Not being able to read or write

Larianne

I have crossed paths with someone who can't read or write.
Wondering how common it is and what support is out there?

Life must be quite a challenge for them with so many forms to fill out for EVERYTHING these days.

Turtyturd

A lot more common than I would have originally thought. Come across it in work a lot and will never forget the first (and only) time I asked a bloke to read and sign an interview consent form only for him to say he couldn't. A real wish the ground would swallow me up moment.

kylith

I bumped into a woman on the Luas who couldn't. I hope she got off at the right stop.

Graces7

I help a neighbour with his paperwork as he can barely read and is dyslexic. Please offer to help at need. It is a terrible handicap and nothing to be ashamed of...

Sheep Lover

I can't read or write, it's fairly common

kylith

Graces7 wrote: »

I help a neighbour with his paperwork as he can barely read and is dyslexic. Please offer to help at need. It is a terrible handicap and nothing to be ashamed of...

Indeed. If any shame is warranted it's on the school system.

Stheno

From

https://www.nala.ie/literacy/literacy-in-ireland

A new OECD survey shows that 1 in 6 Irish adults has difficulty understanding basic written text. 1 in 4 people find it difficult to do simple maths calculations.
1 in 6 adults has literacy difficulties in Ireland.
1 in 6 adults has literacy difficulties in Ireland.



The OECD Adult Skills Survey shows that 17.9% or about 1 in 6, Irish adults are at or below level 1 on a five level literacy scale. Ireland ranks 15th out of 24 participating countries. At this level a person may be unable to understand basic written information.

Pretty shocking statistic

fleet_admiral

Worked with a guy a few years ago in a pub that couldn't read or write. It was only noticed after he was given the job of checkng in barrels and stock started to go missing. He was too embarrassed to say he couldn't understand the invoices

The_Valeyard

Read half the posts on AH and you would come to the same conclusion.

NotCominBack

Sheep Lover wrote: »

I can't read or write, it's fairly common

Really?

Larianne

Stheno wrote: »

Pretty shocking statistic

Jeez, that's pretty bad alright.

This has made me think, in the role I'm in, provide a lot of written advice.
I guess people get used to hiding it pretty well and get by without the skill.

B.A._Baracus

Plenty of people out there who can't read or write. But you will find they are sharp as a razor in other ways.

SPM1959

I know someone who has only a very limited ability to read and only able to write her name.

While it must be a pain for her it doesn't seem to have held her back. She is very outgoing and will have no problem asking someone to help for example. Her husband/daughters would fill out her forms etc.

byhookorbycrook

At least 10% of the school going population have dyslexia. Due to budget slashing ,these children no longer get resource teaching or in some cases even no learning support. That, coupled with class sizes of 30+ will have far reaching consequences. We had a talk from John Lonergan when he was governor in Mountjoy, he said something like 80% of the prison population were functionally illiterate.

tomwaterford

Larianne wrote: »

I have crossed paths with someone who can't read or write.
Wondering how common it is and what support is out there?

Life must be quite a challenge for them with so many forms to fill out for EVERYTHING these days.

A surprisingly common thing around where I live...I know of a case of where an upstanding member of the community gave years codding a local lad who used put e20 into the credit union...get your wan to do it for him and she'd only lodge e10...dirty oul cnut and loadsa money with her
Only found out by pure accident he asked another neighbour to do it one week when she not about....don't know what happened after if im honest

5starpool

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

At least 10% of the school going population have dyslexia. Due to budget slashing ,these children no longer get resource teaching or in some cases even no learning support. That, coupled with class sizes of 30+ will have far reaching consequences. We had a talk from John Lonergan when he was governor in Mountjoy, he said something like 80% of the prison population were functionally illiterate.

There was no support for it years ago, so there would be a lot of 35+ adults who never got any help with this.

Sadly these type of supports are the ones that got cut first it seemed.

Banjo String

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

Plenty of people out there who can't read or write. But you will find they are sharp as a razor in other ways.

This.

Apparently a well known and respected business man in the county Kildare area can't read or write. (supposed to be a widely know secret)

This man is wealthy, and I mean wealthy.

I can't fathom it tbh , imagine not knowing the pleasure in settling down with a real good book, not being able to just lift a tablet/laptop and not access the news, read a letter from a loved one.

I'd hate it.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

Penny Tration

My uncle by marriage couldn't read or write at all.

He managed to hide it from my aunt (his wife) until they were in their 30s, when she thought he was cheating on her (in reality, he was at a friend's house, learning to read and write).

He was a very intelligent man though, and successful. He amassed a lot of wealth before he died.

refusetolose

NotCominBack wrote: »

Really?

ya he got his friend to read out the the thread title for him ,then he replied to his friend using vocals and his friend typed it out,simples

tayto lover

I am a volunteer tutor from time to time with NALA.
All they ask is an hour a week to help someone with literacy problems.
They train you and it's very rewarding. They always need volunteers too.
https://www.nala.ie/

lynski

If they contact Bala they will get assigned a tutor and assessed.

Barry Edmonds

Stheno wrote: »

From



Pretty shocking statistic

Cool. Less competition in the job hunt.

To Elland Back

It's one of those things that is harder to address the longer you leave it. There should be no reason to feel bad about it if you are in that situation. They key is to have someone you trust enough to share your circumstances with, who will also guide to the solution

uck51js9zml2yt

Speaking of NALA.

I had to write a paper for an un-named communications regulator a few years ago when they were looking at redesigning their website.
Part of the paper was on readability and guidelines published by NALA.

It was good to see they were looking at making their website readable.

FunLover18

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El Weirdo

I do a few hours behind the bar in my local and several times I have had people ask me to get them cigarettes from the machine. The first few times I just handed them their change and told them to get them themselves, until I realised that since the ban on cigarette advertising, and the plain labels on the machine, people that can't read don't know what button to press to get their fags.

Woshy

tayto lover wrote: »

I am a volunteer tutor from time to time with NALA.
All they ask is an hour a week to help someone with literacy problems.
They train you and it's very rewarding. They always need volunteers too.
https://www.nala.ie/

Thanks for the link - I've just sent an email off to my nearst centre to see if they need and volunteers. Fair play to you for volunteering!

Buford T. Justice XIX

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

At least 10% of the school going population have dyslexia. Due to budget slashing ,these children no longer get resource teaching or in some cases even no learning support. That, coupled with class sizes of 30+ will have far reaching consequences. We had a talk from John Lonergan when he was governor in Mountjoy, he said something like 80% of the prison population were functionally illiterate.

Have you a link on that? Not arguing with you but from personal experience i would have doubts about the figures.

My second lad was having difficulty with maths and the teacher in question wanted him assessed for dyslexia but we refused. I spent the next 8 months helping him with his maths. He was having problems with the teacher and the, frankly, bizarre way she was teaching maths.

He is grand at maths, tbh, but another child in the class was 'diagnosed' with dyslexia, coincidentally keeping a SNA in the school, i'm sure!

A lot of the problems with illiteracy come from the importance or ability of parents to emphasize the need to be literate and, if the parents have poor literacy, it will be difficult for them to help their children and the cycle continues.

The level of literacy for elderly farmers around me is frightening with the level of paperwork needed now to complete even the simplest transaction. Some of the forms sent out intimidate me and i would have a good level of literacy:(

anncoates

When I was growing up, I knew of two neighbours that could not read or write.

tayto lover

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Have you a link on that? Not arguing with you but from personal experience i would have doubts about the figures.

My second lad was having difficulty with maths and the teacher in question wanted him assessed for dyslexia but we refused. I spent the next 8 months helping him with his maths. He was having problems with the teacher and the, frankly, bizarre way she was teaching maths.

He is grand at maths, tbh, but another child in the class was 'diagnosed' with dyslexia, coincidentally keeping a SNA in the school, i'm sure!

A lot of the problems with illiteracy come from the importance or ability of parents to emphasize the need to be literate and, if the parents have poor literacy, it will be difficult for them to help their children and the cycle continues.

The level of literacy for elderly farmers around me is frightening with the level of paperwork needed now to complete even the simplest transaction. Some of the forms sent out intimidate me and i would have a good level of literacy:(

https://www.nala.ie/literacy/literacy-in-ireland

http://www.dyslexia-at-bay.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=1&Itemid=2

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

I know a couple of people who can neither read nor write. One brings his post to me twice a week to read for him. Simple things like a hospital appointment or car tax renewal are a problem for him. It's something we should encourage people to be honest about, as many make life so much harder for themselves because they feel they have to keep it secret.
One man I know held down a good job for years until a new time sheet system was introduced. He was unable to fill in the timesheet and was almost sacked until he finally admitted he didn't know how. His workmates then helped him fill it in every week and nobody made an issue of it from that time on. He once joked to me that he missed nothing by not being able to read as the newspaper was all bad news anyways.

deseil

I come across this regularly in my work and these are all people who have well paid manual jobs and I'd say hide it from most people they know.
The coping mechanisms needed to achieve normal living without simple literacy skills must be astounding and extremely frustrating for people affected. I hope nowadays it is much harder for a child to be overlooked and leave school without these basic skills.

tayto lover

Woshy wrote: »

Thanks for the link - I've just sent an email off to my nearst centre to see if they need and volunteers. Fair play to you for volunteering!

You will find it very rewarding to help people with literacy difficulties.
The training took 10 weeks, 2 hours on a Monday night for me. They have loads of resources to help you and have a great back-up service to give you all the help needed when you are actually helping a learner.

Thanks for volunteering and good luck.

donegaLroad

here is a new dyslexia font which is free to download.. I heard the guy interviewed on Newstalk yesterday. He has designed it specifically for people with dyslexia.

http://www.dyslexiefont.com/en/dyslexia-font/

riffmongous

Anyone remember a program that used to be on sunday mornings years ago that was like lessons on learning to read and write for adults?

Woshy

tayto lover wrote: »

You will find it very rewarding to help people with literacy difficulties.
The training took 10 weeks, 2 hours on a Monday night for me. They have loads of resources to help you and have a great back-up service to give you all the help needed when you are actually helping a learner.

Thanks for volunteering and good luck.

Thanks - we'll see if they need anyone. I do some volunteering work with kids but would love to do some work with adults as well. I'm a stay at home parent so want to do something to keep me active and out and about and make the most of the fact that I'm not at work for a few years

byhookorbycrook

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Have you a link on that? Not arguing with you but from personal experience i would have doubts about the figures.

My second lad was having difficulty with maths and the teacher in question wanted him assessed for dyslexia but we refused. I spent the next 8 months helping him with his maths. He was having problems with the teacher and the, frankly, bizarre way she was teaching maths.

He is grand at maths, tbh, but another child in the class was 'diagnosed' with dyslexia, coincidentally keeping a SNA in the school, i'm sure!

I am actually smiling here, do you know how difficult it is to get an SNA appointed and then retained? I know of a child who is blind who was expected to share an SNA with children in 4 different classrooms.

byhookorbycrook

http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/about
http://www.ldonline.org/article/10784/

Children in my time went to "the slow school" and so were never tested as to literacy. We didn't have children with SEN in school, end of , there weren't any EAL children either and yes, there were 30 in my class, but most of those would have been more independent, would have been read to,didn't spend all their waking hours on the X Box playing over 18 games and from homes where education was valued.

spurious

riffmongous wrote: »

Anyone remember a program that used to be on sunday mornings years ago that was like lessons on learning to read and write for adults?

There was a BBC one in the 70s called 'On the Move' about two removal men.

Luke92

My ma is terrible. At Christmas she had a list of MAC makeup to get for me sisters. She went in and the queues were mad so found a lady and went up to her and said could she help her that she can't read or write! Poor girl was brilliant! Went around the shop getting everything and brought me ma to top of the queue to pay!

Neck like a jockeys bollîx my mother!

TheBeardedLady

I teach English to Latin American/Moroccan/Ukrainian women on Sunday evenings on a voluntary basis and realised a few of them couldn't read or write and most of them wouldn't write very well, though they manage. Although I love doing it and the women are so lovely, I think I bit off more than I could chew - really hard to teach a language to people without what we'd consider to be two very basic skills, particularly without any proper training to do so. I'll muddle on anyway!

lazeedaisy

Thanks for this,

A reminder for me to contact my local centre. Thanks just did.

In my last job, I used to do surveys with people who came into our hospital. Over time, I realised not everyone could read or write and I would verbally ask the questions and fill in the forms.

I knew one woman who could not read or write, she aid it was easy to do the weekly shop as she knew what a tin of beans looked like, or how in Ireland it was always brand loyalty, as in the Brennan's bread logo etc. no one else knew, she was amazing.

tayto lover

lazeedaisy wrote: »

Thanks for this,

A reminder for me to contact my local centre. Thanks just did.

In my last job, I used to do surveys with people who came into our hospital. Over time, I realised not everyone could read or write and I would verbally ask the questions and fill in the forms.

I knew one woman who could not read or write, she aid it was easy to do the weekly shop as she knew what a tin of beans looked like, or how in Ireland it was always brand loyalty, as in the Brennan's bread logo etc. no one else knew, she was amazing.

It's not always people who never learned to read or write either.
I once had to teach a man who had a masters degree but suffered a stroke and the damage was so bad he had to learn again. He was only 46 when he had the stroke. A lovely man and a fighter. He wasn't angry about the stroke at all and just took everything in his stride although he knew he's be unlikely to work again.
I also taught a millionaire businessman who breezed through life as his wife did the paperwork. His troubles began when she died suddenly.

cloud493

Got a few in work. Sharp as anything, and some of the nicest people in the place.

gutenberg

I worked with a woman who was functionally illiterate; she knew how to work the cash register from practice and memory, but if anything unexpected came up she needed someone to help her. She was also very poor with figures too. I was only 17 at the time and I remember being shocked when I first found out. In fairness to her though, she was attending evening classes to improve herself and she has another, better job now

eviltwin

I live beside a family, neither parent can read or write. I don't know how they cope, so much of the business of life requires literacy.

RomanKnows

My Grandad was illiterate. He was a hugely intelligent man, but was forced to leave the local School because he was from a Collins/Free State family in an area that was belligerently anti-treaty. Tough times.

What he couldn't express in the written form he had in abundance when speaking. Profoundly literate. He always hated the Irish Press, but would get the local neighbour who was a FF supporter to come down with the paper and read the Con Houlihan column in the sport section to him. They'd agree on the sport and disagree on the politics.

In a funny way, my Grandad always thought he had the edge on his neighbour from an intellectual and theoretical perspective; despite not being able to read what was being spoken to him. They drank tea, had biscuits, gave out about politics, raised generations; then died within 3 months of each other.

Not sure what the lesson is in that.

_Brian

I have 20 folk working for me.
Two can't sign their name. One openly admitts it, the other aparrently has forgotten his glasses for the last two years so I sign his name for him.

Few years ago I was out walking and a car stopped looking for directions. I said head up the road to the roundabout and follow the signs. They shouted back it's ok if you can read the signs but which way do I turn at the roundabout.

bodhrandude

tayto lover wrote: »

I am a volunteer tutor from time to time with NALA.
All they ask is an hour a week to help someone with literacy problems.
They train you and it's very rewarding. They always need volunteers too.
https://www.nala.ie/

I done this last year too, I worked at the Galway leg of NALA, GABES: Galway Adult Basic Education Service, I enjoyed the experience and will do it again sometime. It is a good thing and I felt it was a damn sight better than sitting about the house with no job, even if its only an hour a week, the DSP looks favourably upon people taking the initiative to gain some experience like this and its enriching too. I ended up taking a Community Employment scheme with the Galway People's Resource Centre which has a similar ethos to GABES to help the long term unemployed through education and advocacy. I'm an Equality Information Officer and I help settled refugees and those on Direct Provision to fill in forms, write letters on their behalf, its fairly fulfilling position.

Buford T. Justice XIX

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

I am actually smiling here, do you know how difficult it is to get an SNA appointed and then retained? I know of a child who is blind who was expected to share an SNA with children in 4 different classrooms.

I'm not arguing about the need for SNAs or indeed more of them, just the, to my mind, cute hoorism used to retain her in the school.

The teacher was willing, even eager, to attach a label to my son which he didn't qualify for to keep an SNA in the school when that SNA might be doing a better job elsewhere with children more in need.