Self-Test for Dyslexia/LD

According to Dr. Levinson, dyslexia is identical to LD except for an arbitrary, mistaken distinction based on reading-score severity vs. symptomatic quality. Dyslexia was erroneously considered as a severe reading disorder (rather than a syndrome of many symptoms in which reading scores varied from very impaired to above average). By contrast, those dyslexics having less than severe reading scores were considered LD, albeit having identical overlapping reading and non-reading symptoms and determining mechanisms. Even worse, the two differently named disorders were also mistakenly considered to have different causes. By analogy, the traditionalist distinction between Dyslexia and LD would be similar to considering Diabetics with high and lower serum sugar levels as completely different disorders, thus labelling them by different names. Accordingly, the LD Self-Test is identical to the Dyslexia Self-Test.

Vital Questions Are

If one or more of the following symptoms are evident, dyslexia may be present:

Reading

Memory instability for letters, words, or numbers
A tendency to skip over or scramble letters, words, and sentences
A poor, slow, fatiguing reading ability prone to compensatory head tilting, near-far focusing, and finger pointing
Reversal of letters such as b and d, words such as saw and was, and numbers such as 6 and 9, or 16 and 61
Word blurring or movement or double images
Headaches, vertigo, or nausea brought on by reading

Writing

Messy, poorly angulated, or drifting handwriting prone to size, spacing, and letter-sequencing errors similar to those pictured right.

Spelling, Math, Memory, and Grammar

Memory instability for spelling, grammar, math, names, dates, and lists; for sequences such as the alphabet, the days of the week, and the months of the year; and for following directions.

Speech

Speech disorders such as slurring, stuttering, minor articulation errors, poor word recall, and auditory-input and motor-output speech time lags, rendering speech perception and enunciation more slowly than desired; and a tendency to word scrambling, slips of the tongue, or misperception of the ear

Direction

Right/left and related directional uncertainty, such as difficulty knowing or remembering east or west, north or south
Easy spatial disorientation

Time

Delay in learning to tell time, as well as a host of time-related symptoms, including lateness, compulsive scheduling, and even procrastination or difficulty starting things on time

Concentration and Activity (ADD or ADHD)

Impaired concentration, distractibility, hyperactivity, or overactivity
Behavior, temper, or impulse disturbances

Balance and Coordination

Difficulties with balance and coordination functions, e.g., walking, running, skipping, hopping, tying shoelaces, and buttoning buttons; accident proneness

Psychosomatics

Have headaches, stomachaches, nausea, excessive fatigue and related "psychosomatic" symptoms sent you from medical pillar to post, to no avail?
Are you prone to dizziness or motion sickness? Ringing ears? Bed wetting?
Does your infant or young child suffer from cyclical vomiting syndrome?
Are you oversensitive to hot and cold?

Fears, Phobias and Related Anxiety Symptoms

Do you have phobias and related psychological and physical symptoms that have thus far defied a clear understanding and successful treatment? For example:

Fears of the dark, getting lost, going to school.
Fear or the avoidance of various balance, coordination, sports, and motion-related activities.
Are you frightened by heights, cars, planes, bridges, elevators, subways, tunnels, open spaces, crowds, department stores, getting lost, losing control, and/or going crazy?
Do irresistible, repetitive thoughts and actions — obsessions and compulsions — harass you and rigidify your ability to relax freely?
Are you compelled to touch and retouch, check and recheck, think and rethink, and forever make lists of what must be done to avoid memory uncertainty and related anxiety?

Self-Esteem/Body Image

Are you prone to indecisiveness and feelings of inferiority, stupidity, ugliness?

Mood/Depression

Mood fluctuations, depressions, irritability

Socialization

Inept social skills
Shyness, fear of rejection, etc.

Emotions/Expression

Difficulty reading one?s own emotions and those of others, ie Aspergers Syndrome
Impaired/awkward facial and/or body expressions

Thinking/Cognition

Slow, hesitant and/or halting thoughts and their expression
Foggy, blank and mistaken thought sequences

If any of the above symptoms are present

Dr. Levinson is available at his clinic to see you for a free consultation.