<p>So my AP psychology class is on the Disability/Disorder unit and I have finally discovered the culprit of my reading problems. </p>
<p>Does anyone have experience with this disorder? I scored an 800 on the Writing, high 700 on the Math, and a low 600 on the CR section of the SAT. I am in the top of my high school class (currently a junior) which is very competitive. The reason I mention this is that I know my mental capacity is in no way lacking. I have no difficulty, usually, at earning good grades in AP classes. However, my one area of major weakness is most certainly reading. Is there anything I can do to overcome this problem?<br>
This explains my issues with SAT Critical Reading. According to a scientific article symptoms include:
* difficulty identifying single words
* problems understanding the sounds in words, sound order, or rhymes
* problems with spelling
* transposing letters in words
* omitting or substituting words
* poor reading comprehension
* slow reading speed (oral or silent)</p>
<p>A few of these, such as difficulty with spelling, do not apply to me. But, the symptoms such as comphrension difficulties and omitting words(which I used to do as a young child when reading novels that were very boring, often times skipping entire chapters at a time that were uninteresting. In addition this article (<a href="http://www.minddisorders.com/Py-Z/Reading-disorder.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.minddisorders.com/Py-Z/Reading-disorder.html</a>) nicely summarizes it.</p>
<p>Is there anything that I can do to cope with this plague that has been affecting me my entire life?</p>
<p>You would probably be best served to get yourself to an excellent clinical psychologist who specializes in educational testing. Bring your SAT results and describe the issues you’ve been experiencing. If it sounds to the psychologist as if there is an LD, then appropriate testing will be able to pinpoint the exact nature of the problem, and a skilled tester who has worked with gifted students with LD’s should be able to sit down with you after completing the testing and make suggestions and recommenations as to how you can best cope with whatever problem she finds. To find such a psychologist, you could check with your family’s pediatrician or family doctor, or with the counseling department at your school.</p>
<p>Do you think I would qualify though? I am a fairly strong student, other than my reading problems.</p>
<p>Many highly qualified and intelligent students have learning disabilities. If you do have an LD – and I don’t think anyone would presume to diagnose with internet info – then it seems that with your strong intellect and cognitive abilities, you’ve been able to compensate extremely well without accommodations. And there is no reason to think that you won’t continue to do so! But it may be that, if you have an LD, better understanding of techniques you could use to deal with reading more effectively, or using assistive technologies that would allow you to hear material at the same time you read it, or any number of other suggestions a testing psychologist might come up with based on test results, could be helpful.</p>
<p>It is very common for intellectually gifted LD students not to be identified early if they can find a way to do well in school. Sometimes people assume that the student is just not paying attention, or just isn’t good at math, or other explanations that are not related to an LD since, in many people’s minds, LD’s are not associated with highly intelligent and successful students. (And of course, some students without LD’s aren’t great at math aor don’t pay a lot of attention – and that’s a different story!) </p>
<p>It sounds as if you have self-identified with a list of symptoms that could conceivably suggest the possibility of an LD. You have a 200 point gap in your SAT scores, which is far from unheard of, but which could support your theory. If you are concerned, then it would seem worth checking out, particularly since you might get some help with reading dense material more effectively, which would be useful for the rest of high school and in college. I’m not saying that you couldn’t continue to do very well without this knowledge, but if you do have an LD, knowing about it and understanding if there are better ways to address learning in the affected areas could be useful.</p>
<p>I was not Dx until college. I am what they call gifted/LD. I hade 4 LD’s though,so it’s amazing that i got though high school.</p>
<p>^^Ucacheer, It is not totally unusual for high IQ LD students to “learn” compensation skills to work through their disabilities. One good thing is now you know and understand those areas where you will need to compensate and hopefully can find additional skills.</p>
<p>I hope!! College is so frustrating!! I took psychophamocology( upper level course) when i was a freshmen ,but got a c do only to my writing!! I understand high level content,but can’t challenge myself in my strengths bc of my LD’s!! I just wish i could afford a school more suited for my needs.</p>