To All LDers a question

[quote:7dc65c5f09=”Mr Helper”]What is your greatest problems caused by your LD and what kind of help do you need to overcome these problems?[/quote]

What a great question!

In my case it is all the difficulties I face doing things most people take for granted.

I don’t think anyone can overcome being LD.

In terms of help I would like vocational help so that I can have a decent job.

Right now there is no useful help for adults with LD.

My LD is Dyscalculia. I am an artist by trade, and have always been such (except for brief stints in mechanical trades) All the familiar symptoms of Dyscalculia describe me to a “T”:
• Good at speaking, reading, and writing, but slow to develop counting and math problem-solving skills
• Good memory for printed words, but difficulty reading numbers, or recalling numbers in sequence
• Good with general math concepts, but frustrated when specific computation and organization skills need to be used
• Trouble with the concept of time-chronically late, difficulty remembering schedules, trouble with approximating how long something will take
Poor sense of direction, easily disoriented and easily confused by changes in routine
• Poor long term memory of concepts-can do math functions one day, but is unable to repeat them the next day
• Poor mental math ability-trouble estimating grocery costs or counting days until vacation
• Difficulty playing strategy games like chess, bridge or role-playing video games
• Difficulty keeping score when playing board and card games.

i always thought i was an idiot when it came to certain things: Math, paying attention to discussions, i love chess, but i suck at it!

My dyscalculia came to light after seeing a psychologist for over 2 years. My many problems, including alcoholism, came to light and are being addressed (i’m 8 months sober, and i feel great). i took some personality/ablility tests and i showed a strong grasp of the english level, and my IQ is in the 75th percentile - EXCEPT in math. Once my psychologist saw that, he tested me for an LD, and lo and behold - DYSCALCULIA.

Algebra failed me from high school (though a kind-hearted teacher gave me the point i needed to graduate), and fear of College-level math kept me away from College. i stayed working as a screenprinting graphic artist, and eventually got a job as a graphic artist at a newspaper.

Now that i know WHY i am the way i am, i’m in college for the first time in my life at 32 years old. My first class? Math 002 (remedial math). i want to take this thing head-on, and skirting around it the way i did for most of my life just won’t cut it anymore.

Thanks for letting me ramble!

The funny thing is that four of the things on your list describe me perfectly — absolutely no sense of time, weird sense of direction, remember numbers with muddled order, and don’t get along at all well with games — and absolutely the opposite of the other four, I do mental math all the time and went back and got my math degree and two years of grad school math. Never did fit well in pigeonholes, even the special pigeonholes for the exceptions!

Anyhow, being halfway where you are and halfway not, I can offer help and suggestions in your studies. General help, not take-home tests etc. of course. You can contact me here on the forum and then everyone can read the explanations and try to use them too, or if there’s something you don’t want to put on the public board you can email me at [email protected] — save the address for when you need it.

Many thanks, Victoria, and i very well may take you up on that offer. My particular “problem spot” is fractions - at least, that is what my psychologist told me. i’ve only been to one 002 class so far, so we’ll see.

Thanks, again!

Oops, that above post was ME, just didn’t log in! *sheepish grin*

I have seveer LD.

I aslo have sevveer rumatoid arthritis so I am totaly disabled.

I went to OVR and they were not helpful at all. They were mean and condisending.

Sometimes I wish I were dead.

[quote:5ed51cbb0f=”Turtle”]I have seveer LD.

I aslo have sevveer rumatoid arthritis so I am totaly disabled.

I went to OVR and they were not helpful at all. They were mean and condisending.

Sometimes I wish I were dead.[/quote]

Believe me turtle you aren’t alone. OVR stinks on ice. They have a reputation of treating people poorly regardless of their disability.

It took them 2 years to get my quadrapeligic uncle a wheel chair. They really suck. They are totally useless. I think they fail on purpose.

ohhh very good question.

my would have to be my directional difficulties…and as you can see from my post above it is something I am still struggleing with and trying to figure out.

As of right now…because of my directional difficulties my friends always want me to drive, so I can’t hide from it (which I guess is a good thing). They believe that I am a safe driver, and they say ‘rideing with me is always an adventure.’ LOL, they really are great about it though.

The person who rides with me though always knows that they have to direct me (‘turn left up here’) if they are sitting in the passenger seat. Some places I don’t need it, and I just tell them.

LOL, a good friend of mine at home started doing that to other people. She was rideing with her dad one day, going to the school and she said “turn left here.” Her dad gave her the funniest look and they had a good laugh.

So, I guess the most important thing…for me… is to tell people what is going on. Most people are more then willing to help, and will try to be understanding even if they don’t understand it themself. It is important to try to work on things yourself, but we NEED help!

I hate driving. I prefer night driving because it is less distracting.

I just moved to a city that has terrible signs and it is maddening. Many of the streets have more than one name. That’s politcs for you. It is maddneing. The other day I got out of my car because I was so frustrated and I knocked down a street sign because it was turned at 45 degrees to the streets so there was no telling which road it was indicating. That was my act of militantcy for LD adults

[I knocked down a street sign because it was turned at 45 degrees to the streets so there was no telling which road it was indicating. That was my act of militantcy for LD adults[/quote]

LOL…well, thank you very much. ‘salute’

I only wish knocking down other barriers would be so easy.

I always try to find the humor in things. And, one of the things that I find funny is how you can have dyscalculia and know how to get to someplace by heart…only to half way reach your destination and wind up walking into a telephone pole…that is funny to me. I have mad bumps on my knees from that. I also like being able to know how to get to a professors’ office but not be able to know the office number. It is great, eh? So, I think that it is best to find humor. We (with l.d) have really unique senses of direction, I can tell you how to get from my house to Graceland, but only by anything but actual street names! So, no asking me for directions…tell you that.

With regards to gooup’s post…I think that… you get a schedule going where you can block out time to go to the tutoring lab as well as making time to use your instructor’s office hours. Dyscalculia is not the most common place LD and so you have to manage your time very well with regards to doing your homework as well as making doubly sure that you have the time to use the tutoring lab as well as your instructors office hours…lot of work you have to put into learning the mathematics, there buddy. I take math online and I e mail my (very nice) instructor once a week with the honest to goodness truth of all the study I have done because that is a part of what you have to do inorder to make sure that your instructor knows that you are trying.

What seems to help me mostly is extra time and a distraction-free environment.

I’m not sure if I have a LD or not, but I believe I do, and I hope to be able to get tested for it some time next year. Here’s what troubles me:

Word recall: I’ll often have to stop mid-sentence to try to find the correct word.

Articulation: I mumble a lot.

Expressing myself clearly: I have a difficult time stringing together long, grammatically-sound sentences. My speaking tends to come out in fast spurts of short sentences.

Poor writing: Writing has always been a very difficult activity for me to do… I’m never sure of what to write, and I end up constantly erasing and re-writing sentences until it’s just so. Similar to my verbal expression problems, it’s also hard for me to write in an academic fashion on meaty subjects. It’s my belief that when I do try, my writing comes off as childish. My hand-writing is also sloppy.

Processing speed: I often find myself speechless, especially in uncomfortable situations such as arguments with others. I know think that I’ve learned to cover this by often laughing in reponse to other people’s comments, even when not warranted. This allows me to avoid responding verbally.

Related to all this… I think I also suffer from a Social Anxiety Disorder that has arisen from my inability to adequately express myself verbally. I can get along somewhat with people I know well, but I really hate meeting new people. This problem came to a head this year because of an obnoxious co-worker who, for some unknown reason, hated me. He would often snicker loudly at me when I spoke, further embarrassing me. On one hand, I just wanted to ignre the clown, but on the other, I was left confused and nervous about how to respond.

Anyway… this is all especially frustrating for me because I am trying to learn a foreign language and finding it very difficult.

William

Relief from doing much Math ( College Algebra ) homework.
Research to see if any computer with Tablet and Math Software would accomplish my goals of doing the homework component of College Algebra. Another problem was finding good tutors who understood LD.
My original diagnosis was Dysgraphia. Writing is a LABOR INTENSIVE process. I type 40 words-per-minute. Using pen and paper for a long period of time, especially with Max equations, is frustrating.
Peace to you all.
[<br>]

–-

Also, I can get distracted by others. Sudden noises bother me a bit.
People talking too loudly within 15 feet or so bother me.

I thought I’d just share my story in case any of u guys are in similar situation and.or can offer any insight

I am a college junior with an LD. I went to one of these networking sessions recently and lemme say…these are things I generally dislike and avoid …The networking session didn’t help me shine as well as I had hoped (actually I think it may have made me look strange..I felt pretty uncomfortable the whole time…), and now I’m considering taking courses to help me with networking and just general social skills. For example, I would be up there with another kid around from my school to go network with a personand then that kid would leave and I was left there and the person asked if I had any more questions, and I replied “Oh no, I’m all set. Thank you!” Yeah, I guess I should be more confident and come armed with good questions to ask, but this time I kind of lost it (and mind kinda wondered) and it didn’t happen.

At the end of an internship I worked last summer, my supervisor gave me honest feedback that I gave the initial impression I lack confidence and am not actually good, but he then mentioned that my actual performance the entire summer proved him wrong. Bottom line: I feel is that my resume is my strength (I can look great to companies on paper), but I think I just need to work on the social skills side of things. I have a lot of trouble especially with social relationships. Strange enough, I am now 22 years old, a good looking guy and have yet to get a girlfriend. Then again, while im in school and my daily schedule, I don’t think I could be committed in any kind of relationship.

Just a little bg on myself…I started off a junior college and then transferred to a 4 year school after my freshman year. I’ve done extremely well with grades, but I feel like I work so much harder than everyone else and I’m given up to 100% extra time on my exams which I usually use all of. I’ve always felt my standardized test scores are not representative of my ability. As I understand it, my (dis)ability is mainly processing related. I’m not dyslexic in the sense that I do not read anything backwards. However, I do have the 315.0 DSM-IV Reading Disorder diagnosis (which I believe is technically dyslexia) and two other 315 ones (cant remember the names).

Overall I’m just going to keep working on it, the only thing I can do. I’m going to take big steps to take some courses and maybe visit the career services office at my college to do a mock interview and stuff. I think I could also benefit from any courses outside my college that can teach the “soft skills.” I’m hoping to find a career that’s fun, I’m good at, and has a good balance so I still can have time to socialize with family and friends and do other things I love.

You’ve probably already thought of this, but joining something like a cycling club might help in the social skills department. (Could be anythin of interest, but cycling has some real advantages - you don’t really have to be social at all if you don’t want to. You can just ride. Or, on the “social” rides - though sometimes theyr’e called that and they’re really races - you can ride up to somebody and strike up a conversation, but it’s also really easy to finish one off by just saying “I’m going to drop back a little” or “I’m going to pick up my pace a little.” And because riding reasonably close is fairly common, unless it’s a hard ride talking is a natural consequence. Oh, and based on the folks in every bike club I’ve ever been in, it attracts introverts, social strugglers, and the neurologically unique - because we can all get along while we’re pedaling along)