Remediating spelling for dyslexic adult

[Paz]

Hello,

My daughter has dyslexia/dysgraphia and we were able to remediate it to the point where she is able to read anything with excellent comprehension. Now she is 26 and is struggling in the workplace because she still has difficulty reading and spelling people's names and she has problems if she is called on to write or type addresses and names quickly. She basically lives her work day in extreme stress.

I would love to find a program or any suggestions to help her get to the point where this is less of an issue. She almost has her associate degree but this is also a big reason why she is concerned about pursuing additional schooling. She had additional time and other accommodations in school that made this a little easier but she is realizing that she needs to work through this difficulty to reach more of her goals.

Any suggestions or ideas are appreciated!

 

 

[Tanaqui]

Many people, not just dyslexics, have trouble reading names - they're often less familiar than words, and not standardized at all in spelling. What job does she have?

[Paz]

She sells insurance so she is required to go to enrollments and enter people's names and addresses as well as additional information quickly. I think sometimes it is with a computer and other times with pen and paper. I cross-posted this on another board and also added that she has some processing disorders where she has trouble working quickly so that is also an issue.

She is a perfectionist and hates to make a mistake so what probably a lot of her stress and what she thinks is her doing her job terribly is not even noticed by others.

[City Mouse]

At this point, I would say that her reading and spelling of people’s names may not be something that can be “fixed”. So many names do not follow standard rules of pronunciation and spelling, and that doesn’t even take into account names that do not originate in the English language. As a teacher, I come across kids with all kinds of unique names. I often have to ask the kids or their parents several times before I can remember how to pronounce an less common name. 

Could she use a computer that would take her verbal dictation (Speech to text) or another method to record verbally? Could she ask the customers to spell out their names so that she doesn’t have to guess the correct spelling? 

 

[Pen]

12 minutes ago, City Mouse said:

Could she ask the customers to spell out their names so that she doesn’t have to guess the correct spelling? 

 

This,  or other work arounds.  

 And trying to reduce stress and anxiety.

 

[PeterPan]

She needs to get some tech to make this work discretely. She could update her evals to get some ADA accommodations. ADA is in the workplace, so make paper trail about reasonable accommodations. She needs a consultant to help her figure out what would work. Does Ben Foss have anything for this in his Dyslexia Empowerment book? That's the mindset of what you're wanting.

On April 26, 2019 at 7:01 PM, Paz said:

if she is called on to write or type addresses and names quickly.

Start there. What tech accommodations could happen to bring this in reach? I've had people hand me the forms to fill in. Or she scans their business card with an OCR app and has it auto-enter into her contacts, at which point she can email/text/phone them accurately. 

On April 26, 2019 at 7:01 PM, Paz said:

She basically lives her work day in extreme stress.

Is she *good* in the field? Does she enjoy it? If she does,then it would be worth figuring out what tech she needs. ADA covers her butt, but she has to find the solutions and present them to the boss and use them. 

If the field is not a good field, then I would suggest visiting a local community college and working with their office of disability services. Again, ADA law has her covered in college. She should be able to do career testing and career counseling through that cc, and I would STRONGLY advise her to do that. It's what I had my dd do. A private psych can do that too, but the cc will do it for free if you just ask. Would she even have to enroll or just be a prospective student wanting to know if she's going the right way? Just talk with them. 

On April 26, 2019 at 7:01 PM, Paz said:

she is realizing that she needs to work through this difficulty to reach more of her goals.

Yup, that's hard when the field you enjoy requires you to use accommodations. She may be very good at it too!! https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/dyslexia-in-the-workplace  Here's an article to get her started. I'd probably look for a consultant ,someone to help her sort through the specific tasks she's having problems with and find tech alternatives.

[ElizabethB]

It is babyish but I would actually use Read, Write, Type to get the sounds better associated with typing.

https://www.talkingfingers.com/read-write-type/

Then, I would find a list of the most common cities, streets, and names that she is entering (for the state if it is just the state, for the country if it is the whole country.)  Practice the top 10 or 20 for a few weeks, then up to top 50, etc.  It should be helpful if she can get really fast at the most common ones.  

You need to sort most common names by year for first name, get the average age of people she is working with and look at most popular first names for that year and a few years around it.  Common last names vary by state.  For example, growing up in the Seattle area there were a lot of names like "Yamamoto, Nguyen, Hoang," etc.  When I went to college, someone from a midwestern state said, "Nguyen, what an uncommon name." I laughed and replied, "Actually, it is like Smith in the Seattle area, it's a very common Vietnamese name."

Anything weird, anyone is going to ask how to spell it, I would also help her practice typing while you spell weird names, grab a phone book and find some to practice with. Also, many people spell their names crazy now, so it's always good to ask with a name.  She can build up her speed and confidence of doing this in an unpressured, untimed situation.

[ElizabethB]

Names are like nonsense words!  She can also work though my syllables program and do extra nonsense words to get better at reading unfamiliar words.

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On Reading/syllablesspellsu.html

That seems like a pretty bad fit as a job for a dyslexic person, though, I would encourage her to consider other career choices if possible.

We used to live on a street named "DeChambeau" and almost no one could pronounce it, people would not even try!!  "Do you still live on....?" [silence]  I would quickly say,"Yes, we still live on DEE-SHOM-BOW, don't worry, no one can pronounce it, it's French."  The pizza guy tried once, I praised him for his effort, he was kind of close. People asking always looked happy when I jumped in with the pronunciation quickly.

With names, they are usually phonetic within their language of origin, so all French streets and names follow the French pronunciation rules.  I cover the patterns for each language of origin in my syllables program linked above.

[Ottakee]

Apples and Pears spelling is very helpful.

 

[Paz]

Sorry to post and then just disappear. I appreciate all of your suggestions and support! My daughter figured it out. I'm glad that she has me to confide in and vent to but sometimes it is more difficult on me than her. Haha. Anyway, she is great at problem solving which is probably due to having to finds ways around her dyslexia her whole life. She was able to find out that most of the information can be added to an online account before her appointments so there is little need now for her to write much out at all!

Why no one told her that is surprising to both of us. She is doing well with her job and has been top salesperson for a few weeks in a row now. I'm so happy for her and it has given her some confidence so that is helpful, as well.

As far as getting accommodations she is very hesitant to do that. She had some negative experiences in college-one program she was in actually told her that she had to spell things correctly and if she couldn't this wasn't the program for her-even knowing that she had accommodations! She ended up deciding she didn't want to do the program and left but a few of her friends actually reported the teacher and I think there was a big restructuring of the program. If she was going to stay I think she would have fought it but she hasn't found that most people support the accommodations and she doesn't want to fight all the time.