Has anyone done the Arrowsmith clock reading exercises?

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I am just having a go at improving my clock reading speed to see if it helps my self-diagnosed dyspraxia. I am using a three-handed interactive clock I found online, writing the time I think it says, and then checking the digital answer.

Has anyone done the Arrowsmith school clock exercises? Maybe with the extra hands?

Is trouble reading analog clocks related to autism? It was one of the few things I struggled with in elementary school, and I still take a long time to decipher them even now

I don't know if it's an autistic thing, it may be. I do have a relative diagnosed with autism and dyspraxia, and who had a very hard time reading analog clocks. I read that autism and dyspraxia are intertwined but half what I read online is false, I just don't know which half. I don't really think my relative has autism, but I'd say they definitely have dyspraxia.

I am reading about autism, dyspraxia, and alexithymia. Each seems to be able to exist alone, but they very often go together. It's so confusing. What I see at the moment is that dyspraxia is enough to cause all my problems by itself, even social ones, and there is no need to go looking for another cause. I have always been relatively clumsy and uncoordinated even though my fine motor skills are good and, like you, I had no trouble in school (except for sports)

I do notice that when I look at an analog clock out of context, for example I just woke up from a nap, it's very hard to read it. Do you get that too?

Sounds more like a dyslexic thing than an autistic thing.

I think dyslexia might be a symptom of dyspraxia. I guess it isn't surprising that it's confusing :p

Huckleberry thank you I agree with you there. It sounds like you have put a lot of thought into it, maybe, like me, you have been granted a lot of time to think.

Hi, sorry for the late reply, but I didn't know what to say.

You know, more than anything else having an initially wrong diagnosis, I was able to think of hundreds of whys.


And make assumptions.
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Strengthened by having met intellectually valid people.

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I was the first one to try to disprove my intuitions.


You know, until the year of diagnosis by scientific researchers I never wrote in the forums that I had Asperger's but probably yes, but without the actual diagnosis.


While all the other Aspergers in the groups in Italy recognized me as similar to them.

But this was already in 2010.

Even in the self-evaluation tests the scores were very high.

In Italy we have scientific research that collaborates closely with that of the USA and beyond.

So the level is absolute.

While in the diagnostic and therapeutic reality, but also in university teaching, it turns out to be very bad.

*Very often even Italian doctors think they are better than anyone.

I once wrote in a medical forum that things should always be supported with valid demonstrations.

Not with self-referential thoughts and that's it.

Then they also had to explain to me why so few Nobel prizes for medicine are "won" in Italy.

While in the USA, perhaps there is no year in which this does not happen.

That is: it is clear that theirs were just words.


In fact, our researchers escape from Italy and go everywhere in the world.

Imagine having people with superior intelligences.


And higher education than anyone.

And minds capable of finding unusual solutions and ideas.


We spend 1 million dollars (per person) to train these people.

Then the Italian medical and research system is governed by figures who prevent very gifted people from carrying out research.

The result can then be seen.


This response is very critical of our medical system.

But it's the truth.

What happens.

Sorry, I don't know if I answered adequately or digressed within the answer itself.

You know, those who pay the price are the people who don't have a valid diagnosis.

Or they only have it in adulthood, when it is needed but little, really little.


Ok, I'll change what I can in myself.

But I didn't have the huge chances that I could have had if they had done things right from the start.


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Ask for help on how to succeed.

While I didn't give it to you instead.


Draw by hand.

You put in the numbers.

Think about how any hands fit together in the analog.
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Imagine being small and being able to stay inside and do whatever you want, move the hands back and forth, orient yourself.

I thought the passage of time was an imposition.

While by doing so that imposition would become non-existent


You would act on the mechanism and vary it as you like, until you learn.


Never be afraid of making mistakes.


Because I always say one thing: only those who don't test themselves never make mistakes.


But if he doesn't practice he will never learn.

So whoever doesn't give up wins in the end.

It doesn't matter when: consider having a timeless watch at your disposal.

More of a learning disability thing than an autistic thing.
Definitely, dyspraxia has issues related with visual spatial learning and processing.

It's kinda like there are those who struggled with left and right, that they need to see which back of their hands forms the letter L.


I never struggled with analog clocks.
Heck, I even use analog clock hands as some form of bullet journalling symbol to signify the general time.

To many, it just look like some weird random lines and angles dancing around the pages.



As for self diagnosis thing...

I'm not sure if I have a form of language processing issue, but I had special interests, obsessions and habits that counteracts that.

It only shows as lower than average verbal IQ in assessment. Yet my performance in real life and grades says otherwise.

On the other hand, processing language always feels unnatural to me. Like I'm translating several layers each time I read, write, hear or speak.

Still, mine is getting a bit worse despite the daily practice due to the following;

Well, there's something wrong with me that autism alone cannot explain.
Most people, even professionals think it's the autism, it's not. It's somewhere deep yet acquired, more of a software thing than my neurology, that I can't even see that other autistics relate.

I can't simply have more tests because it's expensive. Whatever it is, it's stealing my internal resources.
Burnouts can't explain it. Regression between burnouts can't explain it.

Never able to have a test for that -- it's resembling like ADHD and BPD, and somewhat getting worse by the year. The worst part is that it was inconsistent, then getting more frequent every year.

But I refuse to think that it's some co-occuring thing in my case.
It might be a physical or biological health thing than neurological or a head thing but whatever it is, it's affecting it.

Because I hadn't done everything to rule that out yet; my diet, hormones, habits, sleep, breathing and allergies, etc.

Which already taken years to play catch up, losing layers of problems one by one. Each can take several months and years each.
At the same time, that unnamed something else is gradually and slowly stealing my life from me since puberty.

Gained Number Post Count (1).
Lose Time (n).

Lose more time here - Updates at least once a week.

What you write is interesting: I'm going back, now it's very late here and I can't write as I would like (I could).

I've never had any problems with reading watches either, nor with tying my shoe laces for example.

The autistic spectrum is very broad.

It includes a lot in itself.

Even comorbidity, it is almost never pure and alone.

I have skills in inverting images, for example the first time I used a Personal...

I turned it on and off.
Then turned it back on.

I didn't understand what the hell to use, there was a contemporary factor in me.
I am ambidextrous (I would almost say with a pro-right margin between 1% and 5%).

I flipped the Personal over to see which hand I was faster with.

Using it the other way around is not easy.

You need to understand where the pointer is going.

I understood it quickly.

The right hand went a little faster, I put it back the right way and used the right hand and from there I started writing faster and faster.

Always better.

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ou write about language processing, in the absence of brain lesions, and as a person with autism, you would fall under the DSM 4 diagnosis.

That is: Asperger's.
From what you write you have a high IQ.
I have always had very high grades too.

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The shortcomings were in many sectors, therefore in the imaginative, which I resolved quickly, I have no fantasy at all, and I am dysgraphic.

It's been getting worse in recent years, maybe I know why.

Deficit in Theory of Mind: although there are some reviews in this scientific evaluation.

So let's imagine that a cardinal rule of diagnosis can be questioned.

I read something about it, but now I can't find it right away.

Non-rational empathy was zero: rational empathy was high: but I have to understand first.

I've always had sensory problems.

I compare a little with anyone who writes or reads the posts.

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Dipraxia yes, relating to the coordination of body movement, which is also in contrast with a sentence I wrote before.


But as I move, I imagine myself walking on the beats of an out-of-tune piano.

You define something that I understand: ADHD as an adult interferes.

But ADHD can also exist on its own.

As well as other problems.

Being borderline can coexist with autism.

However, I understand what you mean.

Worse, but you can't believe it's just autism, worse in something that you were previously able to limit.

However, worsening may be a secondary effect on memories.

Anterograde.


And if you don't take drugs I don't have the explanation now.

I take a molecule 20 times more powerful than valium.

This is to succeed socially

I tell you: I have ten times less skill than before.


Even of memory.

YES something is influencing it: we need to understand what it is.

Because that's the answer.

Regarding verbal IQs, perhaps brain areas are involved in the assessments.
From how you describe in some passages you seem synaesthetic.

your assessment may indicate something that is impacting and not alongside autism, but is something other than autism.


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Sorry, I didn't understand the final two sentences of your post, but it's my fault, English is not my language, and I wanted to learn it very well, but my mother had just died, and the girl who was a native English speaker was surprised at my request because it didn't seem like the right time.

I only took a few lessons.

But I gave up: she was right.

I am also alexithymic so I struggle enormously to understand emotions, some I don't feel. Even if in theory we should all feel the primary ones, unless we have pathologies in this regard and I don't have any.

I know I have skills but they are not the same as pre Covid.

And pre vaccinations above all.

A friend mentioned to me that I suffered TIA and in fact half my body was paralyzed months ago.

I don't know how long it lasted.

It was almost night.

I crawled into bed.

Then in the morning he was fine.

I usually never react by losing my temper.

And so I did then too.

*If there is no functional damage, if it is not attributable to drugs, and to other things that you may have written about, but I have no understanding (sorry), but for now I have no way of giving you input to outline what happens.

Something happens to me too.

My doctor told me that with only 1 eighth of my medication I would be in crisis.

I take double the established dosage which in itself is already high.

The only element you describe that is incisive is the hormones, which really do have an impact.