At the end of April 2016, I was formally diagnosed with a learning disability days before turning 54 years old. Below are the reported results from my psycho-educational assessment.
Now that I have this report, I am asking myself some very big and profound questions. One of the more prominent ones is, Where do I go from here?
Any thoughts you might have are sincerely and greatly appreciated, with particular attention to the section entitled Areas of Need.
Diagnosis: Learning Disability
Tests:
Wechsler Individual Achievement Test – Third Edition (WIAT-III): Individual’s skill level in basic academic areas
Literacy:
Oral Discourse Comprehension - 3rd Percentile – Extremely Low
Writing:
Spelling – 88th Percentile – High Average
Sentence Composition – 90th Percentile – High Average
Essay Composition – 73rd Percentile – Average
Written Expression Composite – 91st Percentile – High Average
Math:
Numerical Operations – 66th Percentile – Average
Math Problem Solving – 34th Percentile – Average
Mathematics Composite – 50th Percentile – Average
Math Fluency – 39th Percentile – Average
Nelson-Denny Reading Test
Reading Comprehension – Standard Time – 15th Percentile – Low Average
Reading Comprehension – Extended Time – 34th Percentile – Average
Strengths & Needs
Strengths:
• Strong verbal abilities
• Well-developed written communication abilities
• Average math functioning
Areas of need:
• Visual-spatial reasoning
• Relative weak processing speed
• Impaired visual motor integration
• Severe impairment across memory functioning
• Poor executive functioning
• Poor attentional skills
• Anxiety and depressive symptoms
• Time management
• Organizational skills
Re: Recently diagnosed
My suggestion is to deal with what I believe is the biggest issue first. The anxiety and depression symptoms. These symptoms will hold you back in the long run and make your progression stall or even go backwards. So let me offer these words of wisdoms. For years, I tried to “fix” myself but failed. It was then I understood you cannot fix what isn’t broken.. Before moving on, you need to realize you are not “broken” and thus there is nothing to “fix”. First form a plan to deal with the depression and anxiety symptoms. Then put strategies in place to try and play to your strengths for as most of your daily life as possible. This will allow you to build your strengths up and they might even compensate areas of weakness . For example, I was and still am a terrible note taker due to my LD. So in college I strengthen my social skills to were I had a friend with great hand writing giving me a copy of their notes in all my classes. I also would spend a lot of time getting to know my professors. This basically took care of my note taking skills and allowed me to create great relationships with people I would have had without my LD. After working on your strength then began to build your weakness, but realize these will never be your strongest areas and that’s okay.
Hi Roland,
At the top of your ‘areas of need’, is visual-spatial processing.
Where I draw your attention to the Spatial side of this?
We have 3 types of mental processing and thinking.
Which are Auditory, Visual and Spatial.
With Auditory and Visual, these are both ways of representing ‘things’.
As words, and visual images.
But the important role of Spatial processing?
Is that it is what we use to order and organize the words and images in our mind.
Where the way that they are arranged, is what forms comprehension.
To move any element, changes the whole relationship between the elements.
So that I would like to suggest, that would be helpful for you?
Is to learn about and understand how we use Spatial processing, as a fundamental element of our thinking processes?
Which you might find, is at the heart of all of your ‘areas of need’?