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Advice for learning difficulty.

Georgia23

Hi, , I need some advice. I don't know who to ask. I ve tried explaining it to my dad but he doesn't seem to grasp and understand it. Ever since I was a child I have mild learning difficulty. It really effects my understanding when reading and listening everyday. I had learning support throughout my education. I'm no longer in education and working but I'm planning on going to university to follow my passion. I want to go into acting but my learning difficulty is holding me back as with acting you read a lot of monologues and scripts and have to understand them but this is what I find difficult. I want to improve my understanding but I don't know how and so I was wondering if someone can help me!

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janer1967

Hi and welcome to the community great to have you on board.

I don't really have any experience with learning difficulties but I am sure there will be other members who can advise.

Have you spoken to your \GP about this as they may be able to out you in touch with suitable services or maybe social servces

Georgia23

Hi, No I haven't spoken to my GP/ doctor as I don't really want to ask them at this time with this virus but also I'm 23 so i don't think social services would be able to help me but thank you anyway.

janer1967

There is adult social services and you could just speak to your Gp over the phone or even the receptionist to ask any advice or maybe a library have details

dolfrog

Georgia23 said:

Hi, , I need some advice. I don't know who to ask. I ve tried explaining it to my dad but he doesn't seem to grasp and understand it. Ever since I was a child I have mild learning difficulty. It really effects my understanding when reading and listening everyday. I had learning support throughout my education. I'm no longer in education and working but I'm planning on going to university to follow my passion. I want to go into acting but my learning difficulty is holding me back as with acting you read a lot of monologues and scripts and have to understand them but this is what I find difficult. I want to improve my understanding but I don't know how and so I was wondering if someone can help me!

You may have "Auditory Process Disorder" which is a listening disability, the brain having problems processing what the ears hear. There are 4 types of Auditory Processing Disorder Temporal, Speech in Noise, Amblyaudia, and Spatial

1) The Temporal type of Auditory processing Disorder (APD) is about having problems processing the gaps between the sounds that the ears hear, which can include the gaps between words in rapid speech. It is also the main underlying cognitive cause of the developmental dyslexia symptom.

2) Speech in Noise is about having problems processing a target sound when there are low levels of background noise.

3) Amblyaudia is about the brain processing better what one ear hears better then how it processes what the other ear hears.

4) Spatial Auditory Processing Disorder is about the brain not being able to identify the location of a sound source.

I have the Temporal type of APD, which about having problems processing the gaps between sounds, which can the gaps between words in rapid speech, when others talk too fast for me to process what is being said, and it is the underlying cause of my dyslexia. I am not able to use phonics, and i have problems phonetically sounding out new words from text, i have to ear someone else say the word a few times to help me pronounce the whole word correctly. I sometimes guess who to say a word and on many occasions i have got the pronounciation really wrong.
I have to break text down into smaller more manageable chunks using a word processor, using multi coloured fonts and using a new line for new sentences. Most word processors have a good speel check option included, which help correct my spelling mistakes.
I also use Evernote to help me create reminders and, and some worked texts which i can use when I want to explain something.

There are other symptoms such as having word recall problems, remembering the right word when you are explaining something in a conversation of when writing.
Having a poor auditory memory remembering what others have said in a conversation, and even forgetting a conversation after it has finished.
There can also be working memory issues due to having to run what are called alternative compensating skills and abilities, which are really coping strategies to work around the limitations, such as lip reading and or reading body language.

I hope this helps

Georgia23

Hi, Thank you Dolfrog!
I have been doing some research and this Auditory Processing Disorder did come up when I typed in difficulty understanding. The symptoms it mentions make sense as I do have a some of them. I have Difficulty processing information and understanding it, remembering conversations and certain words they used, following and remembering instructions I am being asked so I always have to ask them to repeat it again, write it down or I say them out loud to remember. Difficulty following TV shows so have to put the subtitles on time to time and when I have to write formal emails/letters I always have to ask my dad to help me with it as I find it difficult thinking of my own ideas and writing them down. Also when there is noise in the background like vehicles, TV, music etc whether its loud or quiet noise and I'm having a conversation with someone I have trouble focusing and listening to what they are saying and understanding it. When someone makes a joke I don't understand what they are joking about and I always see the serious side of things. I also generally having difficulty thinking of my own ideas all together.

Ever since I was little I've had sensitive hearing. I have Hypersensitivity which is sensitive to only loud frequencies so if the fire alarm goes off at my work I have to cover my ears as I can't bear it. Watching fireworks and going to concerts are big nuisance so I have to take my noise-cancelling earplugs/headphones. This was picked up at a very young age but my parents didn't think of it as serious so they did nothing about it other than take me to see a doctor.

As I said in my first post I'm trying to find ways to manage and understand better as its affecting me following my passion and going off to university. Your advice on how you manage it really helps. How you break down text into smaller chunks and other things really helps. I will try this and see how I get on. I do a lot of reading which is a separate passion of mine. In a way I have been breaking down the text and reading it slowly, search up the meaning of words that i don't understand and finding other alternative words that I can connect with and this helps. What word processor do you use? Do you have any other ways that you manage it and that help you understand better? I do think I have this but i want to be absolutely sure I do so I can get the right support I need. How did you find out you had this? And where can I got to to find out? Thanks so much for replying. It feels like a whole lot of weight has come off my shoulders that I'm not the only one who has difficulties in these areas. Thank you! x

dolfrog

Hi @Geogia23

I use three word processors, the most me friendly is Jarte, and I use the Open Office, and LibreOffice when i need use use Docs or need to create pdfs.
I use Evernote as my online messaging service to create information documents initially for my own use as i find the best explanations and use the correct terminology. And eventually I can use the link option that Evernote provide to post a link to my Evernote web pages to help me explain topics or sometimes I can copy and paste all or some of the content say to my Facebook APD group which now has over 15,000 members.
I also have created some graphics which I can also be used on Twitter to help explain a topic. I have a web page of my APD related graphics at https://dolfrog.wordpress.com/2020/04/03/some-auditory-processing-disorder-graphics/
I was the first adult in the UK to be diagnosed as having APD back in 2003, to help the Medical Research Council gain government funding for a 5 year APD research program 2004-2009 which was run at Nottingham University. It was when the leading researcher, Prof. David Moore began sending me copies of his research papers that i found out that i could read research papers (it took me 3 months to read the first one, working out the very new terminology). I have a collection of international research listed country by country which you may find of some interest. (The first Joint European research paper listed includes a list and diagram of the APD diagnostic tests)
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s329/sh/f5a4fffb-bf47-491b-97e3-e3cbee583af6/514394d1b0bf900e8ab031ed701d89c7

Being over sensitive to sound is Hyperacusis, which is a subtype of the Tinnitus syndrome, there is also Misaphonia which has bee identified in recent years.
I have some related research paper collections included in my "Some PubMed Audiology Research Paper Collections" at
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s329/sh/1d516363-55b1-43c0-ba6c-e40667b946ad/e5b8c6ade64471065704b188b20e2bd4

You may also find a couple of pdf files of some interest, "Controlling the Chaos" and "The Trouble with Strangers" they were the result of an online Adult APD research program. They can be downloaded from the Ear Troubles web sites articles web page at
http://www.eartroubles.com/articles.html (about half way down the web page)

I hope this helps

Georgia23

Hi @Dolfrog,
Thank you for the information it has been very helpful and useful. I've managed to have another conversation with my dad about my learning difficulty and mentioned APD. He of course hasn't heard of it and I didn't either till I researched. He has seemed to taken it in and I've mentioned to him that the symptoms it mentions I have seen in myself and I also mentioned when you were diagnosed. If you don't mind me asking How old were you when you were diagnosed? I'm going to try to see my doctor but I'm currently holding off for now due to the Coronavirus. Thank you for all your help. I really appreciate it all. Stay safe! x

dolfrog

@Georgia23

I was in my late 40s .when i was diagnosed, now in my mid 60s lol.
Currently for a diagnosis in the Uk adults need a referral to see Dr. Doris-Eva Bamiou at University College London (UCL)
There is an APD support group on Facebook "Auditory Processing Disorder (APD)" which has over 16,000 members which includes an increasing number of adults who have APD, which you may find of some interest.

Georgia23

Oh right. Okay. Thank you. I have tried to look for it on Facebook but there is a few support groups. Which one is it? Thanks.

dolfrog

Georgia23 said:

Oh right. Okay. Thank you. I have tried to look for it on Facebook but there is a few support groups. Which one is it? Thanks.

I think you joined my group early this morning

Georgia23

dolfrog said:

Georgia23 said:

Oh right. Okay. Thank you. I have tried to look for it on Facebook but there is a few support groups. Which one is it? Thanks.

I think you joined my group early this morning

Yes, I did thank you. I then saw you had a group for the 15-25 age group as I am in at that age group.

I have decided to put Grammarly onto my laptop as an experiment and I have been using Evernote to organize and remember things. Both have been very helpful.

I have been feeling rather upset and frustrated recently as not being able to understand is the main struggle I have, but I still do not know how to manage it. Do you have any advice? Thank you.

dolfrog

@Georgia23

I have been living with APD all of my life, and i only found out about APd when our eldest son was first diagnosed as having what was then called CAPD back in 1998

It was when i began to research APD to help our son that i discovered a USA online CAPD support group in 1999 that i found out what APD is, and i soon discovered I had been living with it all of my life. At that time no adults seemed to be willing to admoit that they had APD in that group, even the audiologist who ran the group i i later discovered also had APD.

I eventually found another adult online who was willing to admit that had APD in 2000 who lives in New Zealand, so i set an adult APD group on Yahoo the OldAPDs. So that we could have an online means of communication. The groups soon had a few more members some of whom helped me set up APDUK in 2002, to help the Medical Research Council gain government funding for a 5 year APD research program 2004-2009 which was run at Nottingham University.

The OldAPD group was also used by an Australian Psychologist, Damien Howard to run an online adult APD research program over about 2 to 3 years, And as Damien said if those who participated had to meet in a group situation no one would turn up, but running it online meant that we could process the questions in our own time and also provide our answers in our own time, Which would not happen if we had to meet in single room, where there would be an expectation of immediate replies to questions or when participating in a conversation.

Yahoo have stopped their groups from having information libraries at the beginning og this year, and they have are purely only chatrooms which is not really ideal for those of us who have APD.

All of my family have APD, three sons my wife and me. My wife and I had been together over 20 years before we were both diagnosed as having APD, which explained why we understood each other so well over the years.

As you may have noticed in my Facebook group, I use graphics and multi coloured fonts in the graphics which i also use in the word processors , especially when using Jarte. It helps break down text into smaller more manageable chunks. I can also use the same coloured font when finding more information regarding a new topic. Unfortunately there is no coloured fonts here on Scope.

I also found this article of some interest "I Think in Pictures, You Teach in Words: The Gifted Visual Spatial Learner" by Lesley Sword
http://talentdevelop.com/articles/ITIPYTIW.html
I use my visual skills to help me work around my auditory issues, like I did not realise that i lip read, and read body language to work around my APD, until I was having discussion with David Moore some years ago, Which is why i need others to ware transparent masks due to the Covid Virus. so i see their lip move when they talk, just like those who have a hearing problem.

I hope this helps

Marie88

Hi @Georgia23 I just saw your posts from June and July. I relate a lot to the things you mentioned in your posts. I also feel I have a mild learning disability since childhood and often struggle understanding things, writing, speaking and listening. I have difficulties writing letters or cvs and have to get help with them. I also find it hard to find the meanings in books or quotes and following tv and films I often have to ask my mum or partner to explain it to me. I have to watch tv with the subtitles on too, even though my hearing is fine.

i was just wondering if you ever saw your gp and got a referral? I want to speak to my gp but haven’t because of covid. I hope to do it soon.