Hearing impaired, Visual impairment Let’s Change blind and deaf to Hearing and seeing disabled.
Actually let’s throw out the word learning and disability all together and substitute the words cognitive impairment. We should do this because the damaged processes in the brain that manifest themselves into learning difficulties also cause other problems.
I wanna kick the “experts” in the head or lower when they speak with such authority on issues involving the brain. I generally view psychology as a proffession with the same validity as the Psychic Friends Network. With some exceptions, these guys are the biggest bunch of charletons to ever come down the pike. I know a few personally and they are the most out of touch ignoramouses I’ve ever known. All of them pompous asses. All have very screwed-up lives. All drink too much. You know what a twit Dr Frazier Crane is. Well Kelsey Grammer and his writers hit the nail on the head. It’s butt-heads like that who come up with the ridiculous and wrong lables. I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer but I can read their books. I doubt if they could read mine. The fact is the best and the brightest are not psychologists. Check out the ciricullum of a PhD psychologists and other training they may have had. If you do, you will see that these guys are generally not qualified to be in the field and making diagnosis. So when someone puts a lable on you consider the source. Ah the smell of snake oil. It smells like money.
I have invited Richard Restak MD to visit this board. He’s a neuro-scientist. I’ve asked him to add his voice to thr whole LD debate. Dr. Restak has written many books on the brain that contain the latest neuro-scientific findings.
I think when it come to dealing with issues involving the brain such as LD, scientific fact beats politics and psycho-bable every time.
Re: Impaired is more like it!!
From a VR point of view evaluations are useless. Until the tasks in jobs are broken down a neuro psych assessment is of little help to anyone. The test says you have impairments A B and D and an outline of their severity. Duh! How does a brain dead VR slacker apply this information even if they had the grey matter and training to interpret it? Is there such a thing as task analysis as it applies to cognitive impairment and productivity? I think this should be a standard in order to quickly and effectively place and help impaired individuals. But, then again common sense has no place in VR.
Re: Impaired is more like it!!
Hi Ball:
I think I see what you mean by your message. I did the dumb thing of getting re-evaluated for my LD this past year. I think it was Pscho-educational, you know with the IQ scores and subject-related tests like math and reading. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Anyway, yes it’s good information for if and when I go back to school for a Masters. However, I stupidly thought it would shed some light on my difficulties at work. As I’ve stated in the past, I actually did well in college. So, my VR counselor at first didn’t know how to help me because my resume looked really good to her. I never did like her. Thankfully I haven’t dealt with her in years.
I do agree with you guys that labels are frustrated. However, I agree with Brad. I think labels can be used to answer questions about your deficits instead of the vague label of “learning disabled”. One could say a person is Learning disabled with particular deficits in certain areas.
I apologize if I went off track on this thread :)
Take care!!
Christine
Hi Ball,
I do agree that labels can be frustrating, unfortunately at times a necessity. When I work with someone I usually use the preliminary information to get a starting point to understand the individual but always bear in mind it doesn’t define the individual. The real problem is when interpret the label as all the person is and engage in no further investigation. And always getting to know the person is more important than a report, I just look at reports as an additional resource.
I do honestly get a lot out of reading Neuropsychological Assessments and other diagnostic tests to begin to understand someone’s world they are living in. They aren’t the end all, sometimes they may have some misinformation but can also provide some vital information. I am not against labels (I.e. CAPD, visual spatial neglect, etc) but I am against when they are used for more than were meant to be. Definitions of areas of deficits and stregths, I have LD and I know I have them. Knowing what they are and how they affect me though were of vital importance to begin to know how they affected me and what strengths I could use to compensate for them. But as I always say they do not define me.
Noisy rooms are still really difficult as are higher pitch noises, I still have trouble understanding what I hear at times when I have no visual assistance or prior knowledge/experience with the subject matter and my memory is shot to hell without my daytimer and organising my thoughts. But I really shudder to think where I would be without having developed some awareness of my deficits.
You are right there are some real winner doctors out there, but I’ve also met some pretty good ones as well. I guess it depends on how you feel about the doctor and how informed they appear. Most Psychologists I have worked with are pretty qualified but I have heard of a couple of winners as well. Any approach that helps the individual I think is the important piece, if people find psychology, SLP, OT or scientific views beneficial then all the power to them, as long as they get the help they need.
Take care,
Brad