What I think about "The Gift of Dyslexia" book.
First of all, I'm dyslexic and this page is not proofread. English language is my fourth language. Apart from it, I know Russian, Latvian and Polish plus trying to learn some Punjabi now.
I have struggled at school (not sure if other people knew). I failed maths (I just could not comprehend it). I could not memorize 5 pages of poems, however I was good at art, history and psychology. Learning English was hard. I had an English language teacher who was bullying me and she never understood what I was going through. I got the worst grades ever.
According to the book, English is on the most difficult languages for dyslexics. Why? It's hard for dyslexics pronounce and spell correctly because of the multitude of inconsistencies and here we go, I'm a dyslexic who is living in Ireland and working for Google. I'm 32 now. I have finally found solutions and ways to work around my "small problem. Let's say, I have developed my coping ways. I learned to work with my disorientation (this term I discovered in this book) and I'm using some tricks like (text-to-speech apps).
To be honest, I didn't buy this book. I borrowed it from my local library. My book was an old version from 1994. Really? I wish I knew about dyslexia is in 1994. This book on the left side of this screen, wait.....sorry my dyslexia just showed up.... The book on the right side of the screen is a new new revised, updated, and expanded edition of the book I had.
The main discovery for me was reading about the symptoms and effects of disorientation. My favorite section is Basic Symbol Mastery chapter where I discovered my own "trigger words" like "a", "the" and zero article. What is a trigger word? Ron Davis writes: "There are more than 200 English words that cause problems for most dyslexics". We, dyslexics, know these trigger words but we can not form mental pictures of their meaning. This chapter's info was a biggest discovery for me. Simply understanding what I'm going through, already helps! I highly recommend going through this section.
After reading this book, I realized that dyslexia is a gift. Strange gift but I believe it makes me who I am and I'm going to use it. This book would not cure your dyslexia, but if you spend some time going through practical correction exercises, it will surely make it easier.
Good luck!
If you want to know more, check out my Dyslexia board on Pinterest and my other lens about Adult Dyslexia and how to manage it.
Helpful and educational videos on dyslexia