If only they knew about this when I was a kid................

[fuzzybuddy]

When I was a kid, I had trouble reading. I was so damned slow. And I couldn't read out loud. It was horrible to listen to me try. The teachers all thought I was "special". I was the last kid in the class to memorize my "times tables". It was so hard to memorize things. As an adult, I could never remember anyone's name. Years later, I was in Nursing School when I learned about "dyslexia". It's a lot more than a cute way of misspelling words. It explained my childhood. Nobody heard of dyslexia when I was a kid. Even today, in this forum, I avoid long threads, it takes way too long to read them.
I have another problem. I have a neurological back dysfunction. I'm now in a wheelchair. It has been getting slowly worse, since my birth. It's not curable. Yet it would have been good to understand that all those strange symptoms weren't all in my head, but signs of a true disability. I was in my 40s, when it was diagnosed.
It may have been something so simple as glasses, but you have to wonder- If only they knew about this when I was a kid................

 

[Rosemarie]

I sympathise with you. Teachers used to think that children with problems were just being difficult. So many conditions were unrecognised. Consider all those left-handed children who were punished because they had trouble writing with their right hands.
I do think that we have gone too much the other way, though, and are too quick to put labels on children. Many children today are not properly guided and disciplined.
The trouble is, knowing when a child is truly misbehaving or has a genuine problem.

 

[Aunt Marg]

When I was a kid, I had trouble reading. I was so damned slow. And I couldn't read out loud. It was horrible to listen to me try. The teachers all thought I was "special". I was the last kid in the class to memorize my "times tables". It was so hard to memorize things. As an adult, I could never remember anyone's name. Years later, I was in Nursing School when I learned about "dyslexia". It's a lot more than a cute way of misspelling words. It explained my childhood.
I have another problem. I have a neurological back dysfunction. I'm now in a wheelchair. It has been getting slowly worse, since my birth. It's not curable. Yet it would have been good to understand that all those strange symptoms weren't all in my head, but signs of a true disability.
It may have been something so simple as glasses, but you have to wonder- If only they knew about this when I was a kid................

I struggled badly in school (early years). Reading, memorizing, concentrating, remembering, and learning, and even today when I read, I miss so much. I have to read, then read it again, then re-read it again, and sometimes even re-read it AGAIN, before it finally sinks in.

As for numbers, I have an incredibly ability of remembering numbers of all kinds, even after seeing them only once, phone numbers being at the top. One friend calls me the human walking telephone directory.

As for recipes, all in my head, no opening books and things, just bam, I'm making such and such, and so I'll need this and I'll need that.

 

[JaniceM]

When I was a kid- or, at least, where I was one, kids who either had out-of-sorts behaviors or did poorly with schoolwork were labeled either bad or stupid. It also didn't seem worthy of notice if these issues were unusual for a particular child.
Some might be tempted to excuse this approach by saying classes were much larger, and there was only one teacher per class, so perhaps it would've been unrealistic to expect a teacher to take a student aside privately to express concern, but it was really nothing more than a 'trend' in public schooling.
Moving through the decades, the next trend was to assume any child who was out-of-sorts or doing poorly must be an 'abused' child. Later, the trend has been to label youngsters with various psychiatric 'disorders' and claim they need medications. And these newer trends have been occurring even with much smaller class sizes, more teachers, and craploads of "social workers," "counselors," etc. in the schools.

When I was in elementary school, I knew 3 kids who had difficulties in school- one had an undiagnosed medical problem, the others had a lot of stress in their personal lives. As for me, I had a personal situation that took nearly 100% of my focus, and couldn't have cared less about school.

 

[Aunt Marg]

When I was a kid- or, at least, where I was one, kids who either had out-of-sorts behaviors or did poorly with schoolwork were labeled either bad or stupid. It also didn't seem worthy of notice if these issues were unusual for a particular child.
Some might be tempted to excuse this approach by saying classes were much larger, and there was only one teacher per class, so perhaps it would've been unrealistic to expect a teacher to take a student aside privately to express concern, but it was really nothing more than a 'trend' in public schooling.
Moving through the decades, the next trend was to assume any child who was out-of-sorts or doing poorly must be an 'abused' child. Later, the trend has been to label youngsters with various psychiatric 'disorders' and claim they need medications. And these newer trends have been occurring even with much smaller class sizes, more teachers, and craploads of "social workers," "counselors," etc. in the schools.

When I was in elementary school, I knew 3 kids who had difficulties in school- one had an undiagnosed medical problem, the others had a lot of stress in their personal lives. As for me, I had a personal situation that took nearly 100% of my focus, and couldn't have cared less about school.

The elementary school I attended, the "special class" was in the basement, which today chaps my behind something fierce. It was as if the "special class" wasn't worthy of being on the upper floors.

I never needed special classes or anything, but I knew a few kids that were in the "special class", and one kid grew up and graduated high school like all the rest, and today he owns his own business and builds custom cabinetry and kitchens. His work is out of this world. So much for all the kids that called him stupid back in the day, and I could relay a few others examples of kids I knew growing up that might not have been A-students, but went on to lead happy, healthy, and successful lives.

 

[jujube]

I had a dreadful time learning to read. I just couldn't get the letters to go together, no matter how hard I tried. I pretty much just memorized (which I was VERY good at) the Dick and Jane books so people thought I could read. If the experts knew about dyslexia, it certainly hadn't trickled down to my elementary school. I was just told "you're not trying hard enough!"

I can remember vividly the day it happened in third grade: something "snapped" in my brain and all of a sudden it was "WOW! SO THAT'S WHAT IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE!!!!" I could read! I could read! Some connection in my brain must have finally fused and thus my lifelong love for reading got started.

They tested us in 4th grade and I was reading and comprehending on a 9th freshman level. We were tested again in 6th grade and by then it was a college freshman level.

I don't know if it was true dyslexia or something else.