I am posting this here as I know a couple of people on the forum have said they are dyslexic and doing a PhD.

I think my partner may be dyslexic and want to help him gain confidence in reading and writing. I contacted one of the dyslexic organisations but I have to pay £320 for an assessment before they can offer any advice.

Has anyone come across any good books for this or can offer any advice?

H, I am not sure if your partner is doing a PhD too or works for the Uni, but have you thought of contacting the learning support unit at your Uni? I wonder if they would be at least able to suggest some titles that you could pass on to him even if he is not registered there.

I don't have any experience myself I'm afraid though, just a thought.

Thanks fluffymonster but he actually works. He has never done well academically but I don't want his poor writing/reading skills to stop him from doing well in his career. Quite annoyed about the £320 though, how do most people afford that? I don't want his company to get involved either because his boss is a mean git already!

Sorry H, I will have a rethink. £320 is a lot of money and I think it is cheeky that you have to pay that much. I also understand about not getting work involved as not everyone is understanding. Could he maybe go to HR confidentially to ask about resources? I know that this does not always work in practice.

I hope someone else can offer some more helpful advice.

MistaG, I totally agree.

I don't understand such a large amount of money! Aparantly the assessment is a couple of hours.

I feel like saying, "thanks for nothing".

Fluffymonster, I was thinking about that, will chat with him later today. He also agreed with the stupid amount of money though.

The online test's not free - it's £26, possibly plus VAT.

d'oh, sorry.

Hi H,

I am looking into dyslexia as part of my phd (or more specifically, phonological delay) but in children. The best way to assess from my point of view is to use a tool called PhAB (Phonological Assessment Battery)when looking at children but I am unsure of the adult alternative.
It might be worth looking this up to see if they have another tool for adults. In this case, you would not be qualified to do assessment yourself or interpret results (which would be the job of speech language therapist) but it would certainly get you started.

Sorry cant be more helpful.

B

Now, you wo

I beleive that the test is carried out by a professional psycologist (or something like that), so you have to pay them for this (like you would play a laywer or a solicestor). Its like all these things. If you want to stand up and claim you are dyslexic, you have to have an accreditied person confirm this. I dont think you could fill out some online thing and say for defininte that you are dysleic (so for example you can justify extra time in exams) as this is not regulated.

Im not sure though if you would gain much from it. All I ever got was extra time in exams and people who I could go and talk to if needed at school and university. What do you want to get out of it?

I have a couple of friends with dyslexia. They get free directory services on their mobile phones, which is a great use to them. I think you can register by calling 195(?).

Richmond, it's not that I want people at work to take into account his dyslexia, I just want to know how I can help him with the reading writing. I just feel that it really upsets him. Even the silly little things like reading the information about a program on sky, I have read it in like 2 seconds but he is still looking at it 30 seconds on and feels worse if I get impatient.

Now that does sound familiar. I too seem to take twice as long to read anything. Nothing I have done (i did have special dyslexic lessons as well) seems to have helped to improve that. I used to feel down about it. Esp at school were there seemed to be a competition on who could read the fastest. Always made me feel stupid and embarressed as I was nearly always last. My writing is not fantastic either (as you can prob tell).

What can be done? Well the lessons I took involved going through english words and learning the sounds they make, what words they go into etc etc. Mainly things like learning rules so vowels are in the right place and the right way round etc. I was quite young, and it is pretty hard to say if it helped at all. Those lessons were also quite expensive.

Reading lots of literature is probably good, as the more you expose yourself to words, the better you will be with them. May also help to speed up reading. Im afraid I dont know of any cure. Practice practice practice I guess.

I think it is sad, as otherwise intellegent people cant express themselves well. Then you get pretensous people (such as some who have commented on this on this forum) who go on and on about people using poor grammer and spelling etc and must therefore not be as 'good' or as intellegent as them.

Thanks for the posts Richmond.

The problem I have is trying to get him reading. He is quite keen to see the new film Eragon based on the children's book (which I own and enjoyed reading). I'm trying to get him to start with that but he isn't keen at all.

Well, maybe once he has seen the flim he may be encouraged to read the book. Does he read newspapers? Magazines? That could be a good start point. Maybe try getting him to read something you know he will enjoy. eg, Andy McNab books seem to be a popular mans (maybe thats dads?) present and if he is into that sort of thing (army/action films) he may be inclined to read it.

Is it that he doesnt like reading as there are better things to do? Or because he finds it hard and slow going and so gets frustrated? I have to say that I dont read as often as I should, as there is usually better stuff. Once I get started though it can be hard to put down a book. If the former its just about getting him into one.