How do learning disabilities affect people with high IQs?

Question

I'm 15 and have an IQ of 138 but I have learning disabilities when with relation to language witch makes it near impossible to learn foreign languages, spell well, and read in a fast manner. Do my learning disabilities detract from my intelligence? If so by how much?

Answer 1

It just means you have to study harder in certain subjects that are harder to retain the information for general tests and major exams. I'm the same way.

Answer 2

I have to chuckle anytime I hear about someone being like Einstein when it is well documented that Einstein was autistic.  This is on Wikipedia, youtube, just about everywhere.

Anyways, I have a very high IQ that has been measured 8x's by psychologists with scores betw 147-163.  I am visuospatial dyslexic and dysgraphic.  Since I read on a 3rd grade level I don't bother reading material for school, never have.  Even getting a master's.  

I do not think that your or my learning disabilities detract from intelligence.  I think that those like us gifted, yet are LD think outside the box and have unconventional resourceful ways to solve problems.  

I never spent much time studying in school because my abilities/disabilities altered my learning and I overdeveloped memory.  So I didn't take many notes and learned to recall detailed things easily.  We think differently, which is a problem for some teachers who want to pidgeon hole how everybody thinks, but some are not inferior and do accept it.  

The biggest problems in school I found were in math.  The teacher would always say yes you have the right answer but you skipped steps and I am like what, I just look at something and know how to solve it and they want every step broken down, meanwhile my mind skips steps, I don't even realize that I am doing it.  

Also in science I annoyed some teachers because i could look at an experiment (model) and tell it wasn't going to work before it was tested, even when it was supposed to work, so this is frustrating to some.  And then some will think that you are lazy.  

You will or have had teachers same as I that focus on the weaknesses, and then there are those that focus on the strengths.  In one year 2nd grade I was referred to the psychologist who promptly said I am retarded and need to be in sp. ed.  My parents got a second opinion, my score was 147 and I was placed in the gifted program.  I found this all the way through school.  

Some teachers think you are brilliant, and fabulous and they are so inspired by you and others can't wait to be rid of you because you are a problem.  These teachers doubt your intelligence and focus on weak areas and constantly underestimate your true potential.  

Answer 3

Everyone has strengths and weaknesses.  

I know I am very clever and I do very well on IQ tests.  But I am dyslexic and possibly have ADD which means I cannot read books.  I can read very well, but cannot concentrate on it for long enough to maintain my interest.  I struggle to remember things and I am very indecisive.  Yet people I know often come to me for advice on helping their children because they know I am very intuitive when it comes to children and thier motives and parenting/teaching strategies.

My son is very clever and could say whole sentences by the time he was 2 and could read before he started scool at 4, but he has ADHD which holds him back at school.  He doesn't concentrate on being accurate in his work and often gets thrown out of the class for calling out things that he finds clever or amusing and just has to tell everyone.  His friends are now catching him up accademically as he is a self directed learner and can't concentrate on things that have not caught his enthusiasm.

I think lots of people could tell you similar stories.  Some things they really struggle with yet are very clever in other ways.

I think I am happy with myself to accept that I am an inteligent person and I have dyslexia and probably ADD.  My dissabilities do not take anything away from my inteligence.

In my sons case it stops him getting the fullest benefits from his education, but I know he will do well and use his strengths in a possible way.

I have waffled a bit, but I think it is something you have to work out yourself, but make any disability to your strength.  (Like - I can spell better than my friends no because I have learned so many spelling strategies and I teach them to others - just the same with organisation strategies and learning tecniques(I can't spell that though!))

Answer 4

IQ has no relation in learning a particular skill. That is not your learning disability. We learn easily what we are interested in. It is only your focus and concentration while learning foreign language is missing, due to  reasons best known to you.

Answer 5

I have dyslexia and have an IQ of 135. I know several people that have learning disabilities and have emotional desturbance that also have high IQ's.

You just think drifferently than most people. I cannot spell very good.  I use mirosoft word. It has spell check and a grammer check. That has got me through.

As far as a forein languages, try Americal Sign Language. It counts as a forein language in colleges if you take it four years. You may ask your counslor about a concordance class at a community college. You get free tuistion for classes if you are still in high school, and count for both high school and college. You can take an ASL class and have it count for your high school forein language requierment.  

Answer 6

A learning disability by no means detracts from your intelligence. I think its important for people to understand that any disability doesn't mean you CAN'T do something, it just means you may need to do it in a different way than a typical person. Learning disability really just means you learn differently :)

Answer 7

Albert Einstein, the greatest mind of the 20th century who made discoveries in quantum physics that is still puzzling scientist to this date, had a learning disability so severe that he did not learn to talk until he was almost 5 years old. So having a learning disability does not mean that a person is less intelligent than the next person who does not have a learning disability.  

Answer 8

NO! Absolutely not.  You could learn a foreign language probably more quickly and more easily than other people if you were immersed in the language. After all you speak English don't you and had no problem learning that?  You just need to visit the country of choice to learn the language with your ears instead of second hand and writing. As far as being a poor speller goes that is what they have lap top computers and spell checker for. Most schools will now allow kids to take lap tops to school and take notes that way.