Speaking - Incorrect usage of words.

[robyn]

I pretty much got what you did ruth, 99 in the verbal and below average in the performance (i dont know what exactly but lower than average, much lower than my verbal, but not too low cause I know my dyspraxia was classed as moderate, in comparison to the dignosis of moderate to severe disgraphia and my nnew diagnosis of severe add). I def think any1 who thinks they should be diagnosed to go for it, and know that you should expect a decent assesment. besides which pooky, you may change your mind in future and decide to return to uni for further study, or differnet study or study through work and all the assistance youd be due is so much easier to organise if you know your diagnosis before hand. It really is a relief to see it on paper, and they do point out the positives too, I got a report saying that I had very good academic potential, which was very reassuring at the time cause I was falling to pieces thinking I was no use. It also helps to know the details for when people turn round and say, you cant have that your too clever, or Id have never thpought you have that, it mustnt give you much bother if it isnt noticable!!! Atleast when you know the details of exactly how dyspraxia affects you its easier to know when and what support you need and to justify this to the uninformed masses.

[jme]

hi pooky,

well psychometric testing may not necessarily pick up your motor problems (some dyspraxics do great on performance IQ tests). A motor assessment will pick up motor problems.

an assessent for language problems (expressive, receptive, auditory processing ...etc) will pick up language problems which you may have.

psychologists may pick up associated learning/cognitive problems, physiotherapists are probably better to assess the motor problems, and a language pathologist (or maybe a psychologist) may be good at assessing the language problems dyspraxics may have.

maybe try and seek a thorough language assessment and motor assessment.

so far, have you had a motor assessment? (gross motor, fine motor, coordination etc??). have you had a full language assessmet (like when they make you repeat complicated nonsense words or very long sentneces...). maybe ask your dr for a motor assessment and a language assessment... just a thought. i wouldnt go to a psychologist for a motor assessment though!!!

[Pooky]

No not had anything like that. Just 30/40mins of those wais tests which as I say apart from the comprehension section it is the type of tests I really don't mind.

Yes perhaps motor and language is the way to go. as i definately have lanaguage and walking/tripping/falling over issues. Gets reallly frustating sometimes.

I mean I didn't learn to catch a ball properly till I was about 12 and I still don't catch it all the time now. Was funny last weekend trying to play frisbee, if peeps didn't know me they would intentionally think I was throwing it in the wrong direction on purpose.

[jme]

yeah, you'd probably have more luck with that strategy. sounds like you had a rather awful assessment... and language probably wasnt even screened well (if at all).

by definition Dyspraxia is first and foremost a motor problem and I don’t understand why it shouldn’t be assessed as such. I think many people forget this. i also think that just because you may have a large discrepancy between performance IQ and verbal IQ does not necessarily mean you have dyspraxia. There are probably some great athletes who have this profile! And it wouldnt surprise me if there are some people who have severe motor problems who are excellent at block design tasks. So using this questionable criteria, psychologists would catch some cases of dyspraxia but at the same time, miss a lot of cases of dyspraxia. (from what i understand, the DSM-V says nothing about cognitive testing for diagnosis...).

I think that sometimes people are barking up the wrong tree by only going to a psychologist (or neuropsychologist).

“It should be remembered that by itself the WISC cannot be used to confirm the diagnosis of Dyspraxia. A review of the child's history and a Motor Skills Screening test should also be used.” M. Portwood.

[robyn]

just being pernicity here, but just because some one is a great athlete doesnt mean they dont have dyspraxia! Im an excellent horse rider, and was good at some sports at school, and others out there may have specific athletic talents despite dyspraxia.

[jme]

wasnt trying to put dyspraxics down. however more often than not most dyspraxics find sport very challenging (in the same way that most dyslexics find reading a chore). was trying to say that just because someone has a large descrepency between verbal IQ and performance iQ, does not necessarilly == dyspraxia. a motor assessment really should be carried out as well because dyspraxia is a motor problem. you wouldnt diagnoise someone dyslexic if you didnt give then a reading test. if someone does extremely well on a motor assessment, then they dont have dyspraxia.

didn't mean to sound like i am putting psychologists down either. psychologists should indeed be able to do motor assessments. and on average dyspraxics do have lower performance IQ scores than verbal IQ scores... however there are always exeptions. some dyspraxics have verbal problems as well and may actually have lower verbal IQ scores.

just trying to say that motor skills must be thoroughly assessed in order to diagnose dyspraxia.

[robyn]

I know, like I said I was being pernickety. I just v much dislike the general idea that dyspraxia is definable or that it defines our lives.

[arthmelow]

I had a 40min session with a stroppy educational psychologist (through the university, I didn't get a choice who to see) just before christmas. It didn't help that she started the session of telling me she didn't see the point in testing for dyspraxia She gave me about 30mins of wais (is it wais?) tests, and got really stroppy on the comprehension section with me and told me I really should know the answers seeing as I was doing a PhD The final conclusion on the report that was sent to me suggested there was nothing wrong with me and it was all down to self-confidence.

Not surprising really when all the wais tests are about logic and sequencing, and nothing to do with testing me on anything motor orientated. I know sequencing, puzzles, etc are one of the traits of dyspraxia but I don't really have any issues with that part, I mean I have a degree in Maths. If she tells me to repeat 1 4 46 7 9 10 backwards to her then it isn't an issue and I do that sort of thing all the time. I really love Suduko. The only part I struggled on was the comprehension.

WAIS stands for Welscher Adult Intelligence Scale. It gives you an idea
of your IQ. Educational psychologists like it because it tests different features of intelligence and then they can compare it to your actual
ability to do certain things - so they get previous grades down, ask you to dictate lots of stuff, read a lot of words out loud... This is not what was being said above: the "performance" section of the WAIS measures non-verbal reasoning. I was given a short version of it when I was diagnosed, along with a lot of other tests. It took an entire morning iirc, from 9.30 until 12.30 because it was combined with a lot of other tests for fine motor control ( I did the Morrisby one iirc ) and general writing ability.

My dyspraxia affects my short term or "working" memory greatly. It also affects my ability to multitask on any scale ( because I have to concentrate a lot more than normal to do a task ), so certain tests in the WAIS pick up on this: Arithmetic ( a section there ) needs the ability to remember and calculate at the same time - this slows me down greatly to the extent where I'll just forget the numbers!

It is likely that your educational psychologist was only focussing on dyslexia rather than dyspraxia. I was asked to do fine motor skills tests,
was quizzed on my development as a baby ( walking, crawling, talking ) and my general gross motor skills ( what do you find difficult in practical labs? etc ). She was also sharp enough to pick up on standard misprounciations I was making and to pick up that my main hindrance in any of the tasks she was giving me was my memory and difficulty in sequences.

HOWEVER, there was one task that didn't fall into line ( much like your sequences ): I was asked to write out symbols for numbers according to a sequence (Digit Symbol Coding) She explained that this was because my main degree is chemistry and obviously I have a lot more practise than normal at that type of task. Also, because I was given the short form I was not given the Comprehension or the Information part of the WAIS ( along with some other sections ). I did ask why at the next session and they said it wasn't particularly relevant to what they're doing, and that for international students the test wasn't fair because it was based in Western culture.

Lots of googling eventually led me to a statement that said that some learning disorders have a lower "ACID" profile in the WAIS. ACID being Arithmetic, Comphrension, Information and Digit Span.

If you did Object Symbol Coding and Object Assembly then those both test motor skills. I have a feeling you might not have done. wiki page is below anyway:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wechsler_A ... ence_Scale

On its own, it tests IQ. It does NOT test for learning disorders, unless they are using the WAIS as a psychological instrument version, which is designed for people who have had a stroke or suchlike and their results are compared to non-brain damaged norms.

[Dotty_shoes]

In my lecture today at least 1 in every 5 words I wrote was one that the lecturer was saying at the time I was writing and not what I wanted to write...of course by the time I'd crossed out the random words I'd totally forgotten the point she'd just made and got totally lost...dammnit

[Dotty_shoes]

eh...I'm sorry, I just toally misunderstood this thread...^ignore previous reply^

[rah]

In my lecture today at least 1 in every 5 words I wrote was one that the lecturer was saying at the time I was writing and not what I wanted to write...of course by the time I'd crossed out the random words I'd totally forgotten the point she'd just made and got totally lost...dammnit

that used to happen to me all the time in lectures, i don't think i ever managed to get any decent notes! although it didn't help that i hated my course and had little interest in any lectures to begin with...

i was taking part in a little quiz thing at my photography course last week so that we could revise some of the topics that we've covered and i got the question "name one way to help reduce camera shake" and my answer was "use a slower shutter speed"....i honestly believed i'd said the right thing even when someone corrected me! and then it clicked and i felt like a bit of an idiot

[thelaticsfan]

I repeat myself over and over,

Voicemails are a nightmare for me, "Hi its Sean, Just want you to ring me back if you can, just need to talk about the issue we were talking about last time, so err.. yeah can u ring me back and (at this point im thinking why did i say and? im finished!) err.. ye goodbye"

[Captain_Ludd]

I quite often tend to be having two conversations at the same time, one with myself and one with the other person which can get pretty confusing at time.
Also like Ruth I quite often come out with some stuff that could be easily misconstrued, Its like I hear myself saying something while my brain is saying "no that is not what I meant to say" but by that time its to late.