First Part Of The Assessment...

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Is the puzzles that I am no good at these days since the last burnout/breakdown. Prior to these burnout/breakdown events I would be fine with puzzles.

Are the tests timed?

Good luck with your assessment, MG.

The assessment on the NHS isn't as complex, seemingly, as some of the others that people seem to have done overseas.

But it does take multiple hours of in-person time assessment, in any case.

Thanks.

Yes, most of mine were timed.

Don't worry if you can or can't "do" them. That's what the diagnosis is all about.
There are some where an autistic person is supposed to succeed and others where they aren't.

You won't know which is which, but that's what they get paid for.

Ferris might be a good person for you to ask because he was assessed in Wales.

Thanks. So it does not matter how well I do in the tests. It is more to give an indication of what I can or can't do?

I know one thing which my mind doesn't get. (And people have explained it to me but it does not sink in). The difference between sympathy and empathy as my brain joins the two together as one and can't seem to separate them.

I was with that health board area and when I moved they fast forwarded me beecause they realized I had been waiting a long time. I am greatful as my life has been on hold! (Also greatful to the autism team where I was as they did support me while I was waiting).

They won't ask you specific questions like what the difference is between sympathy and empathy.
If they're investigating your empathy you won't even know it.
They do it in sneaky ways and through observation.

Most of the tests were actual shape puzzles and vocabulary questions.
I had to do some dot-to-dots that were timed.
I don't remember what those were about.

They'll give you some toys to play with, and kids' picture books.
I don't know how they do that online, so a good chunk of your assessment is likely in person.

Apparently it is all online somehow as fsr as I was told, apart from the first bit which I have already done. Is interesting as I don't knw how this can be done yet. I am going to find out!

Shape puzzles may be assessing non-verbal IQ or some subcategory like visual spacial short term memory or working memory. There are many studies showing working memory issues associated with ADHD and Autism (and related Executive Functioning).

Yes. ^

They determined I have a spatial learning disability and really low non-verbal.
My verbal was 25th percentile and non-verbal only 5th.

Probably best not to research the assessments to much or they could potentially misdiagnose you. Better to go in unprepared in this case. They are more screening for autism and its not really a pass fail. I did my assessment about a week ago and today they called to confirm what I already suspected. I am indeed on the spectrum.

What is low non verbal?

Often got told in school that my vocabulary was poor and told to read books at a time where I have never read so many books in my life! I stick to simpler words. Never had success trying to learn other languages. Gave up as soon as I was allowed. Actually in secondary school was put from a set next to the top right down to the lowest set above the remedial for a year by a head of year who was a PE teacher, just so I could avoid doing French, and I was supposed to go back up because the work in all the lessons was waay to easy, but the head of year died (She was 43) and I was stuck there for the year. The next year onwards we were choosing our subjects for 0 levels or CSE's with the headmaster who was a brilliant man... I was one of the two from that class to go for 0 levels. But then he had to scrap everything that was arranged as they used our school and other schools in Wales to test the new GCSE exams before introducing them to England, and they messed up big time. Our school has two A grades that year (There was no A star) which was the highest achieving school in Wales, and the county of Dyfed which was one of Wales' largest counties had just 18 A grades across all the schools in the entire area. Our headmaster was a genius as to get the better exam results, he only allowed us to study five subjects apart from compulsary maths and english, where all the other schools in the area studied seven subjects. This meant we could give more attention to the subjects we had chosen which I thought was an excellent idea and was why our school came out on top with the two A grades. I had C's and D's which was considered high that year. They had to lower the expected grades for collages and universities as no one could get in if they didn't! But they never put the grades right. When I saw my brothers grades and my nieces and nephews, who have had far higher grades (Especially nieces and hephews) for shockingly lower standards of work, I am puzzled. Employers thought I was thick as few employers know about the GCSE mess ups. I actually was offered to resit my maths as part of an employment training course, and I wanted to do a paper to get an A grade, but Wales didn't do A grade CSE's in resits. So I got a C grade with a 100% result. Only got 100% as I recognised the trick question they add to all maths exams to stop people getting 100%. They said to us when CSE's first came in that if one is stuck in a lower paper and one gets 100% they will grade the grade above. That was NOT true. I came away with a C.

To put it bluntly...

It means that when it comes to "nonverbal learning" she is dumber than most of the population.

But when it comes to verbal learning she is smarter than most of the population.

Low Non-Verbal means I don't learn without the use of direct words. I have an audio-visual processing disorder. That means I don't learn by watching people do things or by watching videos. That's probably because I can't picture things, so whatever I see can't be retained in my memory. That's why I'm face blind and I walk around in the dark hating daylight. In daylight there's too much visual input and my brain doesn't know what to do with it.

I'm very poor at making inferences because I need language and words in order to think. I can't just guess or predict. I can't even make decisions based on emotions because I have Alexithymia, meaning I don't know how to interpret my own feelings in the first place. If I'm dealing with another person's emotions they need to tell me in words what they're feeling or what happened. I can't just look at their face and understand, or read between the lines about their emotional state. It needs to be direct.

The poor auditory means I don't learn by listening, either. My ADHD gets in the way and I'm thinking about other things by the time the person stops talking. My mind is really fast but also has a delay in processing what it hears, so I"m always a few steps ahead or behind with comprehension.

If I want to learn something I need to read it in words, or explain it in words for others. Ideally the words are written and not spoken or heard. That's why I'm on here so much reading and writing to process thoughts.

5th percentile means only 5% of people my age are worse at Non-Verbal than I am.
25th pencentile for verbal is actually considered average and not great.
It means 25% of people are better with language than me.

Oh wait no, it means I'm better at language than 25% of people.
That's still not very great.
I used to excel in written language in my career but I guess my strokes killed my brain.

MG's my friend.