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Old 08-01-2018, 04:17 AM   #31
Þorkell
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Dyslexia

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Originally Posted by roguebfl View Post
Somehow I doubt that almost every person I come across in a certain age range is dysgraphic.
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Old 08-01-2018, 07:24 AM   #32
ericthered
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Dyslexia

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Originally Posted by Þorkell View Post
As far as I can tell here people are no longer taught handwriting so that leads to people not being able to write worth a damn. You have people that have done all their compulsory education and their handwriting is still as if they only picked up a pen yesterday.

No syndrome or such, just lack of practice.

Handwriting by profession is interesting, because some folks do write... but this occasionally makes their handwriting worse. Doctors focus on speed, and the point is that they wrote it, rather than actually communicating information. The results include tight, eye-squinting cursive that is very regular but no more legible for the effort.



People who write only for their own benefit tend to end up with a similar effect.



I think I see the best handwriting in artists and teachers. And for the teachers, that often includes people who just need to write on boards.
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Old 08-01-2018, 10:16 AM   #33
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Dyslexia

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Originally Posted by Þorkell View Post
As far as I can tell here people are no longer taught handwriting so that leads to people not being able to write worth a damn. You have people that have done all their compulsory education and their handwriting is still as if they only picked up a pen yesterday.

No syndrome or such, just lack of practice.
No. I do actually remember when I did more handwriting then keyboard writing. And when I have to make out a check. It was awful and had nothing to do with my education or whether or not I was taught handwriting. In fact a lot has to do with epilepsy.
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Old 08-01-2018, 11:25 AM   #34
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Dyslexia

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Originally Posted by tanksoldier View Post
The US Army estimates that about 10% of trainees, officer and enlisted both, are unable to comprehend maps. No matter how much training or practice is given they are unable to relate the graphic to the real world.
WOW! Just WOW! That quantifies the old military saying about, "There's nothing more dangerous than a 2LT with a map."

It is also an institutional critical failure that there isn't a simple weed-out test for would-be officers and NCOs who can't read maps - at least in the arms of the service where map-reading might be essential.

In GURPS terms, I'd call inability to read maps a limited form of Non-Iconic, perhaps called "Dysgeographia," worth -80%, plus Incompetence (Navigation/TL3+, Geography/TL, and Cartography).

I've also come up with a new disad which is the opposite of Absolute Direction. It is appropriate for many machines and even certain people:

No Sense of Direction Variable

You can get lost in your own home – even if you live in an efficiency apartment! There are two versions of this trait:

Poor Sense of Direction (-1 point/level):

For each level of this trait, you have a -1 penalty to any task which requires you to give or follow directions to find a place or to navigate. This includes any practical application of Navigation skill, as well as to use of Area Knowledge skill to recall the location of an otherwise familiar feature.

Unless you can see, or otherwise sense, your destination at all times, or you have a clearly-marked, constantly-present trail, you must also roll vs. IQ+1, or Area Knowledge skill+1, with a -1 penalty per level, to find your way to an extremely familiar location, such as the corner store a block from your house, or the church you’ve been attending every Sunday for 30 years.

In any situation where it is easy to become confused about your direction or location (e.g., labyrinths, jungles, inside a fog bank), you have double your normal penalties. Alternately, the GM can rule that you automatically become lost.

If you get lost, you must make another IQ or skill roll, with double the normal penalties, to retrace your steps or otherwise get back on track. On a critical failure, you become so hopelessly lost that you will never get back on track without aid or blind luck.

People who know about your problem react to you at -1 per two levels level (rounding up) if you attempt to navigate or give directions.

You may take up to 9 levels of this trait. After that, you must take No Direction Sense.

No Sense of Direction (-10 points):

You have absolutely no sense of direction. You don’t can’t follow directions at all, and have no sense of your location.

You cannot learn the Navigation skill, and you automatically fail at any task which requires you to give or follow directions, or to find a particular geographic location, such as using Area Knowledge skill to find a familiar location.

Unless you can see, or otherwise sense, your destination at all times, or have a clearly-marked, constantly-available trail you can follow, you automatically get lost even when attempting to travel to an extremely familiar location.

If you do get lost, you must roll vs. IQ-10 to retrace your steps or otherwise get back on track. Otherwise, you wander helplessly.

At this level, you just don’t “get” geographical relationships. For example, if you regularly ride a bus to work, you can’t keep track of where you are by looking out the window. Even following its route using a GPS receiver and a mapping program is beyond you. Instead, you must count the stops or ask the driver to tell you when to get off (handing him instructions written by another person is best).

At the GM’s option, you might have also have trouble with even simple spatial relationships. For example, if somebody tells you to look in the cabinet above the stove in the kitchen, even if you are in the kitchen and can see the stove, you might have trouble figuring out where to look!

One or two levels of Poor Sense of Direction might be realistic for an otherwise normal person. More than that, or No Sense of Direction, is only appropriate for artificially created entities, such as TL7 or 8 experimental robots, or for people with severe brain injury.

If you have any version of No Sense of Direction, you cannot have 3D Spatial Sense or Absolute Direction (at least, not at the same time or in the same form).
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Old 08-01-2018, 11:29 AM   #35
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Dyslexia

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Originally Posted by Þorkell View Post
Somehow I doubt that almost every person I come across in a certain age range is dysgraphic.
How many 5 year-olds do you know? :)

Seriously, the task of learning to write in a legible, orthographically-correct fashion takes a normal child a couple of years to learn.

The Oh-So-Cute kiddie scrawl with reversed letters is normal until about 7-8. After that, it's time to break out the educational psychologists to check for actual learning disabilities or developmental disabilities.
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Old 08-01-2018, 04:30 PM   #36
Þorkell
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Dyslexia

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How many 5 year-olds do you know? :)
I was thinking 16 to 26 or 30 year old.
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Old 08-01-2018, 05:14 PM   #37
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Dyslexia

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Originally Posted by Þorkell View Post
I was thinking 16 to 26 or 30 year old.
Unless you know their school using computers for every subject it can, they had more than enough every day practive by age 8 for prace will make it better to be disproven, ther school might not teach cursive any more but the dest mean they dont teach hand writting
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Old 08-01-2018, 05:25 PM   #38
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Dyslexia

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Unless you know their school using computers for every subject it can, they had more than enough every day practive by age 8 for prace will make it better to be disproven, ther school might not teach cursive any more but the dest mean they dont teach hand writting
There's a difference between 'teach handwriting' and 'require people maintain competency'. My handwriting has certainly gotten worse over the years.

A modern person's required level of handwriting is typically 'can legibly print a form or mailing address'; while they are increasingly available as fillable PDFs and the like, you're still going to be printing like that multiple times per year. If you can't do that, you might have a legit issue; otherwise, you've just achieved minimum required proficiency and not bothered to get better (or allowed your skill to decay).
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Old 08-01-2018, 05:42 PM   #39
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Dyslexia

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WOW! Just WOW! That quantifies the old military saying about, "There's nothing more dangerous than a 2LT with a map."

It is also an institutional critical failure that there isn't a simple weed-out test for would-be officers and NCOs who can't read maps - at least in the arms of the service where map-reading might be essential.
It isn't as crippling as you would think as long as SOMEBODY can read the map... and every LT has plenty of NCOs around who can. The smart ones hand the map to the sergeant even if they can read it... and the smart sergeants who can't avoid map duty.

Early in my career I was a loader on the LT's tank, which meant I had a hatch to stick my head out of next to the tank commander's. During road marches he would have one of the wing tanks take the lead on a road march, and have the platoon sergeant (bringing up the rear) call higher with phase line crossings and the like, and he had me keep my finger on where we were on the map. I'd point out what phase line we'd just crossed, what phase line was coming up, any turns or bridges and the like and keep track of whether we were ahead of schedule or behind... and I was a PFC. Dude was a really good LT but couldn't read a map to save his life.

...and you can't just ditch 10% of your personnel. Recruiting and retention is hard enough as it is.
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Old 08-01-2018, 06:08 PM   #40
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Dyslexia

I remember being downright humiliated and shocked when my 9th grade science class had an entire section dedicated to reading maps. It felt like a ridiculous waste of time when the legends were right there.
I guess I was taking my ability for granted.
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