othellovonryan

Dyslexia is a learning disorder that involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words, AKA decoding. Also called a reading disability, dyslexia is a result of individual differences in areas of the brain that process language.

In short, there is wiring in your brain that makes it hard to understand how symbols relate to spoken words.

Perhaps. We'll test.

[He's going to kiss the top of not!Jesper's head.]

Any jealousy?

Oh. [So he has dislexia. He's never heard of it, but now it has a name, this affliction that's caused him so much grief in his life.] I'm not stupid?

[He watches as Donnie... kisses the top of the imaginary Jesper's head and where he would have either vomited in a vase or otherwise reacted, Wylan is still, peaceful even.] No, there's nothing.

[It does make Wylan want to go kiss this Jesper or his own Jesper or any Jesper that might exist anywhere, but other than that, nothing.] I just want to go find my Jesper and kiss him.

No. [Immediate and firm.] Its actually a fairly common disorder. There are a number of communication based disorders that are hard to work around if you're not aware there is a pattern to it.

Sometimes I go nonverbal when stressed out. [And stress happens enough in this place that, if Wylan is visiting him every morning, he's going to encounter. And better to establish its a thing if he can't read and he won't be able to explain it then.] I'm one of the smartest, if not the smartest, people on my world and sometimes people talking to me is just gibberish and I can't make words come out. It has nothing to do with intelligence, its just something is wired weird in the brain that makes it harder than normal.

Excellent. [He claps his hands.] Then I just need to incinerate the mud every morning and make sure mind Jesper and mind Wylan are together.

[Wylan chews on his lip, considering everything Donnie's telling him. He's not alone in feeling strange and stupid.]

That's how books look to me. They all look like gibberish. My father... he said he couldn't send me to a seminary because I would give myself away. He could not put me on a shelf because I would spoil like a fruit.

[But that is for another day. For now, his jealousy seems to be settled. Every morning, report to Donnie, incinerate the mud, reunify mind Jesper and mind Wylan.] Thank you Donnie.

It if the unfortunate thing that some people are just assholes about these differences and are unwilling to make perfectly reasonable accommodations for them. Lack of knowing the words is no excuse, my family didn't have the words for it when I was a child, they just knew 'Donnie is like that sometimes' and figured out what made those times easier.

So the failing was on him for not being able to figure things out, or hire people with enough intelligence to figure it out.

There are ways to make it easier to decode. A big part is taking your time.

Of course. I am here to help.

[Wylan softly smiles at Donnie. It's nice not to feel so different from others, that there's simply something wrong with his brain and not a moral failing on his part. Learning what all the insect legs mean would still require a great deal of further work from him when he's just trying to adapt to the temple.]

I'll see you tomorrow?

Of course.

Do you want me to put together what I remember about how to help those with your condition learn to read?

Is it common enough that there's information readily available?

It is on Earth, but I haven't checked this library's medical books to know if was well known here. I just know it because teaching my brothers was...

Difficult.

So I had some suspicions of why that might have been the case.

Oh. [Wylan considers.] Most of my tutors considered me unteachable. Your information may not help.

One, I did teach my brothers, it was just difficult, but also we're around the same ages. I'm just unnaturally smart.

Two, a truly great teacher isn't one easily controlled.

And what did we say about your dad's control issues?

[Wylan sucks in a breath before nodding.]

That he hired only tutors who would agree with him, not tutors who would help.

Correct. They would not be putting in the work for a student who had a difficulty they would not be prepared for. Especially if your world is not familiar with mental disorders as a concept. That sort of thing only came out in the last few decades.

Before they knew the science behind it, they'd usually call kids things like touched in the head, dumb, or changelings. If I was a human a century ago, people would think I was a changeling.

[When Donnie says the word dumb, the impact is visible on Wylan's face. He glances down and away.

The perfect submissive son and yet still not good enough. It takes him a moment to take a deep breath and remind himself that his father does not dictate his life any more.

When he speaks, it's low, quiet, still ashamed after all this work.] But I'm not dumb.

Exactly. Your brain is different, but it does not make you inherently dumb. The fact you can learn chemistry and formulas show you have a natural knack for retaining information and using critical thinking with it.

Its just you have a hard time understanding a certain kind of language. You wouldn't call someone dumb because they don't understand a different language.

I don't understand any languages. [He understands what Donnie is trying to say, but it falls a bit flat when Wylan can't read any sign in any language.]

We're talking. That's a language.

Written word is just another language. [He moves his hands in a deliberate set of signs.] This is also a language. Not all languages are verbal, but its all about understanding the configurations and some configurations are harder than others.

Like Westerners have a harder time with some Eastern languages because tone is really big in some of them and if you do not grow up with those languages, they have a hard time hearing the differences in those tones.

Because their brains are not trained for it.

[Oh, Wylan supposes that's right. He's speaking a language right now. Watching Donnie make those motions and shapes with his hands is actually very interesting and Wylan thinks he understands parts of it at first glance. Well, he supposes, if it's a concept-based language. If not, then he's got it all mixed up (again).]

Did you say... I speak 'sign'?

[He hopes he doesn't have this all wrong. If he does, this is deeply embarrassing.] With your hands, I mean.

Edited 2023-07-15 00:10 (UTC)

[He tilts his head and then he chuckles, a bit befuddled.]

I wonder if that's a Minnow thing. Wash could figure out the sign language too. [Also understand him WITHOUT sign for a large part because he's used to understanding a mute who couldn't sign.]

Edited 2023-07-15 00:16 (UTC)

[Wylan would consider Wash much, much smarter than him, so he considers it a compliment to be included in the same company. With a smile, Wylan tries to think of what the signs might be for a response. He knows 'I speak sign' now, so what would be 'no' or 'don't.'

He remembers the way his tutors would hush him by pinching their fingers together. He should try that.

Following the same word order as Donnie,] I NO SPEAK SIGN.

...that would be the right sign in TSL.

Fair warning, its a bit different in ASL, but that's because curling the other two fingers makes for different words when you have five fingers.

Just so you know if you meet someone who speaks in ASL, but admittedly I've been the one teaching people any sort of sign language here. I just don't want you caught off guard.

[Wylan nods, but smiling. He's glad to have learned something new from Donnie, something to practice besides distilling and demolitions preparations.] Thank you, Donnie. For all of this.

Of course. I can also add you to the TSL lessons if you want. I've been teaching a few people.

Especially since I go nonverbal so its nice people understand me without needing to go to texting.

And I'll send over the information on dyslexia. I can make a video. Have you seen videos yet?

[Wylan nods before pausing.] Videos?

[He pulls out his phone.]

[Pulls up a video of his brothers doing skateboard tricks in a skatepark and Mikey absolutely beefing it on an epic scale.]

Video.

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