What It's Like Being Dyslexic And Playing Videogames
All of my life I have struggled to read or even understand words. I didn't realise exactly what my problems were until my husband pointed it out. I knew I had problems from the age of six or seven (I think) where I would have special one-on-one help where it would be me and a teaching assistant helping me try to read or write.
I guess you're now curious as to how I became a writer for this site -- well let me explain. My husband noticed when we first met (in 2003) that I would be reading something and he would have to help me read a word I couldn't say. One day we started playing a few console games together, but as he was more of a gamer than me I would watch him play. One day I gave it a go, but I struggled to understand the storyline or even what the characters were saying.
By then they began to bring out more games with voice acting where you can choose to use the subtitles. At first I wasn't sure because I was worried I couldn't read it fast enough, or even understand what they were talking about, but I found it did help me to read it when I heard the voices speaking along. It got me to understand a little about the storyline, and from there I wanted to play more games and now I always put the subtitles on, so I’m be able to understand a certain word they're saying, but I do still struggle from time to time reading and understanding.
Sometimes while writing I mess words up or even misspell, so I’m glad I have spellcheck or you might not even understand what I'm saying now. From what I have seen there are many games out there that can help someone that is dyslexic like me, and it does help improve our problems out there even in children.
Now, most of us parents out there would prefer our children to pick up a book and read it, I even make my children do their reading challenges (school reading), but then I do let them go on their tablet or Nintendo DS for a treat.
My eldest is autistic and he struggles in a lot of things, but he is a very clever boy and he even reads better than me sometimes. I put that down to him reading his school books and going on his tablet or DS. I was very surprised, as I didn't meet my husband till I was 19 and I lived part of my life not realising I had a problem. I knew I was always different to others, but I didn't let that bother me and got on with things. But now I have my husband there to help me more and to correct me even though I still hate him doing it to this day.
It would be interesting to know how someone else in my shoes feels, whether any different to what I have said or whether they may feel worse. I sometimes suffer so bad that it can give me headaches or worse a migraine, but I am getting used to trying to read more and more and trying to understand the words. Other times my mind just wants to shut off and not bother to read. When playing a game I do try to wear headphones so that I can listen to the voices to see if I can understand them more without any noise around me.
I do, however, feel a little down sometimes as I see so many people doing their articles/reviews/previews or try and proof someone's work but I just can't do it. I don't feel useless at all, I just feel like I would either have problems reading/understanding it or I would get a full blown headache in a matter of seconds. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy playing videogames and trying to write about them, but sometimes I feel like someone would judge me for how many mistakes I would make.
COMMENTS
daisy-fox-1447887564 - 06:10pm, 13th July 2016
I can't even tell you how much I relate to this! I feel nervous to proof read other people's work that gets published for the same reason and after working for GameGrin and the Tv mag for the last 5 months ive only just started doing it last month... Sounds stupid to think "I can write but I can't read" and even the articles I do get HEAVILY edited by other lovely members of staff! It's lovely to get someone else's opinion on the subject and I would also like to add, I game with my best friend. He plays and I watch. I love games with complicated and exciting storiesbut they usually involve a lot of reading (with finding artifacts or documents) but he reads them all out to me and we do it together. Sometimes I read them and I make a lot of mistakes while doing it, but because we are such good friends I carry on and makes jokes out of myself. But ultimately he does it for me and even explains what's happening and I have a wonderful time in doing so! I wouldn't game any other way without him.
CraftyAK - 06:23pm, 13th July 2016 Author
When writing this I thought to myself if anyone else felt the way I feel, It helps to understand others around us and I still make the odd mistakes now and again but I am still learning, I guess we all dont stop learning no matter what age.
Luke - 05:39pm, 4th August 2016
Being Autistic, I found from a young age that I struggled to pick up certain aspects of learning. It was actually through playing videogames (mainly BioShock) that I was able to pick up spelling/meaning of complex words and the imagination for creative writing, so it's always nice seeing videogames being used to aid those with learning difficulties :)
Whiskers - 11:28pm, 11th July 2019
Thank you for writing this. I have Dyslexia and A.D.D it never bothered me growing up but now that I'm older it seems people don't always understand your frustration. Even playing horror visual novels I can get so frustrated and feel dumb. I know as an adult I shouldn't but it's hard not to. It never it me until I played more of them at maybe it oh s effecting more than think. I don't know many dyslexic people if any so never really got to talk about it. I'm sorry i just had to look up if this was a thing.
CraftyAK - 07:49am, 16th July 2019 Author
Thank you for your kind comments it is amazing how many that like me find hard to read some videogames even when its read out to us it still gets harder to understand in our heads
Deborah L Ryan - 12:04am, 31st August 2021
I've never liked video games there is too much going on the screen & I can't follow it. I can never tell who is the good guy from the bad guy. Hell half the time I don't even know where I am. I'd like to play with my grandkids but don't know where to start. Frustrating!