Undiagnosed language disorder

Marie88

I think I have a language disorder as all my life I have struggled with communication and expressing my thoughts and describing things both spoken and written. I struggled with English and most other subjects at school.  I’m in my early 30s now and started doing an online English course but really struggling with it. I think I’m going to look for a private tutor to help me.  I just really want this diagnosed, I saw my GP in 2019 and explained my problems and they tried to refer me for an assessment but it wasn’t accepted because I’m an adult and wasn’t in education at the time, so maybe now I’m studying part time and struggling I will be able to. But I still don’t see why I had to be in education to be referred. 

Some of the main things I struggle with are:

Limited vocabulary
Find it hard to learn new words and remember them
Struggle to put things into my own words both spoken and written
Struggle to write emails, job applications, have to ask family member to help me
Staying quiet in social situations as can’t find the words to join in, or out of fear of being laughed at as I have in the past
Find it hard to make friends
Forget words/not knowing name of something, so will just say ‘that thing’
Struggle to understand jokes
Misunderstand things people say to me
Struggle to keep up with conversations
Struggle to understand verbal instructions, needs to be written out clearly
Find it hard to form my own opinions on most things

Because of this I’ve always found it hard to make friends and it feels lonely and brings me down. I have my family and partner who are great but I just wish I could make my own friends and feel like I can be more independent and not rely on their help all the time. I also struggled at work in an office roles, emails were a nightmere. I have persistent pain so admin work is most suitable for me but these difficulties hold me back so much and I’m worried about finding another job.

Just wondered if anyone else can relate to this or has any advice?

janer1967

Hi there

You have put together a very comprehensive post here so well done I dont know much about the subject  so not sure where to sign post you to for advice 

Maybe somewhere that deals with adult learning difficulties, hopefully one of the scope team can help @Cher_Scope @Tori_Scope have you got any ideas for this member

Cher_Inactive

Hi @Marie88 and thank you for telling us in detail about the difficulties you've faced.  That can't have been easy, especially during your school-life, so well done you for persisting to get through it.

Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with language disorders and don't know anyone who has one but I think you should be able to access support with a view to getting a diagnosis. 

Admittedly, my research is coming up with little in terms of practical signposting but here's my advice:

Now you are back in education, I'd return to your GP to inform them how your impairment is continuing to cause you difficulties.  I'd stress how last time you were refused access to the appropriate services and then describe the negative impact this had on your quality of life.  If this might be a struggle, I'd print out what you posted to us and show your doctor.  Hopefully this would be sufficient for them to act on your obvious needs and refer you on to the appropriate department.  Out of interest, was this the Speech and Language Therapy team or an educational psychologist?

Also, you mention that you are studying part-time.  Does the education provider have a disability services department you could self-refer to for advice?  They would be well placed to implement any adjustments you need for your learning and might also be able to suggest different routes for obtaining support.

Good luck and please let us know how you get on

Marie88

janer1967 and @Cher_Scope thanks it took me ages to write the post, I kept rewriting and rewriting it and this is also why I didnt reply for ages, because I get overwhelmed and cant think clearly, like this mental block. I found some information online about expressive language disorder which I think is what I might have. I may also have dyslexia, I remember as a young child having extra lessons at primary school but I was never diagnosed with anything. I rely on spellcheck and looking things up online a lot. I can use a dictionary and thesaurus but I do struggle to understand a lot of word meanings still. I find creative and descriptive writing the hardest, my course is online so there isn't one to one tutor support and I am struggling with it. I am expected to write things using descriptive writing and this is where I'm really struggling. I feel like I can describe my issues quite well but then if someone asked me to write something like a book review, or to tell them about it out loud I just wouldn't be able to, it's so weird. I think I missed out on a lot of the basics I should have learned when in school. Once I got to secondary school the extra support stopped and I was too scared to ask for help.
I think I will go back to my gp now we are out of lockdown. I really want to find another job in the new year and really hope I can pass my English course.

Tori_Scope

Don't worry about taking a bit of time to reply, that's totally fine @Marie88 It's been good to see you around the community more. 

Even if you don't have one to one tutor support, is there a course leader or something you could speak to? They might be able to arrange some extra support for you, or help you to access other services.

I'd definitely recommend that you go back to your GP! I agree that this is worth investigating further.

I also hope that you pass your English course, and manage to find another job. When does your English course finish? 

dolfrog

Marie88 said:

I think I have a language disorder as all my life I have struggled with communication and expressing my thoughts and describing things both spoken and written. I struggled with English and most other subjects at school.  I’m in my early 30s now and started doing an online English course but really struggling with it. I think I’m going to look for a private tutor to help me.  I just really want this diagnosed, I saw my GP in 2019 and explained my problems and they tried to refer me for an assessment but it wasn’t accepted because I’m an adult and wasn’t in education at the time, so maybe now I’m studying part time and struggling I will be able to. But I still don’t see why I had to be in education to be referred. 

Some of the main things I struggle with are:

Limited vocabulary
Find it hard to learn new words and remember them
Struggle to put things into my own words both spoken and written
Struggle to write emails, job applications, have to ask family member to help me
Staying quiet in social situations as can’t find the words to join in, or out of fear of being laughed at as I have in the past
Find it hard to make friends
Forget words/not knowing name of something, so will just say ‘that thing’
Struggle to understand jokes
Misunderstand things people say to me
Struggle to keep up with conversations
Struggle to understand verbal instructions, needs to be written out clearly
Find it hard to form my own opinions on most things

Because of this I’ve always found it hard to make friends and it feels lonely and brings me down. I have my family and partner who are great but I just wish I could make my own friends and feel like I can be more independent and not rely on their help all the time. I also struggled at work in an office roles, emails were a nightmere. I have persistent pain so admin work is most suitable for me but these difficulties hold me back so much and I’m worried about finding another job.

Just wondered if anyone else can relate to this or has any advice?

Sorry for my late reply.
What you are describing could be the Temporal type of Auditory Processing Disorder. 
Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is a listening disability, or the brain not being able to affectively process what the ears hear. APD can be genetic, and or can be acquired via severe ear infections such Otitis Media with Effusion (glue ear), or brain injury. Some can also acquire it in later life as a result of a stroke or part of dementia. 
There are 4 main types of APd are -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 and share many of your sound based processing issues as part of my APD, I was the first adult to be diagnosed has having APD back in 2003, and part of the assessment The Random Gap Detection Test which measures the size of gap between sounds you are cognitively able to process explained my dyslexia symptom, and why i have problems processing speech when others talk too fast to process the gaps between words. 

You could have a look at my Evernote web page " Gaps in Sound - Auditory Gap Detection and Auditory Perception" 

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s329/sh/1c87aa56-9c56-4b25-9849-417d96b86db9/8a2821317cfcc4fe1488acb63fc606a6 
and 

 "Auditory Processing Disorder and Some Related Issues" 

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s329/sh/be9fe329-b4c9-410b-aa54-b3068d4105e7/64cf37b4b9e217a2b2d52e125a9db6c4  

 and may be 

"Some International Auditory Processing Disorder Research Papers" which are listed country by country.  

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s329/sh/f5a4fffb-bf47-491b-97e3-e3cbee583af6/514394d1b0bf900e8ab031ed701d89c7 

I hope this helps

EricaMcD

Are you studying on a college or university course?  If you are then I would contact their student support centre.  They should be able to advise you on how to get an educational psychological assessment.  If you are able to get an assessment then you will be able to get further support.  Professor Amanda Kirby is a recognised advocate of assisting people with learning disabilities and publishes a lot of information online.