Difficulties reading/writing?

Post Reply New Topic

I apologize if this is in the wrong forum, but I am unsure if perhaps this is related to Asperger's. I have no other resources available to me but what's on the internet.

When it comes to reading and writing, I'm typically viewed as above average, but I still have some troubles with it. I can read/write and understand big words when I see them, but when it comes to smaller words, I struggle. My mind always flips letters or replaces them with another letter and I can't figure it out for the longest time. Like today I saw the word "surgeries" and thought it said "sugaries," and I stared at it for two minutes before deciding to Google it since I didn't know what a sugary was. I only realized it was "surgery" when I saw the definition of it on Wikipedia.

That's just one example, but I do this a lot in both math and English. Roman numerals are especially difficult for me; in English class, I asked one time after staring at a poster for days why it was out of numerical order, and it wasn't until my teacher went and pointed out that indeed, it was number Henry IV, V, and then VI did I noticed it was right this entire time. When this stuff happens, I have a lot of problems reading stuff and I usually mess up on my math homework because I flip digits.

There are small words I mess up a lot too. "Done" and "down" are always a struggle for me, and when I have to write either of them I very rarely get it right on the first try, and if I do, I always double guess myself and end up erasing and rewriting over and over until I finally can get the right one.

When I talk, I also add and flip letters, which only adds on to my embarrassing speech problems, so maybe that's related somehow. Nobody ever suspects that I'm struggling, since I'm a straight A student who's also been placed in the gifted program, but I really do have a problem with flipping letters in words and getting a totally different meaning out of it. I can't find any stories of someone doing this exact same thing, but I've found a few close stories. Does anyone have anything similar happen to them? Is this autism related?

Flipping letters is a dyslexic thing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyslexia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysgraphia

I don't know if you have these neurological issues but they are not uncommon for people on the spectrum

I have both of these and recently talked to a girl who said she also had bad hand writing. Just more crap that went undiagnosed when I was in school I am afraid. ALways just felt stupid and ashamed because of it. Like, morbidly ashamed.

Yep I have both of those too.

Here's a really good video about reading and spelling mistakes that are characteristic of dyslexia:

http://www.bartonreading.com/dyslexiaSymptomsSolutions_Part03.html

I was never sure if it was dyslexia or something since I was always good at reading, minus those tiny words. If it's not uncommon though, problem solved I guess.

I have the handwriting part of dysgraphia, but my composition is excellent.