I have had difficulty in school and learning in general for as long as I can remember. During my lifetime I have found myself working harder then other people to learn material presented. I have never been diagnosed with anything, but I do recall a special class in elementry school that I was in which included spanish speaking students that had problems learning. I don’t speak any languages other then English. My Junior high and High school average was low to mid- D’s and C’s. College was very difficult and resulted in maintaining a B to C average. My problem is recalling facts and important information that is given to me, usually not more then a few minutes ago, this has made my social life and education difficult at best. I constantly find my self reading study material off of books and not making any sence of the what the paragraph or sentence means, it usually takes hours to read and reread 2-3 pages of text in study books just so that I can grasp the concepts. During police academy I would find myself studying long after other people have gone to bed only to be rewarded with C’s and B’s rather then A’s for my tests. It has recently come to my attention that I may also have problems understanding or comprehending the way people communicate to me. I would like to contact anybody that feels the same so that I can get a perspective on my problem. I am tired of always fighting and the struggles that have plagued me for the past 33 years. I would like to know that based on the information presented, what problems do I have? I live in Austin and I wonder is there someone I can talk to or contact? Even an internet support group will be fine.
Re: Frustrated at my self.
Tell us more about your difficulties communicating with people. In what ways? The reason why I ask is because it sounds like you might have a non-verbal learning disability. This could include problems with attention. You also could just be ADHD, which can affect your ability to recall information and focus when you are reading.
Also, do you have problems with anything other than reading and memory? For instance, do you sometimes confuse right and left? Do you have more difficulty with understanding verbal information than written?
Re: Frustrated at my self.
Austin
ADHD/LD Adult Support Group,
Learning Disabilities Association of
Austin
(512) 477-5516
Hope this helps you :)
Re: Frustrated at my self.
DOes the memory work better in one sense than the other? So, if you hear the words, do the ideas stick better? Or is the problem that it’s words — so whether you read or hear them, they just don’t stick?
Do you learn to *do* things a lot faster? Do you remember pictures or visual details better?
Which is harder, remembering facts and details or putting them together and understanding the big concept? How do you do with abstract concepts? Is math easier than reading, or just as hard, or even harder?
Finding out your strengths is one way to start building on them.
go to a psych
Duran, you really need to go to a neuropsychologist or something. No shame in that what so ever…even for a police officer in Texas! Go to that support group someone posted and get the help you need.
With reading, there are some things that just plain suck, like history book reading (that is my personal opinion). I found out that sometimes, you need to just take longer with your studying over most anything but in an orderly way (I feel coffee was invented for this very purpose)…I will share this with you until you go to a doc, maybe it will help you…when you are reading those books for your job, read them and highlight any main ideas, you will know what these main ideas are if you are in law enforcement:they will be in bold type sometimes even, then write out in long hand what you highlighted…after you do that read the chapters over and what you wrote out in long hand over…then make a good old fashioned outline out of everything…get a binder, put the outline first then your booknotes, then leave room for your instructors notes or any personal notes you, as a member of law inforcement would need to take (things your superior might have told you, for example) …if your instructors do a lecture or if your superior has a meeting , you tape record them and write them out in longhand at home, you know, while you play the tape back and all. While you are tape recording your lecture or what all your supervisor is saying, write out any main ideas in that one portion of your binder. You can get index tab dividers for nothing, basically
(where I live in Memphis, you can get a binder for one buck or a big ‘ole binder for three bucks and ten index dividers for one buck too at teh Family Dollar) and put those in your binder and label them…outline, booknotes, personal notes, ect. You can do this sort of system with bible study and whatnot, I am just putting it out there. Then you can read over everything that is all organised once or twice a day. Sometimes the manner in which you study as well as organise everything can be helpful.
I do that with school work (I am at University),Bible study, my one job at a resturant, my one online job, and my tutoring gigs…for some of that, I use a spiral even, like I have a spiral for my resturant job.
It is hard to allows be able to follow folks when they are speaking. I think that even educators have that problem, like folks with PHDS even. One thing that I have learned is that it is good to keep eye contact and pay attention with all you have, if you cannot understand what someone is saying in conversation, then you can always act like you did not hear them and make them repeat what they said…ain’t no shame in that, my fellow southerner. The main thing is to keep eye contact when in conversation.
I think, Duran, that you really need to go to that one support group or to a neuropsychologist…they can tell you what is wrong, or what might not be wrong…and then you can go from there. I would not worry terribly about not be able to follow folks talking all the time, be sure to tell the doctor you have trouble with that…but in the South, we all speak soo differently, could be an accent thing too, you know?
You need to take reading notes, and re-read the text and your
reading notes. You need to re-read any chapter outlines.
Good luck.