I was driving into work today and the morning show I was listening to on the radio was talking about the possibility that one of the people on the show might have some sort of reading disorder and it got me thinking. What was weird about hearing this conversation this morning was that it jogged a memory from childhood that I hadn't really thought about in a while.
I'd like to first say I know I don't have a reading disorder. I have mountains of books. I'd rather read than watch TV and I always love to read a book if I know about it before going to see the movie. AND I am a very fast reader! I wonder if the problems I used to have happened because I read so fast?
The memory I recalled was when I was in middle school. I don't know how the public school's go about vocabulary and testing now, but I specifically remember a history book that had King Tut's Golden Mask on the cover. Each chapter had a mini test at the end with questions and a vocab/definitions etc. I recall always having a problem locating the vocab words to define them (these books had glossaries for words in BOLD, but the vocab on the mini chapter tests weren't bold words).
When I read, I tend to quickly glance over the paragraphs and get the general idea by picking out key things in the paragraphs. I don't always read every sentence and when I was younger I used to skip several paragraphs entirely. When I was in school and had these problems was for the same reason; skimming. I didn't do it intentionally. I just couldn't focus my attention on all information at once. I suppose you could say I was in a hurry when I would read. I want to always know what comes next and I'm impatient. I want the good stuff as soon as I can get it.
I just think it's weird I never really thought about it and realized that is what I did until I heard this girl on the radio talking about how she can't focus on the words past a couple sentences. That the white of the paper would be blinding and the words would dance. She also said she had an easier time reading novels when they were graphic novels. I don't know why I don't read paragraphs whole. It's bizarre.
I don't know if any of this makes any sense, but it was on my brain so I wanted to jot it down.
