Does She Have An LD?

<p>Hello, </p>

<p>My friend has depression, and maybe what I think is a LD.
She has problems understanding materials in class, and problems memorizing despite hours of studying. She is disorganized. She does not know what she should put down for notes on the exam, etc.</p>

<p>She has poor grades and feels that she is stupid, but I do not think she is.</p>

<p>Is this symptomatic of a LD? She cannot afford to get diagnosed. I do not want her to waste her time getting tested if this she may not have an LD.</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

<p>If your friend has depression, let alone an LD, she cannot afford NOT to get diagnosed. Virtually every city in the US has low cost clinics where a young person can get help with depression. If you are comfortable naming your city or even your state, parents on this board can look for possible clinics where she could go. Depression is serious and can be treated. Difficulty concentrating and with memory, feeling stupid, etc. may be by-products of depression or this might be a depressed person with an LD or there might be something altogether different going on. A competent, caring professional will be able to figure it out. Also, if your friend is at a public school, it is very possible that there is a psychologist attached to your school district who is able to do testing for LD’s, and who might also be able to make a referral for a diagnosis and treatment of an emotional problem like depression. Many private schools also have psycholgists who can help. Please don’t assume that lack of funds poses an impossible barrier to diagnosis and treatment!</p>

<p>Location is Allen, Texas and Dallas Area (aka North Texas)</p>

<p>We are enrolled in college now, and the LD people just said to go to a specialist.
She is under going therapy right now for her depression.</p>

<p>But do you know of any low cost place that can diagnose LD?</p>

<p>If she has student health insurance, that will likely cover much of the cost. Check with the student health people.</p>

<p>She doesn’t have SHI.
Her family has no money.
She has insurance but it barely covers the cost of her psychiatric care. So either she will not have treatment for her depression and go out on a limb and try to get diagnosed with an LD, or she will continue using insurance to pay for her psychiatric care, and pay $300 out of pocket for the beginning of her diagnosis of maybe a LD.
I don’t even know if it is worth it.</p>

<p>Help please please!</p>

<p>Call Social Services in her city of residence and see if she can work with a social worker to get the medical services she needs. She can also ask the school health center if they can refer her to a service provider who will charge her on a sliding scale and allow her to create a payment plan. If none of this pans out, she should make an appointment with the Dean of Students, explain her situation, and ask if they have any advice/referrals for her. Sometimes, funds can be found to help students in trouble.</p>

<p>Does the university you attend (or a nearby university) have graduate programs in clinical psychology or educational psychology, and a clinic connected to the psychology Ph.D. or Ed.D. programs? If so, it may be possible to receive a very low cost evaluation there. Although the person doing the test battery will be an advanced Ph.D. or Ed.D. student, they will be supervised by an experienced, licensed professional. Often, clinics connected to a university’s psychology doctoral program are not the same as student psych. services, but an entirely separate entity. It would be worthwhile to call the Psychology and Educational Psychology graduate programs to see if very low cost or no cost or sliding scale LD evaluation is available there.</p>

<p>Very glad to hear that your friend is receiving treatment for her depression. If the clinic where she is receiving her therapy has someone on staff who is qualified to do an LD assessment, that might be another way to go.</p>

<p>I don’t think we have a clinic, but we’ll see.
Right now she is not wanting to get diagnosed with an LD because she thinks it will make her depression worse. I guess we’ll wait and see what happens in the Fall. I appreciate you guys’ advice and will keep it in mind for December/if she changes her mind.</p>

<p>Gracias!</p>

<p>Your friend may not have an LD at all, she just may need a help with developing her note-taking and study skills. If she never had to study much in HS (or if her HS wasn’t particularly demanding) she may not have developed these skills yet. Many colleges have academic support offices that offer classes or tutoring in study skills and in note-taking. Find out if your school has one. If it doesn’t, a nearby community college will.</p>

<p>If she does learn that she has a learning difference and gets a label, than this label will most likely come with specific suggestions for how best to accommodate for her learning differences. We all have them. No one learns the same way. It is just that some learning differences are not very compatible with traditional teaching methodology and so are considered “Learning Disabilities”. Once we know how we learn best, we can seek out environments that support that particular way of learning.</p>

<p>Think of it this way: Many left-handers can’t use right-handed scissors. Or, if they do manage to use them, they just can’t cut very well. Hand them a pair of lefty scissors and watch out! They will be cutting things up everywhere. Your friend just needs to find the “scissors” that will make life work well for her.</p>

<p>Yeah I understand the whole LD thing, I mean my mom taught LD kids and stuff.
It’s just that I am not a professional, so I can’t properly identify LD, I don’t have one so I am not familiar with the symptoms.</p>

<p>She always asks me questions on how to study, and I have spent hours this semester helping her through tutoring, explaining how I study, giving suggestions, etc.
Our school only provides note-taking services if she has an LD.
And she is too poor/depressed/stressed out to waste time in a class on note-taking. And I seriously doubt she would go to a free one. She usually says those things “are dumb and don’t help.”
Plus she is scared to drive at night, and since most events like that on campus occur in the evening…</p>

<p>And p.s. since her mom doesn’t want her to get diagnosed, it is unlikely that the school will permit diagnosis to begin…right? it seems like high schoolers are unable to go through with the diagnostic process with a noncompliant parents, and I imagine that this is also true for college students</p>

<p>p.p.s this is the same mother that did not want her to get diagnosed with depression and told officials long ago that her daughter was perfectly fine, leaving my friend suffering for many years before she sought treatment on her own</p>

<p>If she is 18, she is legally adult and can request assessment on her own. The only question might be about arranging payment if it isn’t covered by insurance, but as pointed out by others here, the money can almost always be found.</p>

<p>“And she is too poor/depressed/stressed out to waste time in a class on note-taking. And I seriously doubt she would go to a free one. She usually says those things “are dumb and don’t help.””</p>

<p>Well, if she hasn’t tried it, she can’t say it won’t help. The Ed. Psychologists who teach these classes at my local community college have worked wonders with students who committed to the work. Here these are semester-long (or longer) classes, not just one-night workshops.</p>

<p>Trying to convince someone irrational/depressed that something is not a waste of time despite never trying it is near impossible. </p>

<p>Try doing it sometime, haha.</p>

<p><em>Sigh</em></p>

<p>Guess I’ll hit up social services if her grades don’t improve next fall…</p>

<p>embroglio,</p>

<p>Here’s one more idea for you: find out why it is that she’s “scared to drive at night”. How much of that is due to a vision issue? Could some visual acuity or perception problem that hinders her reading/interpreting ability also be affecting her ability to see well enough when she’s driving at night?</p>

<p>You are being a good friend through all of this. Let us know how things work out.</p>

<p>She is an inexperienced driver.
This in addition to hitting many parked cars.</p>

<p>I’ve tried teaching.
I’m a bad teacher, haha.</p>

<p>Plus general anxiety/social phobia contribute to the lack of desire to drive at night and potentially get into an accident and be forced to confront people, etc.</p>

<p>We need a taxi service. :)</p>