I am going to start this post with the image description, as it’s required to explain this post. In the image is a piece of lined paper with a pen at the bottom. Four of the lines have been highlighted and numbered (1 to 4), with the words “MY NAME” in the middle. The top three rows are used for vowels and the bottom three for consonants.
I stated before that my ability to read and write was so limited, that I had to learn again from scratch aged 32-35. What I haven’t done is explain how I learned to read and write. I went to the library to take out loads of picture books. I would then copy the text over on to lined paper, but written in the format above. What this does is it visually separates the consonants and the vowels. Dyslexic people can go off pattern recognition, the words shape, rather than the individual letters. Plus some letters/numbers can look like others which doesn’t always help. For example, Q, O and 0, or b, p, and d, which is the same symbol, but just in different positions.
What the format above does, is to adjust for the way our minds can read the words. It breaks up the consonants and vowels, in a way that can be quicker and easier to read. Plus it’s a technique that doesn’t take long to pick up and apply. Vowels go at the top ¾ of the line, consonants go at the bottom ¾. I used four lines in this image for clarity. Personally I found that this was a lot more effective, and it made reading and writing, not only quicker, but clearer too because I wasn’t missing words.
All our best and love
Ross Fraser and Jeni Dern
mylifeautistic
Written by – Ross Fraser
