I Mean, It Makes Sense

Something that I saw on the internet a while ago put an idea into my head, and yesterday I followed up on that idea. I came up with the title of this blog, "The Mumbler" because it was brought to my attention this year, more so than in the past, that a lot of what I say is incoherent. Often I don't even catch my mumblings but sometimes, especially when I am trying to explain something, I can tell, and so can everyone else, that I am having trouble expressing my ideas. I've had a tough time trying reason out why I am so orally inept when my thoughts, in my opinion, are far more intelligent. As a future teacher, if I gave my thoughts an A+ then my words would get a C. The proposal that I am about to make may shed some light on my situation although I admit it may ultimately be faulty. My proposition may seem like a stretch in order to excuse my poor ability to expresses myself, but I think most of my readers will agree with the connections that I make.

I propose that I have a minor case of dyslexia, "It is [...] very possible for a person to have only mild symptoms of dyslexia."(2) After researching on the internet, I found that there are many symptoms of Dyslexia but not all have to be met in order for a person to be successfully diagnosed with it. I think that I carry enough of the symptoms to base a fairly strong argument on it. I also think that many of the people who have spent time with me would be able to verify most of these symptoms, although not all. Here are the symptoms or quotes from websites that I think I exhibit followed by my further explanation of them.

"Difficulty putting thoughts into words; speaks in halting phrases; leaves sentences incomplete; stutters under stress; mispronounces long words, or transposes phrases, words, and syllables when speaking." (1)

I think this is the most obvious physical symptom that I exhibit, as anyone who lives with me can attest to. I can remember a handful of times when this has occurred as I recalled stories or something I had seen earlier in the day or week.


"Excellent long-term memory for experiences, locations, and faces." (1)

I don't know if anyone can verify this but I know I have been complimented on my long term memory a few times in the past. I can often recall situations that occurred at a really young age. I think this symptom is most predominantly seen in my location recognition and memory, though.

"Prone to ear infections; sensitive to foods, additives, and chemical products." (1)

Probably only my Mom can attest to this one, but I had a lot of ear infections as a child.

"Most dyslexic children and adults have significant directionality confusion."(3)

Examples of this symptom include confusion between "up/down, over/under, before/after, etc.", but I am fairly certain that I don't have any problems with those. The one I do have a problem with is Left/Right. Anyone who has driven under my directions most likely can remember at least one situation when I said one direction but really meant the other. It usually takes a few seconds of thought for me to visualize left versus right.

"b-d confusion is a classic warning sign."(3)

This is one of the symptoms that I believe I am the only one aware of, mainly because it usually occurs in the notes that I take for classes. This symptom is associated with the difficulty distinguishing left from right, since the only difference between a b and a d is that one faces the left and the other faces the right. I actually made this mistake today in class as I was taking notes.

"Many dyslexic people are, in fact, very good readers, but struggle tremendously with spelling or writing."(2)
"Their spelling is far worse than their reading"(3)
"Written work shows numerous signs of spelling uncertainty--numerous eraures, crossing out, etc."(3)

I don't think anyone can argue against me on this one. Everyone who knows me knows that I am a horrible speller. This is a problem that I have been dealing with for a very long time, but I had always thought that it was just a problem on its own. My problem spelling was one of the other major outliers in my intelligence that made look into possible reasons. For the amount that I read, write, and am interested in English/Language Arts, my spelling has never improved and has always been my weak spot.

"Some dyslexics suffer from poor handwriting skills. The word dysgraphia is often used to describe a difficulty in this area, and is characterized by the following symptoms:

• Generally illegible writing.
• Letter inconsistencies.
• Irregular letter sizes and shapes.
• Unfinished letters."(4)

I have always been confused by my hand writing. It is extremely messy and often lacks conformity. I wish I had a scanner so I could show everyone a page of my school notes. I have recently commented to someone about my hand writing, and how I used to wish that it was uniform like everyone else. If I take my time, I can control my writing a little bit better but it still often lacks consistency. It is odd though because my cursive is pretty good. I try every semester to take notes in one of my classes where there is not a lot to write down in cursive, and it is always a lot more legible than my print.


(1) http://www.dyslexia.com/library/symptoms.htm
(2) http://www.dyslexia.com/qasymptoms.htm
(3) http://www.dys-add.com/symptoms.html
(4) http://dyslexia.learninginfo.org/symptoms.htm