• Replies 5 replies
  • Subscribers 83 subscribers
  • Views 793 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Identifying needs

NAS78985

Hi there,

I’ve recently been referred for ASC diagnosis by my GP after many years of fluctuating mental health (anxiety/depression) and my Uni have asked me to outline how this affects my study and what support I might need whilst I wait another year for my diagnosis.

I’m really struggling to answer this as I’ve only ever been me so I don’t know what the neurotypical norm is if that makes sense. For example, I find ‘speed reading ‘ or ‘skim reading’ impossible- I have to read the whole sentence and paragraph- I don’t even really understand how there is an alternative to this?! Is this related to my potential diagnosis or do I just need to improve this skill? My next module seems to have a reading list that’s just not possible without it.

For lots of things I don’t know if something is a difficulty specific to me or just a normal part of life. For example, I study part time with the OU and have a toddler to take care of- time management can be tricky and if our day has not gone well then by the time my allocated evening study time arrives my energy is waaaay too depleted- I’m in shutdown mode. Autism/mental health or just normal studying mum problems? 

I have a lot of problems with executive functioning, being organised just enough to function and care for my bubba takes 100% of my mental energy. This impacts my study sometimes but it’s all so interlinked and holistic that I don’t know how to fill out the disability forms they’ve sent that relate to study support. I’m always going to prioritise making sure that we’re fed, slept and reasonably clean before study but I’ve dropped out of bricks and mortar Uni many years ago and really want to complete my degree now that I’ve been gifted a second chance to do so. (I considered Open Uni when I worked but there would have been absolutely no way I could have coped with normal life self-care stuff, work and uni- I could barely keep on top of the normal life stuff when I worked full time as it was!).

If anybody has any pointers of how to fill these forms or services which might be able to help me do them and be really grateful.

Thanks so much for reading all that and for any useful advice

:D 

Parents Reply Children
  • in reply to NAS78985

    Hello, first of all I'm glad to read you're doing the paperwork, that's a good start! Forms can be very daunting even for neurotypical people, especially if you also have a toddler to care for! 

    I usually skim read. I will try to give you an example - it may or may not work for you. I'm a slow reader, so skim reading helps me speed it up a little. My partner is a fast reader - and even when I skim read he still manages to read faster than me! Everyone is different and that's ok! :)


    I'll use your own message as an example:


    I’ve been trying but I just don’t understand it- like if I read random words off the page then it’s just gobbledegook. But how do you know which words carry the meaning without reading all of them?


    So, first of all I keep the context in mind. I know from reading the message you replied to that the context is "skim reading". This is important, as it helps me understand the 'random words' - they are not so random now that I know the context.

    I've highlighted here the words that I think are key. So when you say "trying .... don't understand" and knowing the context is "skim reading" - what I take from this is that you try skim reading but find it difficult to understand. 

    Then "which words carry the meaning" and a question mark at the end of that sentence. Because of the question mark and the words "which words" I know you're asking a question. You want to understand how to find the words that carry the meaning. I don't need to read the rest of that sentence, because I now have enough information to understand what you're asking.

    How to find the words that carry the meaning

    - It takes practice. I find that shorter words aren't usually key words (with the exception of negatives, like "don't", "not", "aren't - these are important as they can drastically alter the meaning).

    - Verbs usually carry a lot of meaning. In the example above "trying" and "don't understand" are self-explanatory when you keep the context of skim reading in mind.

    - Noticing the punctuation also helps, if the writer is good. If you see a question mark at the end of a sentence, you know the writer is asking a question. If you see a colon (:) you know the writer will provide more information in the next sentence.

    Of course sometimes this will fail and I will need to go back and read the full sentence to make sense of it. That's also ok.

    Hope this helps! But if it doesn't... don't worry, everyone is different! You're probably still a faster reader than I am! ;)