Did anyone have a hard time learning to read?

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I'm very curious. I've been discussing diagnosis with my new therapist, and she encourages me to research.

Finally, someone who understands my compulsive researching!

Anywho, my Mother reports that I had no language delay, but I was slightly reading delayed. My Mother and teachers struggled to teach me, and I ended up learning about a year or so later than everybody else.

For the most part I read extremely well, now. 2 years after I learned to read, I had teacher's quizzing me on what I was reading because they couldn't believe I read it so fast. Once I picked it up, I picked it up very quickly and I enjoy reading and writing. Cursive is slightly hard for me unless I focus on it, but it generally doesn't even look like a language to me at first. I also have a hard time with reading long paragraphs for some reason, it's very confusing and frustrating and generally enjoy authors that break their paragraphs up.(Stephen King usually does this.) I still get extremely frustrated when I actually write, and have bad handwriting. Filling out forms(which I seem to have to do very frequently) is really something that I just can't do most of the time. My capabilities worker generally has to do them for me, or my Mother.

Basically, I am wondering if I should be looking more into HFA or AS. I have read a great deal and the big difference seems to be delays... and this is the only one that I currently know of.(Although I was placed in a "special" reading class at one point, even though I had high test scores. They pulled me out of it extremely quickly. I also took Math tests in a separate room in High School. I would've benefited doing this in other classes but I was too embarrassed to ask, and my Mom happened to do it on that one occasion since I was so awful at Math. )

I can give more information if I need to, but I don't want to make this one of the posts that is so long I wouldn't even read it myself.

I have a solemn story concerning this. Before I read, I memorized books my mother read to me. I could get one of my books and I knew what words were on the page so it looked like I was reading the book but my memory was awesome back then so it was my memory that was doing the 'reading' and I was completely clueless.
When I got to school, I was utterly overwhelmed. It was sensory. I had been in daycare, but it wasn't as structured and there was a lot of playtime. Suddenly, playtime was gone and we had to work all day. That was daunting since I was used to zoning out.
I had a difficult time learning to read because of this. My memory was not useful when it came to reading books I never saw before. I suddenly found myself having to develop brand new skills I wasn't accustomed to utilizing because of my superb memory.
I was lost.
Luckily, my mother is a public school teacher and she helped me learn to read. Before long, I was better at reading than most the kids in the class though my attention deficit sometimes interfered with me reading lengthy, dry pieces I had no interest in. I would have been fine if I could read about horses all the time and never had to read about stuff like baseball or fishing. Dog or cat stories were alright.
I guess you could say I was reading impaired at first because of my memory skills but I quickly overcame it

Thanks I don't really remember any of this at all but it really upset my Mother. She works at a school too. I never realized that I was reading delayed until I was old enough that it didn't matter. My nephews are now picking up reading in kindergarten! I was beyond 2nd grade when I learned to read.

I only remember my mom helping me learn to read at night. She's told me many times she had to teach me to read because I wasn't learning at school. My real issue is sensory, though. I was better at doing stuff at home than at school because of my comfort zone and less distractions. I didn't have to worry about being bullied, either, so everything was calmer and more tranquil in my room with a book.

I read entire books in one day at home but struggled to hone in on one paragraph in a classroom.
Same with math. At home, it's easy. In a classroom, difficult.

I had the opposite problem. My parents thought I was a f**cking genius when I taught myself to read before I was 3. They pictured me growing up to be a neurosurgeon or research scientist at Stanford.

They never imagined that I would be underemployed and struggling with basic life skills at the age of 35.



http://www.myaspergerslifestory.com/pro ... nings.html

I found reading extremely easy. I used to read entire novels in a few nights. ( David Gemmell <3 )

Not really. I learned to read at age six but it was rote reading. Then at seven and a half, mom started to make me read books to her and would make me read words when I wanted to know what they say. I remember how slow I used to read but I caught on pretty fast when I was eight. But my reading comprehension was bad. It still is but it had improved over the years because I can understand children books. I even read a whole entire chapter book at age nine which was a Boxcar Children book. But that was rare when I'd finish a whole entire chapter book and it only happened like three times when I was nine.

i remember reading in preschool. couldn't spell though. i was average during early primary then i started testing above average for reading and comprehension and vocab. school was holding me back. in primary we weren't allowed to read books from the adult or junior adult section. oh, and Burzum: David Gemmel was my favourite author a few years back : )

Hmm, seems that i'm not alone here...

I did have quite a few problems learning to read. And actually i didn't get the pictures of reading, right before second grade. But when, a whole new world opened up! Within ½ a year after, i was at level. And read some tree to four detective novels (800 to 1000 pages) a week, beside homework. And my mother became worryied if i got to isolated. I really couldnt understand her, i had plenty of things to do! - But she didnt accept my choice of "friends", and insisted on that i had to go to some sort of sport. Simply to get out of my room... So, as to make her glad, i started to practice archery and became schout. But at any chance, i reunited with the books!
And actually i had ruined her encyclopedia, when i got my own place! - Remember internet didnt exist back then, so these more than 5000 pages was my holy grail. - And a pile of inspiration for yet another wenture to the library! - As was all the questions unanswered while being in the nature... But thats OT

[edit] When i say pictures of reading, i started to try to read by looking at whole words, instead of combining letters! I guess thats why i didnt get the idea of reading before... Does that sound familiar to any of you? [/edit]

I was reading delayed. I learned how to read at the age of 8.

Nope. I've been reading reasonably fluently since before I can remember.

Never had problem at reading.

I did have trouble learning to read at first, and I was behind the other students. I also had trouble learning how to differentiate the letters when they were written; for instance, a "b" looked like a "p" or a "d" or a "q"- (all just circles with lines attached, as far as I was concerned). I remember it was such great effort for me to try and learn my letters, and how to read, that I didn´t even want to bother. In school, it was discovered that I had a problem, so I went to a special room and had all kinds of therapies for it....(I also had a lack of body awareness, spatial difficulties, and other related stuff). I finally learned to read when I knew all my letters, could differentiate between them and knew what sound they all made. Once I learned to read, I soared! In 3rd grade, I went from being in the very lowest reading group- (where they placed me after the summer, due to expectation)- to the very highest group. By the time I was in 4th grade, I was reading adult books (all about special interest subjects, of course). I remember having an argument with a librarian because she insisted the books I was getting out were too difficult for a 4th grader. My mother came by later and said "no, she always reads books at that level!"

I actually learned to very quickly. I thought I had a hard time at the time, but my parents and teachers were actually surprised at how well I read. I was in the highest reading group in grade 1, but there one book that for some reason, I struggled with this one book. I don't know if I was grumpy that day or what, but I just didn't want to read it. My teacher said "Stop watching TV and read instead". I never watched TV. I told her that and she didn't believe me.

This is all very interesting! Does anyone have any clue about the asperger's vs hfa thing? I still don't know if just reading delayed counts as a delay. I spoke very well and didn't have any difficulties when I was younger besides the reading and emotional issues.

I also had a really hard time with Math in high school. It took me 3 tries to pass the most basic class, and then I dropped out. I had a great teacher when I got my GED and I began to understand algebra. It's just like a puzzle.. But geometry will never make sense to me and I still don't know my times tables. I also still use my fingers to count(and occasionally catch myself using them for my left and right. )

Other than that I did very well in school when I wanted to.