had anything to do with it]. During his birthday, his students threw him a surprise party, and I'll be damned if I wasn't elated that they could see just how fucking lucky they are to have such a good teacher.

I'm having a hard time finding a phrase that sums it all up. The joy he's brought to my life, to my children's lives, to the kids at school, to the parents at school. I don't know. It's just so much.

Thank you.

-And I didn't end up where I was going, about books and stuff, but you can see how it doesn't matter now. -

Comments

[will]

What do you mean: he has also become a man of Action, but how long that lasts remains to be seen!???

At this very moment, you are sat watching DVDs with your children, while I am sat at the computer working! Working, I tell you! I'm not sat here reading people's blogs...Oh!

However, while I'm here (about to start work), I should mention that you have changed the books I read. You have got me to read "good" books.

And, you are quite wonderful yourself!

[maria bonita]

First of all being the daughter of a psychologist sounds like an adventure of its own.

Reading so much from such an early age is like a dream. I flunked pre-school because I could not read!

The way you talk about Will feels like the way I love my husband; deep, sexy, grateful and eternal.

[Blue Witch]

Every time I read things like this I am eternally grateful that I kept telling that young (erm, old ;)) man of yours that he was wasted in A$da and shouldn't train to be a driving instructor.

In the eventuality, I'm sure he listened to you much more than me (ie he got away from all that because he wanted to be with you and that coincided with leaving the rest behind), but I'm glad a great talent like that didn't carry on being wasted.

I am intrigued by how your mother could have been 19, a trained psychologist, and able to access psychological tests thatt would show you had dyslexia pre-school.

You can't do any of that in the UK!!!

But, I suspect it depends on what you mean by 'dyslexia', and 'dyscalculia'. After 20 years I still don't know...

[Blue Witch]

PS How's the Action bit going? ;)

[maria]

Well, she started university at 17, so that might have helped, and by the time I was 1, she was already studying Gestalt, which is how come she could teach me how to read. I could do tests because she had to do practises. Hopefully that explains that - and I thought about it just last night, the fact that she was rather young, but I didn't think of explaining it because, to me, it's just normal that she was.

The dyslexia makes words tumble around the pages for me. When I don't focus. It's a mild form and usually I have a good grasp of it, but it still shows up when I'm reading out loud. I think it's harder in English. Which is strange. The dyscalculia still makes me disoriented. The thing is that when I was a kid, they didn't know dyscalculia explained the fact that I had trouble telling my left from my right. I still do.

But they were mild enough forms that I could overcome them. If you look at the symptoms for them, I think I just have a couple of each list. And so there you go.

It seems to me that you would be able to do that in the UK, or anywhere, as I can - without any training - easily tell when a kid has dyslexia or dyscalculia. But maybe that's because I am familiar with the symptoms and it probably could be explained away with a million other syndromes that I don't even know about.

Sometimes the fact that we can only see through our own perception of things really limits us. Or me. Maybe it just limits me, since I can only see through my experience.

[Blue Witch]

That makes more sense now, although in the UK no-one could do that sort of advanced training in psychology until they have a first degree (it would be masters or doctoral level).

Hmmm... what you're describing with tumbling words can suggest a visual processing disturbance. Does it get worse when you are tired or stressed (the extra processing involved for you as a non-native speaker in reading aloud in English would explain why it's worse in English)? Have you ever seen a behavioural optometrist (if you have them there... a regular optician won't have the training or experience to spot it)?

Over the years you've probably sub-consciously developed strategies to compensate for any bizarre processing that goes on, and there's probably not much that could be done now, although sometimes coloured lenses can help stabilise things.

If you're interested, some basic info on the work of Prof Arnold Wilkins can be found in the following links and the links within them.

http://www.essex.ac.uk/psychology/psy/people/wilkins/wilkins.html

http://www.essex.ac.uk/psychology/overlays/reading%20disorders%20OC2.htm

http://www.essex.ac.uk/psychology/overlays/index.htm

Research is more advanced now, and Google Scholar will give you better quality more up-to-date research papers.

(sorry to go on, but, this is one of my areas of special interest and of all the kids I've recommended see a behavioural optometrist in te last 10 years, I've been right in every single case. Long-distance assessment of adults through blogposts though... :))

[maria]

Thanks! As I already pretty much have a grip on it - and it doesn't seem to be affected much by how tired or not I may be - I don't think I will be doing much about it, though. But thanks for your concern.

I should mention that my first language was English. It's harder because English has different sounds for the same letters. Or letter sequences. Spanish sounds pretty much like it reads. That is why English is harder to read.