The Bad Speller

While using Stumble I fell upon a site about the anatomy of the ear which then reminded me that I wanted to look up “vowel Deafness.” How that connection came I dont’ know but it did. I even looked at pictures of the knee and the hips to see exactly what they look like very close up. Anyway though, in regards to vowels and spelling I started doing a little searching to figure out if what I’ve said all along has any validity. Something I figured out a long time ago is that I can’t hear the vowels in spoken words and I can’t translate them onto paper. I called it vowel Deafness. Not until today did I find out that such a phrase exists. I got online to look up simple searches like “vowel Deafness” which lead to a search query of “auditory or visual processing deficits” which lead me straight to Dyslexia. I don’t know what my issue is because I can’t diagnose myself but at least I know my issue isn’t laziness and isn’t disregard for accuracy or carelessness. One of the most interesting things I read about it is that vision and hearing are linked to spelling. One article mentioned a lazy eye muscle linked to poor spelling. This is really interesting stuff. If you haven’t seen the photo of my eyes close up see this image here from my about me page.

My sister, poor thing, went through all of her schooling not knowing she’s Dyslexic. She really struggled and was made to feel terrible about her poor learning skills. I on the other hand did very well in school except for when it came to spelling. Even now I can tell that when I say a word I can’t hear the vowels in it so I hope I’m saying it correctly. I’m kind of all over the place right now with all I’m reading about vowel Deafness as well as auditory and visual processing deficits so this may be a very jumbled entry. This is great stuff. Since I had no idea that the phrase vowel Deafness existed I’m quite intrigued and pretty relieved that hey, there’s actually a legit reason for why I can’t spell. It’s not just laziness. Wow, there’s actually a name for it. I can’t believe it.

I look forward to reading more. I’d like to know how if it’s common amongst those with auditory and visual processing deficits or Dyslexia to easily mix up left and right and have absolutely no sense of direction. This has really been interesting reading. I skimmed much of it but plan to read more later this evening.

Getting back to my sister, that poor child really had it rough. We got paid for our grades. We got $10 per A, $5 per B, nothing for C’s. We owed her $10 per F, $5 per D and nothing for C’s. To make things “interesting” whatever we got paid our grandmother doubled. So say I got 5 A’s on my report card. My mother gave me $50 and my grandmother turned around and gave me $100.00. If I chose to put it in the bank my mother matched what I put in and my grandmother doubled it. Say I wanted to put in the entire $150 that I earned off of 5 A’s. By the time my mother matched that amount and my grandmother doubled it I could put $600 in my bank account. This was all through out school so it wasn’t a bad deal IF you weren’t getting F’s. The “only” fines for F’s came from my mother, my grandmother didn’t fine for them but still my sister was in debt up to her little pre-teen years. Those weren’t the only financial gains of education. When the mother got paid she’d have my sister and myself compete to tell her the meaning of a word. I can’t remember a time when my sister won. There again, if I put that little $5 or $10 per word away I was making serious cash. My sister got left out of that. That poor child was made to feel stupid all her life. It was horrible. Had my mother asked me to spell instead of define I would have been broke.

What does a child do with the kind of money I talked about above? She pays fines with it. Say the mother took us out to eat and I didn’t finish everything on my plate. She’d fine me for what I didn’t eat. She got back most of what she gave. You can see how crazy that family is. The whole point of that is this, from what I read a person can do well in other areas but still have difficulty with spelling for various legit reasons. I feel so much better now.

Final note- When I’m writing by hand if I come across a word that I know I can’t spell I’d rather make that word illegible than to write it legibly and show the misspelling. It’s one of my tricks for hiding misspelled words. I’ll even write the first few letters then squiggle out the rest of the word making it appear that my penmanship is poor. Talk about feeling bad about not knowing what vowel goes where.

Here are some links I found informative:
Screening For Adults With Learning Disabilities
What is Dyslexia?
Center for Dyslexia -If you don’t have a problem reading but with spelling should you question whether or not you have Dyslexia? This is a good site to help answer that question.
For more information try these Google searches:
Auditory or visual processing deficits
Unable to hear vowels – hearing – loss - This search is set to look for articles with the phrases “unable to hear vowels” but leave out “hearing loss” otherwise you get links about Deaf children.
Anatomy Links:
Artificial Anatomy – really cool matching site
The Virtual Body – even cooler than the one above

Austin