Words, Dyslexia, Scrabble&#174 -- STOP, OPTS and Order.

free hit counters

by Les Porter

Is there an order to things? Does dyslexia have any thing to do with innate order? Or innate dis-order? Scrabble?

To those versed in English and conventional spelling, the wrong words in the following are obvious. Or are they? To you?

POST, TPSO, POTS, PTOS, SPOT, OSTP, SOPT, OPST, TOPS, TOSP, SPTO, STPO, TSOP, SOTP,OTPS, PSOT,OTSP, PTSO,TSOP, PSTO,OPTS, OSTP, TSPO, STOP

Below, of course, I have underlined the "correct" group of words these 4 letters can make in English. Other adaptations of the alphabet to other languages would yield perhaps many more or fewer words than what I have selected here.

Dyslexia

Dyslexia occurs around the world, associated with reading/writing difficulties--with a frequency of about 5%-10%. At present, dyslexia seems to be most clearly defined as a brain wiring variation, or conundrum, the depth of which is totally unknown.

From the humorous Spoonerisms, (The Lord is a shoving leopard. or "Let us glaze our asses to the queer old Dean" ("Let us raise our glasses to the dear old queen")) to such things as what we consider improper ordering -- in the spelling of words, dyslexia often may be at root, but the humor or angst of the construction misleads one into the improper or ignorant formation away from the perceptual illness. The meanings of spellings and context of the words impart depths that the phrase "dyslexia" does not clearly demarcate. The variation in brain wiring that is associated with dyslexia plays over the concepts of "proper order" or "proper perception."

My wife for example, innocent and unknowing participant as well as subject in/and/of my observations of order and meaning, [proper sequences and the selection of left and right, or correct and incorrect], too often seems to get two equal choices wrong -- far exceeding the probability of so doing. That is, she somehow consistently turns the valve of 50/50 propositions the wrong way on the first try. Wrong, more than half the time. In words, that is not the case.

But she does have dyslexia and cannot "read" bouncing or moving along in a car for instance. Some motion tasks, for example pulling things off a conveyor belt make her physically sick, as seasickness or motion sickness does many people.

Polish Polish furniture as you would the French furniture.

Scrabble &#174

Scrabble&#174 is sold in 121 countries and 29 distinct languages around the world. Since I am hung up on English and left to right reading, I have no idea how other languages with right to left order would be to play -- and I would admire those who could do both.

If you have ever played Scrabble with a person who has mild or even severe dyslexia, but is well versed in the English language you may only be able to depend on the "luck" of your letter draw to get high scoring letters and words. You would think dyslexia and Scrabble would interfere with each other. I suppose they do, but what I have experienced makes me wish I had the ability to jumble the letters, to rearrange them mentally, in a manner that would allow my focus.

Dyslexia occurs at all levels of intelligence -- from below average to gifted. If the fellow or gal playing the word game Scrabble, with you has dyslexia, for some it is an advantage. Instead of a lazy susan or rotating the board for the player to see the words and letters rightside up and left or right, my wife just reads it from any position, and can play and score respectably; competitively.

If you play social Scrabble with a time limit of say two or three minutes for each player to position and lay down a word on the Scrabble&#174 Board you do get an idea over the course of several games just how good your opponent/s is/are with the language. That said, many new writers here on Xomba are only learning the maze and mess of English. Many of those posting here are recognizably clumsy with the English language, and even those raised in it (yours truly) encounter areas which are difficult to scale. Scrabble&#174 and the dictionaries of words recognized officially by ardent players of Scrabble are interesting adaptations to both the game and the various languages.

While playing, it is common for me to analyze and shuffle the 7 letters sitting on my Scrabble&#174 Rack, re-arranging them constantly to build a higher scoring longer word, often getting inspiration for a longer word by shuffling them and holding letters I might otherwise play to make a small word and hope the draw gets me the E or T I need; gambling, betting on the "come", just like I might do with seven card stud poker, betting on the probability say, of finishing a four card flush in two draws. (I usually stay, I usually call.)

Some simple words can be made out of the a group of four letters but by enforcing the rule that ALL of the letters must be used, limits the number that could be composed.(4! Factorial Four = 24)

POST, TPSO, POTS, PTOS, SPOT , OSTP, SOPT, OPST,TOPS, TOSP, SPTO, STPO, TSOP, SOTP,OTPS, PSOT,OTSP, PTSO,TSOP, PSTO,OPTS , OSTP, TSPO, STOP

Above I mixed them up, but here they are in an array:

OSTP, SPOT, TSPO, POST
OPTS, STOP, TOPS, PTSO
OTPS, STPO, TPSO, POTS
OSTP, SOPT, TSOP, PSTO
OPST, SPTO, TPOS, PTOS
OTSP, SOTP, TOSP, PSOT

There are many words for which you may take all the letters that make one word and rearrange all of the letters in the word to make a different word. These four make six valid English words.

In Scrabble, it matters which letter is place on which space for scoring. So shuffling the letters on your letter rack is often helpful.

Here is a history of scrabble that may surprise you!

http://scrabble.mattel.com/en/adults/history/index.html

Here are some references that have much information about dyslexia.

http://www.dys-add.com/symptoms.html

http://www.dyslexiamylife.org/wb_signs_dsy.htm?gclid=CPCaxpTPv5MCFQkmIgodmlaRCg

Next time you think that dyslexia is life stopping -- realize there is a range and there are some real advantages to being able to think outside the box, or in some other order.

Championship game and scores:

http://www.scrabble-assoc.com/tourneys/2005/nsc/build/player/1/064.html.

http://boardgames.about.com/od/scrabble/a/2006_US_open.htm

http://live.wscgames.com/2007/index.html

Somed 2008 Scrabble championships!

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS240US240&q=scrabble++championship+2008&btnG=Search