Human Dictionary

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I don't even know if this should be in this category of General Autism Discussion, but I was wondering if anyone has this particular tendency. I am a human spell-check! I can't help but point out typographical errors and grammatical/semantic inconsistencies in everyone's speech and writing. I correct everyone from teachers and "fellow" students to people in my family and close friends. It's annoying to people I do it to, and one time I actually caused the entire class to get detention because I, along with several other students, kept correcting the teacher's spelling. Just wondering if anyone else does this, and what it feels like for them.

As a matter of fact, "Human Dictionary" was my nickname in secondary school. I say nickname, but they were saying it to make fun of me. But they did sound genuinely impressed when they were making fun of me.

I never really corrected people, but people kept asking me how to spell stuff and i'd always give them the answer. I first realised I could spell in Primary school. My teacher sat this "gifted" (neurotypical) girl on a table on her own for the spelling tests, giving her more difficult tests. I wanted to prove I could be on that table too, so I tried revising for the tests (I never revised for anything), and I found I didn't have to. I looked at the words once and never forgot how to spell them.

The teacher didn't move me to the gifted table despite my 98-100% test scores, because my teachers didn't like me. They hated my mother, who worked for the school and got into a fight with a racist headteacher.

Anyway, i'm waffling. The moral of this story, you have a gift, be glad of it.

Ohhh yes. At school I was called a geek and some teachers were a bit defensive at my correcting them, but at age 10 I was having to find my own spelling words from the dictionary because I knew pretty much every word they could think of!! Nowadays I'm the resident proof-reader and spell-check for my entire office block; everyone (about 300 people) comes to me to check things over. So it does have its perks.

Haha! Yea, spell checking seems to be a strong trait with aspies. Although, I think I somehow lost that ability...

I remember in second grade, my dad just happened to be at school with me that day *he knew my aspie traits were driving teachers nuts, although he didn't know 'what' I had* and I corrected my teacher. Who spent nearly a week after trying to prove me wrong She finally realised something was up with me...

I try not to do this in real life anymore (I get yelled at) but I do it online all the time. Not just spelling, either. In fact, I belong to at least three forums dedicated to this very thing. When I was younger, I would correct people's speech and of course, this didn't win any friends. These days I do a lot of online magazine copy editing, so I guess obsessions can find a way to become productive, if encouraged.

(I used to bet people $50.00 cash if they could find any word in the Webster's Unabridged Dictionary that I couldn't spell. Rules were: A.. They had to pronounce the word correctly, B.Had to use it in a sentence (so that I could tell the difference between homonyms), and C. I could write down my answer on paper. I've never lost a bet. Mysteriously enough, most people who took me up on the bet always asked me to spell the word 'onomatopoeia.' I can think of far more difficult words to spell than that...)

Last edited by Rainstorm5 on 13 Apr 2008, 7:01 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I'm a bit of a grammar Nazi. Actually, I'm more like a grammar Stalin. My English teacher wrote a recommendation letter for me, and I corrected his grammar.

I was known in college as 'The Grammar Hammer.' (I never corrected a recommendation letter, though, LOL. I have to commend you for the courage to do that).

Well, it was riddled with grammatical errors. I couldn't send a recommendation from my ENGLISH teacher that had obvious mistakes in subject-verb agreement! That would cast doubt on the value of his recommendation. Besides, the teacher in question was very good-humoured about such things.

How strange! Makes one wonder how that individual became an English teacher to start with... Good thing they had a sense of humor.

Oh, he knows the grammar; he just was tired and not paying very much attention when he actually typed this up. He was one of the best teachers I've ever had.

I remember one lesson some cruel kids in my class wrote some nasty phrases about our teacher on the board. I was in the process of standing there correcting their grammar and spelling in it with a different coloured pen when the teacher walked in... when he read it and then realised what I was doing he laughed for about five minutes, and we collectively avoided a detention. What a moment of glory.

It is actually an AS symptom! GRANTED, it is usually a large volume of encyclopedic info, but it CAN be a dictionary also. I USED to be a GREAT speller. Still, I CAN write several pages without a single spelling mistake. I don't know how unusual THAT is, but it IS getting rarer!

Same here.

Although lately I'm having a problem. I tend to slip on homonyms that would never have bothered me before. (no/know, there/their/they're, your/you're) And it really ticks me off, because when I see that sort of thing in other's writing, it makes me think less of their intelligence. I *know* the correct usages, I just have a tendency to type it out wrong.

Yes, I've been called "little walking dictionary" as a child and now, as an adult, I have been called a "walking medical book" or human prescription drug reference. Anything to do with medical science is part of my special interest, so I literally have mentally stored a vast knowledge base of medical conditions, medications prescribed for them and the possible side effects of them as well.

My apologies for all of you who might read my posts. .

I always notice spelling errors! I find misspellings in published works. My mom always said I should get a job as a proofreader.