Is Your Struggle with Expressive Language a Sign of a Learning Disability?

[wolram]

My brain will not allow me to put into words what it thinks, there is a distinct anomaly between words and thought, am i just illiterate?

 

[lisab]

What sort of thoughts do you have trouble communicating? I often have trouble explaining ideas that are very visual, like a mathematical concept that I picture graphically. But something like a sequence of events, that's much easier to put into words.

Emotions are extremely difficult to find words for, for me.

 

[moe darklight]

Have you thought about buying books on rhetoric, argumentation, grammar, etc. ... explaining one's ideas clearly is a skill that takes practice and technique like any other. Some people make careers out of being especially good at it.

 

[wolram]

Have you thought about buying books on rhetoric, argumentation, grammar, etc. ... explaining one's ideas clearly is a skill that takes practice and technique like any other. Some people make careers out of being especially good at it.

May be that is what i need, my thoughts can be so clear to me ,but putting them into words
is frustrating, it is as if there is a disconnect between thought and motor function.

 

[wolram]

Example, i think i am a very serious thinker, but i come out with stupid quips that i have not thought about, they are just spontanious, i do not even like comedy much, or am immune to most jokes ,or what most people think as funny.

 

[david90]

Have you thought about buying books on rhetoric, argumentation, grammar, etc. ... explaining one's ideas clearly is a skill that takes practice and technique like any other. Some people make careers out of being especially good at it.

I have the same problem. Writing about something that I know a lot about can sometime take me a long time. I know what it is about but I just can't explain it in writing

How do you develop this skill?

 

[lisab]

Example, i think i am a very serious thinker, but i come out with stupid quips that i have not thought about, they are just spontanious, i do not even like comedy much, or am immune to most jokes ,or what most people think as funny.

When you think about things, do you think in language? Or just ideas that are disconnected from language, i.e., just abstract concepts?

 

[wolram]

When you think about things, do you think in language? Or just ideas that are disconnected from language, i.e., just abstract concepts?

I guess they are abstract, like patterns that fit, as in words that are true or not, intuitions that a statement is wrong, but not being able to put these intuitions into words.

 

[lisab]

I guess they are abstract, like patterns that fit, as in words that are true or not, intuitions that a statement is wrong, but not being able to put these intuitions into words.

That's EXACTLY the kind of thought that I can't explain well...so you aren't alone.

I've found that ideas that I can think in language, I can explain easily. But abstract concepts are very difficult.

 

[wolram]

Confused so am i, my boss called me on the telephone with a problem, i had no idea what the root cause was, telephone calls and descriptions of what is happening are notoriously ambiguous, yet my thoughts were in lines, if a line was broken that is where the problem was, and yes i was spot on, even though i know there are multiple initial causes for the same problem.

 

[lewdtenant]

i sometimes have difficulty keeping things in order when explaining something technical.. because I'm trying to think ahead about what comes next and how it all fits together.. then sometimes i skip stuff and have to go back and i sound disorganized, eccentric. sometimes i just embrace it though, just to mess with people.. depending on the circumstances of course.. i'll stop rambling now..

 

[rootX]

I thought it's just me

I often have trouble explaining ideas that are very visual, like a mathematical concept that I picture graphically. But something like a sequence of events, that's much easier to put into words.

Emotions are extremely difficult to find words for, for me.

I can think well but as soon I try to understand what I am thinking (not even when I am communicating with someone else) everything becomes messy, vague, disorganized and incomprehensible.

because I'm trying to think ahead about what comes next and how it all fits together.. then sometimes i skip stuff and have to go back and i sound disorganized, eccentric. sometimes i just embrace it though, just to mess with people.. depending on the circumstances of course.. i'll stop rambling now..

I also get this problem when I try to write what I am thinking. Everything becomes messy and I write random sentences/words that don't fit with existing parts. I would know from my head that I thought it all correctly (with all correct words) but time delay between writing and thinking it in the head or something like that ...

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Often when I go to speak words don't come out of my mouth in the right order or I'll accidentally just spit out a conclusion without a proper preface. Its worse sometimes than others. I really need to think in order to communicate an idea or the words just pour out in a jumble. I'm dyslexic so I have assumed that is part of the issue.

 

[OmCheeto]

It may be the multi-dimensional capability of the mind vs the one dimensional pattern of speech.

Take for example teaching someone to drive. First you have to describe what each of the knobs, buttons, levers, and pedals do. Then you have to describe how all of these objects interact with each other once the vehicle is in motion. Then you have to describe how other cars on the road have to be interacted with, along with fire engines, stop lights, and a myriad of other mobile and non-mobile objects.

I don't think I've ever seen a book on how to drive a car.

I've pretty much learned not to even start to answer questions which people think have simple 15 second answers when I know they really don't have the desire to listen to the full 2 hour answer. I either tell them I don't know, or, "It's really complicated".

 

[Math Is Hard]

Is this something that has always been a problem or something that has been worrying you recently?

 

[wolram]

Is this something that has always been a problem or something that has been worrying you recently?

I think i have all ways been the same, but am getting worse, l all ways remember what an RAF examiner said (You know what words mean but can not spell, you only got one maths problem wrong, but you working out is impossible to follow, well never mind we will soon knock you into shape), i did not join, though i wish i had.

 

[Pythagorean]

Is there any easy way to tell, as an adult, if you have dyslexia? I've always had problems with my right eye... it was actually a "wandering eye" in my youth and I had three surgeries on it to correct it.

Ironically, my right eye has better "vision" in terms of focus length. However, it's very frustrating and difficult to read if I cover my left eye and just read through my right eye. I can see the words, kind of, but... I don't know, it's hard to explain, it's like they're smooshed together, or overlapping each other or something. I have to go really slow and go back and check. I can focus on like four or five letters at a time with my right eye in this post window.

Other than that, I don't have to cover my right eye to see straight or anything, I can read just fine with both eyes open, but I'm afraid that because I had a lazy eye for so long that I don't really use my right eye that much even when it's open.

 

[Evo]

I'm an "audio", I can understand written and verbal information quite easily, but the majority of people I know are "visual", they can't put things together in their mind unless they see it. "It" can be a useless diagram of two boxes connected by a line, but until they get that visual, they can't understand that "it leaves here and ends up there". Funny how the mind works.

 

[hypatia]

Their is a class of learning disabilities called expressive language disability. Most people with a language disability have very little difficulty with spontaneous language. However, in a demand{stress, put on the spot} situation, the same person might struggle to organize her thoughts or to find the right words.