Brian, Retired engineer using TTRS

I worked my whole life as an engineer but I've struggled with severe dyslexia and I only really started improving my literacy skills when I received a computer for my 70th birthday.

Before, I only read what I absolutely had to, and never enjoyed it. It's been two years since I started using the Touch-type Read and Spell course and my reading has improved significantly. I read every day and it’s a pleasure. 

When I used to do e-mails it was a nightmare, but now, what would take me half an hour I can do in five minutes. I can access the spell check and the grammar check and that helps. When you type sentences, you stop thinking about your fingers, and you just type!

My spelling has definitely improved. Certain words are just “there” where before I would have struggled with them. Sometimes I think of a word, and it’s automatic - I don’t worry about the spelling as I used to. Moreover, instead of being overwhelmed by a word that I don’t recognize I can now break it down into bits, try out different pronunciations, and re-read the sentence to figure it out from the context.

It used to be that if someone gave me a telephone number, I’d have to remember and write down each number separately. Now I can chunk them together. I can do that with words too. These are strategies I couldn’t use before TTRS.

When I first started I was nowhere near the kind of level I'm at now. I’ve scored 791 “excellents.” I’ve even got three perfect scores, and my speed has increased. I find the scores very motivating!

In the beginning, one or two modules might have taken me half an hour and I’d try and do that every day. I’d come off the computer very tired. These days I’m much faster and I can do up to ten modules in one sitting.

TTRS has given me confidence. Yes, I’m dyslexic and I’ve struggled with reading, writing and spelling until now - but that’s all part of life’s rich pattern. You can’t be good at everything!