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Do I have a reading disability?

I am sixteen years old at the moment, and I have noticed that I am terribly slow at reading. I recently read 'Crime and Punishment' by Fyodor Dostoevsky and it took me about an hour to read about twenty-five pages of it (needless to say, it took me ages to finish the book). I am now reading 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' (Oscar Wilde, of course) and it takes me about the same time to read twenty-four or so pages. I also find myself re-reading lines over again by accident.

I have also noticed that when I write, I often swap words around by accident (for example, i may write "today was day a quiet" instead of "today was a quiet day"), but I notice the mistake immediately.

I don't know if that would have anything to do with the slow reading, but I think that I read much much slower than most people. I don't know if it's simply because I'm an horribly slow reader or if I may have some sort of disability or something. I know that this is the Internet so it's probably difficult to determine, but if anyone has suggestions as to what could be wrong or the answer, or any advice on how I could help myself read more quickly, that would be grand, thank you. x x

3 Answers

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  • 8 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    It never hurts to seek out help. But something else to help you focus and stay on track is to use a notecard to put under each line you read. That helps a lot of my students. Also, it seems you get distracted or off task easiliy, make sure you are in a quiet setting when you read. I sometimes wear earplugs when i'm trying to focus. Music or people talking don't help your concentration (unless its classical or something calming with no words).

  • 8 years ago

    You're probably fine. I often forget to write the first letter of a word, then I go back and change it after I've written a little more. Try practicing to read with books you find entertaining. It took me a whole month to read "The Story of Mankind" (1st newbery medal book), but only a day to read "Ender's Game".

  • 8 years ago

    you may have a disability, but I bet you just day dream when you read. Also a trick to help you stay focused and read faster is to point at the words with your finger.

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