Welcome to the Dyslexia hacks and tips to prevent frustration guide.
Dyslexia: The Good and The Bad
Whether you are diagnosed young or have that “aha!” moment much later in life, Dyslexia has probably been accompanying you for as long as you can remember. Time gives perspective, and maybe now you have grown to see all the brilliance and unique skills that come with it.
But, now and then, it also feels like a stone in your shoe.
The frustration: making everyday tasks like reading, writing, and telling left from right intensely difficult. The feeling you are just not quite firing on all cylinders wears on you.
“Why is this so hard for me when it seems so easy for everyone else?!”
We understand. Thus, we have gathered life hacks and tips from real-life situations. Over the years, dyslexic pals online have shared super helpful ways to cope with the inevitable frustration.
At the end of the day, Dyslexia may be frustrating at times. But it is also the source of unique creativity, determination, and a different way of looking at the world. It is a means of getting better at embracing the good stuff and not letting the bad stuff stick.
9 Life Hacks and Tips by Dyslexics
Let us start with the bread and butter of Dyslexia: reading and writing challenges. People online have shared the following challenges or stories, and other dyslexic minds have answered them with their own experiences and life hacks.
How to overcome reading and writing challenges
Frustration: “How to find encouragement to succeed despite the constant struggles with reading and writing?”
Advice: “The best way to go about it is to just get into it. I have Dyslexia pretty bad, and I was going to quit school but kept going. As I read and write, I have found I have gotten better. I would recommend reading comics to start or small books.
It is going to be hard, but it will get better, but never perfect. I have come to a comfortable understanding that I will never be fluent in reading and writing, and I don’t mind, but I like to try and improve as much as I can. We all start somewhere. A small step every day, even if it is one TINY step, is better than no tiny step.“
How to deal with the spelling frustration that comes with Dyslexia
Question: “How frustrating it is when you want to use a word and need to know how to spell it or know the true meaning of it, and you can’t find it on Google! Sometimes, due to not being able to even type a little of the correct spelling, you end up playing some strange word game with Google until you find the word. I’m from a time when Google and smartphones didn’t exist, so this shouldn’t be annoying me, but it does.”
Insight: “I was given a dictionary for spelling, but it did not help much. Now, I use the synonyms or thesaurus in Word for stuff I can’t spell. The other trick for stuff I can never spell is to use the AutoCorrect options. I can spell as badly as I like as long as I get it wrong in the same way as usual.”
✨ Read more strategies to deal with Dyslexia frustration here.
Can I love books and reading as a dyslexic?
Question: “I’m a late-diagnosed dyslexic. I was an adult when diagnosed, and I no longer have insurance to try therapy to learn ways to help me. It’s so exhausting and time-consuming, but I absolutely love reading. Is anyone else dyslexic and loves reading? Any tips to help?”
Tip: Yes! I also love reading. If I can, I listen and read the book. It is especially useful when the subject is more dry, like the book I’m reading about ADHD and women. Aside from that, I use colored clear sheets, and I have tinted glasses.
It helps keep my eyes from skipping around. I also give myself the patience to get into a book or allow myself to read 15 different books at a time.”
Tip: “I do audiobooks and text-to-speech before, and then I read with it. The text is locked into my mind after that. I also read from an iPad.”
Insight: “I’m a late diagnosed Dylexic at 22! I have always been a bookworm. Books and writing were my escape. Even if my writing was only coherent after spell check and people proofreading it. Audiobooks are so useful: if you have a Kindle, you can download an audiobook and the e-book itself, and you can listen to it while following along.
I also find having a snack or listening to reading music to help my focus and retainment.“
One of the upsides of Dyslexia is having ideas that go outside the box. However, it is not always easy to communicate them or make people understand how the dyslexic brain works.
Here are more insights from online communities on how to deal with these situations:
How to balance dyslexic innovation and established norms
Frustration: “Ever feel your thought process diverges from the norm? Comments from teachers and bosses highlight my unconventional approach, introducing ideas rarely considered. While it contributes fresh perspectives in meetings, it is a double-edged sword, sometimes isolating me in settings that prioritize conformity. How do you balance innovation with fitting into established norms?”
Insight 1: “[As a writer], I am to the point where I often have to just work things out myself because I cannot write popular. I cannot shut off that side of my brain to write a story that follows conventions or formulas. I have to make that story feel like I wrote it instead of following along with everyone else. And I have always had this problem.
My brain is not hardwired to follow conformity. Everyone goes right, I will go left to make it fun for me.”
Insight 2: “There probably have been people who have been put off by my unique perspective, but I am guessing they are also the people who have been put off by their smallmindedness.
Whereas people who like others with their own way of thinking will make the effort to get to know me, and so be the kind of people I want to get to know.“
Insight 3: “The first 10 years of my career I fought this same fight. Somehow I eventually broke through it. I guess just saying I told you so after time proved me right, again and again. I was generally considered the mastermind after that.“
Read how this innovative thinking makes dyslexic minds great workers.
How to deal with Dyslexia and mental health?
Thought: “Just a reminder that Dyslexia has nothing to do with intellect. We have a problem with society expecting intelligence to be expressed in a specific way, and that makes life harder for us. I read the other day that dyslexics suffer much higher rates of depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and low self-esteem.
The world thinks differently of you because you can’t express yourself in their format (an essay, for example). I want to remind everyone that everything is harder and yet we are thriving! Every day holds challenges, and we have learned to cope. Never rule yourself out!”
Insight: The thing is they never even explain what Dyslexia is when you get told you have it, so you continue to think it’s you who is the problem. That you are not smart, not motivated enough, or badly behaved.
You don’t even appreciate how much harder you have it and how bloody genius you are at working around it. I wish everyone would appreciate their own achievements.“
How to deal with people’s pressure
Question: “I have Dyslexia, and my friend knows this. She knows that I don’t enjoy reading books, and I have even told her why, but she continues to buy books for me. She said “You should get into books”, and that she will buy more until I start reading. A few days ago, she asked me if I started reading it yet and I said no I haven’t.”
Insight: “I used to feel stupid when people would tell me that I should read more but now I realize that reading just is not for me. I see reading as a task more than enjoyment mainly because I get so focused on trying to read properly.
I end up reading the same sentence by mistake and the lines on the page start to look like blinds (best way I can describe it lol). It is not that I cannot read, or I find it super difficult, it is just I do not find it relaxing whatsoever.“
Advice: “I would ask her to buy me audiobooks instead if you enjoy those.”
How can I play board games with Dyslexia?
Question: “My partner is dyslexic and struggles to play card games with a standard 52 deck of cards (poker, whist, etc.). I’m wondering if there’s something about the cards making it difficult for her. Has anyone found a dyslexia-friendly pack? We’ve talked about it, and I can’t quite work out if it’s just she’s not used to playing with those cards or the cards mess around with her Dyslexia.”
Insight: “It can take a while to get used to the symbols and numbers and commit the rules to memory. My family loved Scrabble, chess, and puzzles. I felt so inferior because I had trouble reading the rules. Scrabble I mastered through a dictionary. I became better than my family by rewriting chess and math puzzles and reading them aloud. These little barriers reduce the fun of these games and make them painful. Work tactfully and be nice.”
Another area of life with dyslexic struggles is work. Right? From the hiring process and whether disclosing your mind to your boss or not to daily work tasks and more, here we gathered some first-hand perspectives for you.
How to deal with career frustration and Dyslexia?
Question: “I find it really hard to be honest. I feel like a failure every day for working in retail. I want a more stable job, but I don’t know how to deal with it and my Dyslexia.”
Insight: “You have to figure out how your academic brain works and feed it that way. You don’t need to be the same as everyone else. It’s the gift of Dyslexia: as we accept, we excel. Humbly ask others for help when needed.”
Insight: “I was a lecturer at university. Both I and my colleague were dyslexic, our boss was dyslexic, the head biomechanist was ASD, the placement tutor was AuADHD, and the head of Psych was both dyslexic and dyspraxic. We were good at our jobs, but we weren’t academic. What we had was passion.”
Insight: “I’m going to jump on the positive train here too. I’m almost 50, and I have a respectable position that allows me to use my talents, so it’s definitely possible. For context, I failed the first three times I tried to go to college.
I got assessed for learning disabilities through my local Community College at the recommendation of a teacher. And I turned a 2.2 GPA into a 3.98 by the time I applied to grad school 10 years later.”
Insight: “I was late diagnosed, and most of my education journey had little to no support, yet I’m doing a Master’s in law. Why? Because I want to and I want to succeed. Yes, I have to work 100 times more than maybe some of my non-dyslexic peers, but I know I can do it. Dyslexia gave me resilience and ambition. I got through it, and I’m still working through it. I’m also working in retail right now because shift schedules work with my classes, and I have to pay the bills.
Dyslexia is not an excuse, and it is not a failure. It just means we have to do things differently that work with us. My advice to you is to find what makes things easier when it comes to academics and ensure you get your accommodations. You will figure it out. Maybe not tomorrow or next month, but you will.”
How to discuss Dyslexia at work?
Question: “Today, I told my manager that I’m dyslexic, and the first thing she asked me was whether I told my interviewers that I’m dyslexic and why I didn’t tell her before that I have Dyslexia. She also asked whether I had been medically diagnosed. Not sure how to feel. Is it a crime to have a disability and want to be a health and safety advisor?”
Insight: “You were under no obligation to disclose a disability at an interview. If you’ve been diagnosed, you’ve been. Not sure what a health and safety advisor does, but in the US, Dyslexia is a protected class, and they have to provide reasonable accommodations for you. I would reach out to HR and see what they see.”
Read more about how to discuss Dyslexia with your boss in our article here.
*Note that names have been omitted to respect the privacy of parents in online communities. Some parts have been rephrased only for readability.
Points of Action
- Batman! Do you want to start reading more? Try comics, short books, or material you’re passionate about.
- Try assistive technology like text-to-speech, speech-to-text, and e-readers with adjustable font sizes and colors to make reading better. Find text-to-speech tools here.
- Practice self-compassion and celebrate your unique strengths. You are NOT alone.
- Research your workplace’s policies on disability accommodations. Disclose your Dyslexia if you feel comfortable and think it would help get the support you need.
Key Takeaways
- Dyslexia can be frustrating at times, but it brings unique creativity and problem-solving skills.
- Dyslexics are at higher risk of mental health issues like depression and low self-esteem due to societal pressures. We hope this entry with Dyslexia hacks and tips made you feel less alone.
- Career frustrations are common, BUT many dyslexics have found success by identifying their strengths and persevering through challenges.
- Disclosing Dyslexia at work is a personal choice.
Disclaimer: This is not medical advice. Please consult with a licensed professional when in doubt. Lexicminds is not liable for actions taken from this page.
