Your Learning Disabilities

[Sarah147]

Hello,

I have mild/moderate ADHD and Dyslexia. I take a stimulant medicine for the ADHD and I had therapy as a child for the Dyslexia. I still have some lingering Dylsexia issues with comprehension, retention, retrieval and memory. The ADHD tends to show up in issues with attention, concentration, hyperactivity (movement and fast talking), disorganization, sluggish motivation, etc. I see trouble in deeply getting what I read, homilies, talks, lectures, some conversations, etc. It's like my ears and eyes glaze over what I hear and read, especially reading, and with long talks. I also notice that I do silly things, like I don't right away figure out who was first in order at a stop sign intersection; I'll mishear what someone says; I'll need a repeat of directions; I'll forget something I was going to do; I'll ask a question but neglect to fully listen to the answer; etc. Just silly things. It's like senility has set in!

I'd like to hear from other people with Learning Disabilities. How do you cope with it?

[b]I especially would like to know how you deal with the issues with poor comprehension, retention, retrieval and memory? This really makes education tough as I don't remember everything I learn very well (it also doesn't sink in immediately and takes a lot of going over), and if I end up going into a work apostolate, I'll need to be able to learn and work at something. Even if I go into the retreat/spirituality apostolate of the SsEW, I still need to work with papers, studying, possible teaching, etc.
[/b]
I had a reevaluation with a speech-language pathologist last year and they said I did well on their testing, but I don't feel it reflected my issues. So, they weren't able to work with me. A learning center that I had gone to as a child said I could go in for re-testing, but they are wayyyyy too far for me to go for lessons. I asked if I could do any work at home with their books, but it was a no-go.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, and please share how you deal with your issues and silly mishaps.

God bless you.

[Sarah147]

I'm now realizing that there probably aren't that many Phatmassers with a Learning Disability.



I also read that ADHD symptoms can show up if you have issues with low iron and/or thyroid, so I'll be looking into that, too.

Edited June 24, 2011 by JoyfulLife

[CatherineM]

I have a learning disability ever since falling on my head. I have trouble encoding new information. I basically have to associate new information with something I already remember in order to remember new stuff. I made A+s in my church history classes, but only Bs in stuff like medical ethics because it had more new information to assimilate.

[Sarah147]

It's frustrating because even if I learn something and remember it (like things I'm excited about and really interested in), some time later some things get vague until I forget.

I like learning and everything, which I can tell when things go well, but with my difficulties, it makes me unmotivated to try subjects, books, etc. because it takes so much work and doesn't always get through totally.



Catherine, that's interesting what you mention. Can you give an example of how you do that?

Edited June 24, 2011 by JoyfulLife

[CatherineM]

The best way I can describe it is that I went from being a Hercule Poirot and have become a Miss Marple. Poirot solved murders by using his brain, Sherlock Holmes style. Miss Marple was an elderly aunt type who solved murders by comparing the suspects to other people she had known in her life in order to look at their possible motives or hidden agendas. In Church history I could think about the things in the church that happened during other well known historic events. I had a lot of regular history before getting hurt. For Bioethics I had to think about people I had know that had gone through certain procedures. That worked for things like euthanasia discussions or abortion issues, but when it came to new types of IVF for example, I had to just read the material about 10 times, and then I still had trouble remembering it for the exam.

[OnlySunshine]

I have Adult ADD. The doctor told me I probably had it as a child, but was able to hide it so it was never diagnosed. I think he is right.

I take an antidepressant that works for both my ADD and depression. It was not prescribed for my ADD, but it can be used for that purpose and it really has helped me. I'm able to focus more and do well in school. I still have trouble with organizational skills at home (my room is always a mess and I hate cleaning it).

Edited June 25, 2011 by MaterMisericordiae

[Debra Little]

[quote name='JoyfulLife' timestamp='1308950003' post='2258251']
Hello,

I have mild/moderate ADHD and Dyslexia. I take a stimulant medicine for the ADHD and I had therapy as a child for the Dyslexia. I still have some lingering Dylsexia issues with comprehension, retention, retrieval and memory. The ADHD tends to show up in issues with attention, concentration, hyperactivity (movement and fast talking), disorganization, sluggish motivation, etc. I see trouble in deeply getting what I read, homilies, talks, lectures, some conversations, etc. It's like my ears and eyes glaze over what I hear and read, especially reading, and with long talks. I also notice that I do silly things, like I don't right away figure out who was first in order at a stop sign intersection; I'll mishear what someone says; I'll need a repeat of directions; I'll forget something I was going to do; I'll ask a question but neglect to fully listen to the answer; etc. Just silly things. It's like senility has set in!

I'd like to hear from other people with Learning Disabilities. How do you cope with it?

[b]I especially would like to know how you deal with the issues with poor comprehension, retention, retrieval and memory? This really makes education tough as I don't remember everything I learn very well (it also doesn't sink in immediately and takes a lot of going over), and if I end up going into a work apostolate, I'll need to be able to learn and work at something. Even if I go into the retreat/spirituality apostolate of the SsEW, I still need to work with papers, studying, possible teaching, etc.
[/b]
I had a reevaluation with a speech-language pathologist last year and they said I did well on their testing, but I don't feel it reflected my issues. So, they weren't able to work with me. A learning center that I had gone to as a child said I could go in for re-testing, but they are wayyyyy too far for me to go for lessons. I asked if I could do any work at home with their books, but it was a no-go.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, and please share how you deal with your issues and silly mishaps.

God bless you.
[/quote]

I understand where you're coming from. I don't have the same difficulties. I am Bi-Polar and have OCD and Epilepsy. But
I have a lot of the same symptoms from these as you do. It is difficult for me to concentrate during Mass, in prayer, during
talks and movies, etc. It is almost impossible for me to sit still, at least for very long. I have to be moving, doing something.

[Debra Little]

[quote name='JoyfulLife' timestamp='1308950003' post='2258251']
Hello,

I have mild/moderate ADHD and Dyslexia. I take a stimulant medicine for the ADHD and I had therapy as a child for the Dyslexia. I still have some lingering Dylsexia issues with comprehension, retention, retrieval and memory. The ADHD tends to show up in issues with attention, concentration, hyperactivity (movement and fast talking), disorganization, sluggish motivation, etc. I see trouble in deeply getting what I read, homilies, talks, lectures, some conversations, etc. It's like my ears and eyes glaze over what I hear and read, especially reading, and with long talks. I also notice that I do silly things, like I don't right away figure out who was first in order at a stop sign intersection; I'll mishear what someone says; I'll need a repeat of directions; I'll forget something I was going to do; I'll ask a question but neglect to fully listen to the answer; etc. Just silly things. It's like senility has set in!

I'd like to hear from other people with Learning Disabilities. How do you cope with it?

[b]I especially would like to know how you deal with the issues with poor comprehension, retention, retrieval and memory? This really makes education tough as I don't remember everything I learn very well (it also doesn't sink in immediately and takes a lot of going over), and if I end up going into a work apostolate, I'll need to be able to learn and work at something. Even if I go into the retreat/spirituality apostolate of the SsEW, I still need to work with papers, studying, possible teaching, etc.
[/b]
I had a reevaluation with a speech-language pathologist last year and they said I did well on their testing, but I don't feel it reflected my issues. So, they weren't able to work with me. A learning center that I had gone to as a child said I could go in for re-testing, but they are wayyyyy too far for me to go for lessons. I asked if I could do any work at home with their books, but it was a no-go.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, and please share how you deal with your issues and silly mishaps.

God bless you.
[/quote]

I know it's nuts to say this because I have the same kind of difficulties but try to relax.
Slow, deep breathing really helps me to slow down my body and my mind so I
can think more clearly.

The one thing I do when things are especially bad is just hang on and go for the ride.
Eventually my mind will clear. During this kind of time I never make decisions about
anything. I have learned that this has disastrous consequences.

Distracting myself also has worked. It keeps my mind busy with something else.
Going for walks helps me too. When I walk I pray. I don't have to try to so hard to
be still then.

[Debra Little]

[quote name='Debra Little' timestamp='1308972038' post='2258369']
I know it's nuts to say this because I have the same kind of difficulties but try to relax.
Slow, deep breathing really helps me to slow down my body and my mind so I
can think more clearly.

The one thing I do when things are especially bad is just hang on and go for the ride.
Eventually my mind will clear. During this kind of time I never make decisions about
anything. I have learned that this has disastrous consequences.

Distracting myself also has worked. It keeps my mind busy with something else.
Going for walks helps me too. When I walk I pray. I don't have to try to so hard to
be still then. The Rosary especially helps me a lot. There's something about the
repetition of the Hail Mary's that calms me down and gives me peace. I tried mental
prayer but eventually gave up. It just doesn't work so well for me. Another of my favorite
prayers is the Chaplet of St. Michael.

When things are really bad I try to pray but it actually gets distracting for me. I don't
know why. I just go to the slow, deep breathing. Listen to yourself breath slowly
and deeply. It might help you. It also helps not to have so much noise going on
around me. I can stand noise for a little while and then I get very overstimulated
and have to get away.
[/quote]

[cmotherofpirl]

I also received a head injury when I went down a flight of stairs head first. As a result I become aphasic when anxious, I mix up words in sentences, or can leave an important word altogether. I also lost much of my spelling ability- but only of small connecting words, or, I can look at a simple word and parts of my brain are convinced its improperly spelled. So speaking in public with someone I don't know or on the phone can be very difficult, and I can appear completely uneducated and tongue-tied.
It had no effect on my vocabulary or language skills ( other than spelling ) when it comes to writing or typing, so I spend lots of time online
It also didn't affect my singing abilty

[CatherineM]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' timestamp='1308974034' post='2258397']
I also received a head injury when I went down a flight of stairs head first. As a result I become aphasic when anxious, I mix up words in sentences, or can leave an important word altogether. I also lost much of my spelling ability- but only of small connecting words, or, I can look at a simple word and parts of my brain are convinced its improperly spelled. So speaking in public with someone I don't know or on the phone can be very difficult, and I can appear completely uneducated and tongue-tied.
It had no effect on my vocabulary or language skills ( other than spelling ) when it comes to writing or typing, so I spend lots of time online
It also didn't affect my singing abilty
[/quote]
I'm partially aphasic too. I have issues with verbal comprehension. It gets worse when I'm tired. I thought for years it was just my foreign languages until I had a class that was all oral, no text book, just lecture, and then an oral exam. It's never good when the professor has to answer the questions for you.

[xSilverPhinx]

I'm not that good at making out words when speaking to someone with a telephone, their speech is always blurred together and I can't make out individual words sometimes, which leaves me guessing what they're saying. Made me look like a fool on some occasions.

It's sort of like was the case when I had to learn how to speak Portuguese, or any other foreign language. It's kind of funny the string of words I would jumble and blur into eachother to look like something else.

[xSilverPhinx]

[quote name='JoyfulLife' timestamp='1308950003' post='2258251']
[b]I especially would like to know how you deal with the issues with poor comprehension, retention, retrieval and memory? This really makes education tough as I don't remember everything I learn very well (it also doesn't sink in immediately and takes a lot of going over), and if I end up going into a work apostolate, I'll need to be able to learn and work at something. Even if I go into the retreat/spirituality apostolate of the SsEW, I still need to work with papers, studying, possible teaching, etc.
[/b][/quote]

I think you should figure out what your strengths are and adapt whatever it is you're learning to your style. Takes extra work but...

I usually don't remember things very well by just reading it (I usually find myself having scanned a few pages before even noticing sometimes) which is why I prefer visual and audio methods. I have better retention with those.

There are also some encoding/memorizing techniques which might help, google is your friend

Here's an interesting video from BBC in which a memory champion explains his technique for remembering. I think that tieing unconnected facts together into some context or familiar landscape helps loads.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-xl7_hdWZo&feature=related[/media]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NROegsMqNc&feature=related[/media]

[Groo the Wanderer]

My learning disability is that I am a prideful and stubborn twit. Some people learn by hearing, some learn by seeing. I am the kind that has to pee on the electric fence for myself.

[CatherineM]

I don't use the phone, except to talk to close friends, or my husband obviously, only people whose voices I know well so I won't misunderstand something. I am afraid of being found out, so to speak. I can say to my husband, "I have no idea what you just said," and not be too embarrassed. Anyone else... It upsets me so much to talk on the phone that I have become phobic to it. I can't even stand the sound of the ringer. If it is something important, ie. bank or government, I will go on the phone long enough to give permission for my husband to deal with it.

[Vincent Vega]

I'm colourblind to a pretty severe extent (at least more than the majority of colourblind people). You'd be surprised how much of a learning impediment that is, particularly in the more elementary levels of education.

[arfink]

First of all, I had no idea until college I had an LD. I got very high standardised testing scores, and previous psychological evaluations were strong, and nothing was ever detected until college. That's when I discovered I have ADD. I was prescribed a drug for it, something called Stratera. It seemed pretty helpful, but it had some really severe limitations. For example: it's a very powerful neuro-stimulant, and it lasts for 8 hours. Basically just long enough to get me through part of a day when I was at seminary. They had us going basically around the clock, from 5 AM until close to 10 or 11 depending on how much extra work you had to get done for classes. Which means my window of coverage lasted from around 8 AM when I could take the medicine til 4 PM. Holy hour was at 6AM, which was just far too early to take the medicine since I'd lose it in my afternoon classes.

Once the stimulant wears off you crash really hard. So every day after my last class (which got done about 3:30) I would start to feel really slow and tired, and get nasty headaches. I would fight through evening prayer, and then try to get some dinner, if I didn't just go to my room and fall asleep. See, many days I had to get a nap in (in place of dinner) because the seminary's study hours were in the evening after dinner, and I couldn't afford to miss out on doing work during a time when the whole place was silent. And of course, like most psych-drugs, they're also [b]mood altering[/b] in very unpredictable ways. You cannot imagine how much that totally screws with everything in your life, especially prayer and discernment. So yeah, the drugs helped kinda- but they were a big detriment too. I eventually decided to just try and make it without drugs and train myself to learn without their aid. it was tough, but my breakthrough was the discovery that I can associate ideas with visual stimulus far faster than without, so I began to develop a system of visual note taking, or of illustrating my notes after class when I was reviewing. My grades suffered a little during this process, but it was worth it.

TL;DR summary: don't rely on the drugs to help you out, unless you need them for other anti-psychotic reasons. It's not worth it.

Edited June 25, 2011 by arfink

[Nunsense]

I don't have a learning disability myself, but my daughter did have learning difficulties from RAD and PTS and I think she might even have had mild ADHD but the doctor we were going to at the time didn't want to test for it - she seemed to think it was a 'fad' and 'everyone thinks they have it' so she never got any medication for it.

In her final two years of high school I had to take her out and home school her because the learning difficulties got so great that she just wasn't keeping up with the work. The one to one attention certainly helpd her a lot, but I was able to see first hand how difficult it was for her to keep her attention on the matter at hand, and how some things were so much harder for her than others.

While I certainly would be careful about the use of medication, I think if a person needs it for any condition, then by all means, use it. Where would diabetics be without their medication, or schizophrenics or anyone with any kind of a chemical, hormonal or biological imbalance?

[xSilverPhinx]

[quote name='USAirwaysIHS' timestamp='1309013111' post='2258584']
I'm colourblind to a pretty severe extent (at least more than the majority of colourblind people). You'd be surprised how much of a learning impediment that is, particularly in the more elementary levels of education.
[/quote]

What colours don't you see?

[faithcecelia]

[quote name='arfink' timestamp='1309025095' post='2258652']
First of all, I had no idea until college I had an LD. I got very high standardised testing scores, and previous psychological evaluations were strong, and nothing was ever detected until college. That's when I discovered I have ADD. I was prescribed a drug for it, something called Stratera. It seemed pretty helpful, but it had some really severe limitations. For example: it's a very powerful neuro-stimulant, and it lasts for 8 hours. Basically just long enough to get me through part of a day when I was at seminary. They had us going basically around the clock, from 5 AM until close to 10 or 11 depending on how much extra work you had to get done for classes. Which means my window of coverage lasted from around 8 AM when I could take the medicine til 4 PM. Holy hour was at 6AM, which was just far too early to take the medicine since I'd lose it in my afternoon classes.

Once the stimulant wears off you crash really hard. So every day after my last class (which got done about 3:30) I would start to feel really slow and tired, and get nasty headaches. I would fight through evening prayer, and then try to get some dinner, if I didn't just go to my room and fall asleep. See, many days I had to get a nap in (in place of dinner) because the seminary's study hours were in the evening after dinner, and I couldn't afford to miss out on doing work during a time when the whole place was silent. And of course, like most psych-drugs, they're also [b]mood altering[/b] in very unpredictable ways. You cannot imagine how much that totally screws with everything in your life, especially prayer and discernment. So yeah, the drugs helped kinda- but they were a big detriment too. I eventually decided to just try and make it without drugs and train myself to learn without their aid. it was tough, but my breakthrough was the discovery that I can associate ideas with visual stimulus far faster than without, so I began to develop a system of visual note taking, or of illustrating my notes after class when I was reviewing. My grades suffered a little during this process, but it was worth it.

TL;DR summary: don't rely on the drugs to help you out, unless you need them for other anti-psychotic reasons. It's not worth it.
[/quote]


This is interesting, I am suprised they didn't try you with different drugs (either instead or as well) as its not good to have the big crash.

My brother has ADD, Tourettes and dyslexia. The ADD and dyslexia were diagnosed when he was 10, the Tourettes only a year or so ago. For about the last 5yrs he has been part of a study at the Maudsley Hospital in London. Its a mental health training and research centre, the biggest in the country, and they wanted to study adults who were in the first big wave of diagnoses when they were kids, when it was still expected that it was something you outgrew. This has been absolutely amazing for him personally, and is also helping gain imformation for the future too. As part of the study he has been able to have all sorts of counselling, therapies etc all starting from the point that he has ADD, ie Anger Management for people with ADD, Self Esteem for people with ADD, etc etc. He also had his drugs changed a few times (tho i don't know what he is currently on). It was during one of his assessments there that he was also diagnosed with Tourettes. Thankfully this is not at the worst end of its spectrum and he has been able to learn techniques to help him control the verbal tics.

10yrs ago my brother nearly threw me through a glass door, he was very scary to be with. Now, thanks in a big way to this support at the Maudsley, he is calm, sensible and married, the change in him is phenominal and its so lovely to have a happy brother at last.