Writing Challenges

I am participating in a daily blog post challenge for the month of July. Why you may ask? To learn (tips about blogging and possibly more about technology) and to challenge myself (to write daily and to come up with creative and hopefully inspiring stories/shares). I am after all a writer, maybe not a professional one, though one at heart. Doesn't that count?!

As a writer, it was interesting to note that not only did I experience (at least) one writing challenge, but two! The first which I overcame a few days ago was that of dysgraphia. What is that you may ask?

From the National Center for Learning Disabilities, it is described in part as follows: "Dysgraphia is a learning disability that affects writing, which requires a complex set of motor and information processing skills. Dysgraphia makes the act of writing difficult. It can lead to problems with spelling, poor handwriting and putting thoughts on paper. People with dysgraphia can have trouble organizing letters, numbers and words on a line or page. This can result partly from: visual-spatial difficulties, trouble processing what the eye sees. Language processing difficulty: trouble processing and making sense of what the ear hears." (http://www.ncld.org/types-learning-disabilities/dysgraphia/what-is-dysgraphia)

Take a look at the chart above which explains dysgraphia in mind mapping format and another similar (yet perhaps clearer) chart here: (http://tutoringduluth.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/dysgraphia-mind-map.jpg). (By the way, on a side note here, mind mapping is a really great tool to learn and use: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map.)

I experience messy handwriting at times, most times actually when I am writing notes fast, even when I use my own shorthand that I invented years ago either in high school or college, I believe the latter.

If you didn't know me, you might think my writing resembled that of a doctor writing a prescription note. You know how those used to look, right? Now they do it by computer for good reason. Of course, not all doctors have messy handwriting.

Quite often I experience number and letter dyslexia, especially when typing, by reversing two digits or letters. This is why I repeat numbers when I hear them, especially by phone.

Since I am an excellent speller and have no problems penning or typing thoughts on paper or computer, I believe dysgraphia manifests itself in me auditorily. In fact, as soon as I heard the words "auditory processing disorder" or APD for short years ago (without knowing what it was), I knew intuitively I experience(d) that.

However, my blog posting is not meant to define or confine me with labels. It is to raise awareness of possibilities that you or others you know might experience. Notice that I use the word "experience" rather than "have." There is a reason for that.

What learning/writing challenges might you or someone you know experience? What do you or they do to cope or compensate for it? Are you accepting of your challenges or do you resist them?

P.S. I decided to 'write' early this morning and to my astonishment - I thought for sure I kept saving my post - I had accidentally deleted most of my blog post. It was almost complete and now it is late evening. In hindsight, I think I had two similar blog posts accidentally open in draft form and I deleted the wrong one! Be forewarned in making the same error!)