Learning disabled.

Post Reply New Topic

Anyone here learning disabled? Sometimes I feel like an outcast even amongst the WP community because so many are brainiacs who score(d) all A's, Knew how to program a computer at the age of three etc. I am super intellectual in some ways. I'm the walking encyclopedia type. But I've always been really inept at most everything academic. And most everything academic I do know, I had to teach myself because I'm fairly unteachable. I had to teach myself how to read at the age of 9 for instance. In some areas academia I registered as borderline ret*d as a kid.

It seems like with most it's, "well he's socially inept, but as a tradeoff he graduated college at the age of twelve".

Kinda makes me feel like a double loser sometimes.

Footnote:

Something I just realized. It was probably my learning disabilities as much if not more than my autism that kept me in either private schools or segregated classrooms and out of the public school system... which spared me from a lot of tormenting I otherwise would've received... so maybe not such a bad trade off.

Last edited by briankelley on 25 Mar 2013, 9:57 am, edited 2 times in total.

I feel most people treat me as if I were learning disabled even though my IQ is average.

I seem to not be on the same page as most people - NT and Aspergers and have yet to work out if this is due to being less or more intelligent.

As a result though I don't make a mental connection with many people and feel others see me as unsophisticated and a bit simple whereas I often see them as affected and speaking to achieve a particular image and status.

I think the world operates mainly on how you say something as opposed to what you are saying, so that if you say something intelligent in a non-standard or not in a 'sharp' way, it will be seen as uninteresting or stupid.

It's like if a Down's Syndrome person had come up with Einstein's Theory of Relativity - would anyone have taken any notice?

My Girlfriend has recent been diagnosed with a learning disability and while I was told "no" I am still convinced she has classic Autism. What I find amazing is NOBODY caught on until I took action and insisted she needed an assessment because it was obvious something was wrong. She's got average IQ but gets Ds and Fs in all her classes. I'm still learning about her disability but yes, I can see why she would feel like an outcast among outcasts.

Nothing was officially diagnosed, but during my sophomore year in high school, my math teacher suspected that I might have a learning problem in that area.

Well, I think in my case my autism and learning disabilities are interconnected. The learning disability isn't a reflection of intelligence, it's a reflection of aptitude/adaptability. My brain just can't adapt to a lot of curriculum. There's some kind of block or short circuit there or it gets scrambled. It's hard because on one hand I'm extremely intelligent, but on the other hand I'm extremely inept. And of course the intelligent part is glaringly aware of the inept part.

The people with a learning disability that I've come across have still been neurotypical, hence they still get on better in society generally than me as they can interact with non-LD NTs better than me. They are just mentally slower NTs in my opinion whereas what I have is a fundamental difference to neuro-typicality. Hence I'm prone to being bullied by both NTs and the learning disabled as they're essentially the same; NTs are just more mentally sharp than people with a Learning Disability.

Autism is it's own separate category and it makes a person far more vulnerable than a person with a Learning Disability in my opinion even if the autism is seen as higher functioning as in Asperger's Syndrome.

This idea of basing the extent of a person's disability on IQ is highly spurious in my opinion.

Disability needs to be measured in terms of how well a person can integrate into and be accepted by their community in my opinion.

Is it possible she has a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder? people with average IQ & even above average IQ who have a Fetal Alcohol Disorder can have many problems learning, processing speed, socializing, memory etc at the same time as being intelligent it can look very much like Autism depending on which way you look at it.

I believe life for someone with an FASD is much more of a struggle than for someone with Autism mostly because the services do not exist for people with an FASD, it is not widely recognized, it's often misdiagnosed as ADHD, ADD an Autistic Spectrum Disorder or as a mental disorder later in life.

I'm learning disabled. It has made me feel like a ret*d because of it. I had my work modified and I needed extra help with my school work. Me being visual and a concrete learner is what gave me trouble in school and the work is so abstract. Now if I grew up in the 60's, I probably would have been fine and get through school with little help because back then work was more concrete and they just changed it over the years because they want to make sure students are actually learning so that leaves people like me becoming learning disabled because they made it impossible for us because our minds don't work that way.


I even thought I was ret*d for a while because ret*d people can't do school work at their grade level. I couldn't either so I needed help with it and I always felt bad about myself.

I can't do math to save my life. I have to teach myself how to do it, because I can't pick it up in a learning environment.

Just about anything else is easy for me to grasp, though.

This post brings up some important issues: many people on the spectrum have learning disabilities (especially those with PDD-NOS)

Even Aspies who are amazing in some academic areas, struggle with other simple things. My aspie son is brilliant in some areas but has trouble in others. My other son with PDD-NOS has a hard time with speech (he is 7) and basic skills (tying shoes, etc.), but we work very hard, and we have him reading almost to grade level, swimming, biking, etc.

brian: everyone has aptitudes and abilities, you only need to find them. None of us need to be exceptional--we only need to be happy. Once you stop trying to live up to other people's expectations, and learn to live up to your own expectations, life becomes a lot easier.

I struggled tremendously with math when I was a kid (seemed like a disability)--I didn't have my addition tables memorized when I was like 11! Even in college, it was hellish to get through a basic algebra course, and my GRE score in math was like 450 lol. Fortunately, I was always excellent in the humanities (English, history, fine art, etc.). Now that I have to teach my kids math, I have literally had to re-learn (or learn for the first time) things like geometry and algebra, and I am actually enjoying it (although I will never be strong in that area).

I also agree that IQ is imperfect and often of little value as an indicator. Richard Fenymen had an IQ of like 120--I think he was just a little smarter than that lol. When one of my sons tested low, I reminded myself not to get to caught up in psychometric testing. I have one friend with an IQ of like 145 who has trouble carrying on a conversation, because his knowledge is extremely narrow (computer science). Ask him a basic question about art, history, even politics, and he cannot come up with an answer.

I won't say no but it's highly unlikely. Every time I meet her parents they have a drink in their hand but I don't think they are heavy drinkers anymore than most people around here.

I have a learning disability I couldn't keep up with the others in primary school and my maths was terrible, I went to a special school instead of high school I don't have trouble with reading and spelling so I was even able to help some of the others at the special school with their reading.

I did have to do a numercy class and I can at least add up and take away now enough to be able to do my banking.

That's not what neurotypical means. Neurotypical means no neurodevelopmental differences, not just not being autistic.

Personally, I use the term 'allistic' for non-autistic.

I see neurotypical as a particular mindset so a person with a learning disability can be neurotypical as far as I'm concerned

they usually have exactly the same interests and attitudes as an NT; the only difference is their mental sharpness/IQ

They're just an NT with lower IQ

Yeah, you're probably right about that. They probably just seem connected to me since I have both.

In my case I was born cyanotic (umbilical cord around the neck). I'm pretty sure that's what caused my learning disabilities via partial brain damage from blood flow constriction. But probably didn't contribute to my autism. My mom was a classic aspie and her dad "the eccentric genius" probably was too. So in that case probably hereditary autism.