Victoria,

Thanks. What can I say? Everything you said is so much like my own experiences, except that I was not diagnosed with dyslexia, I discovered information about it when I was about late 20's or so. Also I *mostly* had caring teachers who were basically nice people so they didn't call me stupid, but I got so tired of reading my report cards which said: Helen isn't trying, Helen could do better, etc

Read the webpage I linked to in my last posting - it shows lots of compensation mechanisms, like left-hand L, but the stuff about special creative gifts is very exciting - to be recognised as different *and* special in the positive sense of the word is nice, for a change.

Helen