Dyslexia In Adults

Signs of Dyslexia in Adults

If you are an adult and not sure if dyslexia is the cause of your problems, here are some indicators. Of course, nobody has all of these traits or individuals have created their own brand of symptoms.

At work, do you?

• Work at a job that will hide your literacy difficulties or where you aren’t required to read and write much?
• Work in a higher position that requires a secretary to write?
• Hide your literacy level from your colleagues?
• Become frustrated attending “boring meetings” and slower or orderly tasks—often feeling that you already have the answer and others are painstakingly slow?
• Get easily frustrated or anxious in new situations?
• Feel overwhelmed by new or unexpected tasks?
• Choose or prefer a visual, tactile or kinaesthetic career like: Designer, Architect, Engineer, Tradesman, Mechanic, Actor, Artist, Musician, Athlete, Sportsman, Builder or a Businessman with staff?
• Display a lack of concentration or difficulty to focus on one task, preferring to multitask?
• Lack the confidence to ask for a promotion?
• Avoid tests, having difficulty passing standardised tests, sometimes blocking achievements or self-sabotaging?
• Consider yourself highly successful and driven—or an underachiever, not living up to your own potential?
• Come up with creative new ideas that are out-of-the-box?
• Try to avoid reading manuals, rather learning by doing, hands-on or demonstration?
• Watch a YouTube clip on how-to-do anything?
• See yourself as practical, street smart and a good judge of character?
• Make choices intuitively or instinctively?
• Display a sixth sense, or “read” people?
• Remember having struggled at school, with reading, writing, spelling and/or math?
• Rely on others to assist you, having become a skillful delegator?
• Make frequent spelling mistakes?

At home, do you?

•  Have poor recall of conversations or sequence of events, often arguing about occurrences?
• Have a dyslexic child or children and sometimes see yourself in their struggle?
• Feel insecure or avoid reading to your own children or helping them with their homework?
• Get easily distracted, stressed, frustrated or overwhelmed?
• Appear to “zone out” and retreat into your own world?
• Play computer games or video games?
• Get told you mispronounce words, without realising it?
• Excel at sport?
• Have excellent memory of some events and hardly remember stories from your school days?
• Remember people’s faces but not their names?
• Get accused of not listening?
• Find it hard to remember verbal instructions, especially lengthy ones?
• Avoid reading out loud?
• Read silently or speed-read?
• Find it easy to come up with jokes and situational humour?
• Find that comprehension depends on the subject matter?
• Frequently have to re-read sentences in order to comprehend?
• Quickly become tired or bored with reading?
• Rely on your partner for literacy skills?
• Like writing capital letters only or use poor handwriting to mask poor spelling?
• Guess at the use of punctuation marks?
• Find hard math concepts easier than simple math concepts?
• Have right-left confusion?
• Lose track of time and are either always late or obsessively punctual, finding it hard to estimate how much time passed?
• Lack of self-esteem in certain areas of your life?
• Function poorly in stressful situations?