# How is dyslexia possible? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 14, 2003, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-dyslexia-possible/155096 "2003-02-14T17:39:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2003, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-dyslexia-possible/155096/21 "2003-02-15T02:02:30Z")
Dykslxia is a crock. People are jsut makign excuse for not wanting ot read. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2003, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-dyslexia-possible/155096/22 "2003-02-15T02:19:07Z")
I have some issues with dyslexia. When I was a child I would write with mirror images of some letters(E,Z,B, primarly). For a while the letter M had three humps when I wrote it. Got over that, became an excellent reader, but I still have issues. If I glance at a newspaper headline, my mind may twist the letter order, or add a letter or two until the result makes no sense. Once the incorrect phrase has been read, it becomes a real problem to untangle the headline in my mind. Sometimes I have to spell a word letter by letter in my mind to change the perception. This doesn’t happen when I am reading, just when I glance at something, like a headline on a newspaper. Some pairs of words still give me issues county, and country drive me nuts. I have an excellent memory except for faces and names. When I was a mechanic, people would come into the shop to talk to me. They would ask about the repairs I had suggested on their car. Most of the time I had no clue who they were. But when we would walk out to their car, I could repeat exactly what I had suggested. Now what was different about their car from every other Volvo I worked on I have no clue. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2003, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-dyslexia-possible/155096/23 "2003-02-15T04:36:22Z")
Woh si ti elbissop? I unnod. ---
**Author:** ![HumanMonkeyGod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c67d28/32.png) [@HumanMonkeyGod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HumanMonkeyGod)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-dyslexia-possible/155096/24 "2009-02-20T20:20:56Z")
Have you never mis-read a thread title? Or noticed how other people have remarked how they did (or made a joke of it)? Or even when reading print, read a line with a particular word and then a line or two later realized that word didn’t make sense and gone back and realized you read it wrong? I figure that’s what dyslexia must be like, only full-time. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-dyslexia-possible/155096/25 "2009-02-20T20:43:49Z")
> [@HumanMonkeyGod](#): > > Have you never mis-read a thread title? Or noticed how other people have remarked how they did (or made a joke of it)? Or even when reading print, read a line with a particular word and then a line or two later realized that word didn’t make sense and gone back and realized you read it wrong? I figure that’s what dyslexia must be like, only full-time. Or mistaken 2003 for 2009? (In other news: BRAAAAAAINS!) ---
**Author:** ![Litoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9f8e36/32.png) [@Litoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Litoris)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-dyslexia-possible/155096/26 "2009-02-20T20:55:21Z")
I am extremely dyslexic in the truest sense – it is purely cognitive for me. The way it has been described to me is that in certain (for most people who have dyslexia) parts of the brain, the neurons fire pretty much at random. I had a neurologist once comment “I don’t see how anyone with dyslexia functions at all, the way your neurons fire so randomly!” For me, it’s not just that I write letters backwards, I don’t anymore.\* It’s not just that I will read words in sentences backwards (instead of “the dog walked down the road” I might see “the down walked dog road”), or misread words (“guitar” instead of “goiter”) or mistype words (“teh” for “the”) – my brain just sometimes refuses to process things at all. My most significant issue is that I sometimes require 2 forms of input to process things. Someone might be talking to me and say “hey, hand me that corn muffin.” I hear them. I know that they said \*something \*to me, but I just don’t _grok_. I will ask them to repeat what they said, and if I am paying attention, I will turn to face them, so that I will also see their lips moving. At that point, my brain has 2 forms of input and will usually process what is being said. If I don’t think (or they don’t know enough to get me) to turn and look at them, the “what? repeat that?” could go on a couple times before either I remember to turn and look or they get frustrated and cut me out of the equation. It can be quite annoying. \*One of my biggest issues – and one that is really funny – is that I almost always will type “c” when I need “s” and vice versa at the beginning of a word. What makes it funny is that I type about 200 wpm (or more) but I have to do it hunt & peck style, watching my fingers instead of the screen and I **still** do it. I can literally be spelling out the word “c o n s i s t e n t l y” as I type “s o n s i s t e n t l y” – but because I know I do it, I have learned to go back and proofread my stuff. I also will speak gibberish. One of my favourite “here, look at the dyslexic weirdo” stories is the night I was on the phone with a friend and telling my son to get ready for bed. I asked my friend to hold on and said “Niq, have you brushed the table?” My son, like my daughter and husband, is accustomed to my dyslexia and knew what I meant and answered accordingly, “no, mom, but I will go brush my teeth right now.” My friend, OTOH, was not accustomed to it, and had a very WTF moment, asking me why on earth I would expect him to brush the table. Until she asked me that, none of us (me, my son, my husband and my daughter who were all in the room) realised what I had actually said. We all had a laugh about it, but I am willing to bet it happens a lot more than I realise. Many times, my brain puts words that make sense in there (“avenue” instead of “street”, “box” instead of “suite” kinds of replacements) and strangers catch it quickly and act as though I am an idiot, but laugh it off usually. While I do occasionally transpose numbers, it isn’t very often, and being aware of the tendency, I am extremely anal retentive. To be honest, if I didn’t tell you that I am dyslexic, you’d probably never know. So, to answer the OP – because dyslexia isn’t just about transposing letters, it is a cognitive disorder that can manifest in some people as transposing numbers/letters. ---
**Author:** ![puppygod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@puppygod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puppygod)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-dyslexia-possible/155096/27 "2009-02-20T21:24:06Z")
> [@Will\_Repair](#): > > I have “disfacexia.” > I read very well and have good retention of what I read. > But I cannot remember faces. I can be talking to you for any length of time but won’t recognize you five minutes later. And if you’re wearing different clothes forgetaboutit. > \ Term for that is [prosopagnosia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia). ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-dyslexia-possible/155096/28 "2009-02-20T22:32:31Z")
This thread was zombified by a spammer. I removed the spam post last night. Because this thread is so old, I’ll go ahead and close it. Anybody who wants to talk about dyslexia can start a new thread and (if they want to) link to this one. **Gfactor** General Questions Moderator [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-dyslexia-possible/155096.md?page=1)