OK, well, first of all, I’m actually a senior in college. I’m majoring in psychology. =)
I’ve had problems with math all my life, so I went to the psych clinic at my university to get tested for dyscalculia. They ended up giving me an achievement test and the WAIS-IV.
I also have problems with PTSD, extreme anxiety, and depression. So I’m sure those don’t help. Anyway.
My overall IQ score was 106. But the score was broken down into the four categories: verbal, working memory, processing speed, and perceptual reasoning [the last two being nonverbal stuff]. My working memory score was 111, which was kind of surprising because I thought I’d did horribly.
My verbal score was 125, with my strongest skill being vocabulary. o.O But my processing speed and perceptual reasoning scores? Were both 92. That’s a 33 point difference between verbal and non-verbal. The psych clinic won’t diagnose me with a non-verbal learning disorder because apparently my scores still fell in the ‘normal’ range on the test, but they did say I have “non-verbal learning difficulties.” Um…is it really just a difficulty, or should I seek more testing/help? I looked up nonverbal learning disorder stuff on the Internet, and was actually kind of stunned at how well I could relate to it. It even kind of made me feel better like maybe all the stuff that goes wrong with me isn’t really my “fault.”
I also found it kind of amusing that they won’t diagnose me with dyscalculia when, on the achievement test, there was a math fluency section. I scored in the 4th percentile. I didn’t know I could score that low. :P
But yeah. I’m not sure what to do now. Or what will help. So…help, please?
I'm not sure I have an LD but...it's awfully suggestive
Hi, geodob2,
Um…I don’t have the report yet (they’re going to mail it to me), but I remember that everything like block design and patterns and stuff was pretty low. I don’t know, they don’t want to diagnose it because I did pretty well in my college math classes—but those were Calculus and Stats, and for some reason, I do all right in those if I study all the formulas beforehand and just plug the numbers in. I don’t do well with word problems at all. I also noticed from that “stuff you do well” if you have dyscalculia, that I actually did horribly at Geometry lol. I almost got a D. I’m not sure if it’s actually dyscalculia or if it’s more involved than that, like nonverbal learning disorder. But then again, they still won’t diagnose me with it because my scores fall into the ‘normal’ range, even with the 33-point difference between my verbal and nonverbal scores. Clearly, something is wrong.
I don’t know if I could get support from my professors. I suspect if it was specifically for dyscalculia, I wouldn’t. I might for NVLD, but again…it’s kind of up in the air. We don’t have the most supportive profs here. =(
Hi Lillielle,
It’s quite likely that the psych clinic don’t know how to diagnose Dyscalculia and what are the relevant indicators from the tests?
Where Spatial working memory is the primary factor.
Here’s a link to my Dyscalculia Forum, where you can find more information.
I might suggest that you go back to them with some research articles that explain Dyscalculia, so that they can understand how to diagnose it?
As you are studying psychology, perhaps you could get some support from your professors? Though you might have to educate them about it as well?
[url]http://www.dyscalculiaforum.com/news.php[/url]