I am not,I hope, unintelligent. However at times I have difficulty co-ordinating my thoughts . It's like there's a mass of wires all tangled up in my brain .
Sometimes it's easy to post and other times it's so hard to structure a coherent reply to something. The desire is there but it just won't come together in a well constructed and thought out manner.
I put this down to executive functioning difficulties.
When my brain is struggling to gather my thoughts then often anxiety comes to the fore and a feeling of being mentally overwhelmed.
Someone elsewhere,on a largely American based forum, mentioned doing college courses with a learning assistant in tow.
I am not even sure we have them for older adults in the UK(I'm 60). If we did I reckon you'd have to have an officially recognised learning difficulty.
I, in all probability have learning difficulties. However I come from a generation where if you were above average intelligence the idea of you have such difficulties was very much dismissed.
Hence no official confirmation.
The nearest I got to things being recognised was my prep school headmaster writing to my public school headmaster saying I was not very coordinated and had problems with drawing and writing.
My public school report said I was disorganised and messy. Nowadays that would be a red flag for executive functioning problems but back then ,in the 70s, it wasn't. It was merely a blot on your academic record and something for teachers to pull you up on.
It's a lot different nowadays, from what I know, but still far from perfect. If it was seen that you have spatial(or for others verbal) deficits, problems with executive functioning and slow processing speed,as I do, then those things would be flagged up for extra help and support.
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04 Feb 2017, 5:34 pm
