Lavis Knight

Lately i have had a very hard time writing. Almost as if i have become less able to string together words.

Is there any scientific studies on this? What i mean to say is if someone stays away from academic studies too long or litterally stops trying to think critically about things do people often suffer in their grammar and writing skills?

Chris Porter

Critical thinking does take continuing practice to execute efficiently, sort of like arithmatic. That's because some of the most effective tools of critical thinking involve recognizing and applying correct algorithms to problems. Recognizing informal fallacies is done through practice. Practice needs some sort of 'upkeep' to be effective whenever you want to use the skill.

skepticalbip

I would think that this is a good possibility. I have certainly found the opposite to be true... I recently started a journal and try to write at least a thousand words each day expressing my thoughts, concerns, ideas, etc. and have found that, over time, the more I write the more easily and fluidly the thoughts come. You may try this to see if it helps.

It is impossible to tell how much of a problem you are having or your age from your post but, if it is serious, you may want to see a physician and be checked for Parkinsons or Alzheimer's. I hope you take this suggestion as an attempt to be helpful rather than an attempt to frighten.

Good luck
bip

CanoeMan

How old are you, and what are you doing right now? After my first year at the university, I had my head so full of math my vocabulary was actually suffering. It's true, I was actually worse at speaking. I guess if you overuse one part of the brain, the other parts suffer for it.

Then again, it might have been all the excessive drinking... But I blame the math.

dancer_rnb

Bloodflow problems may also be a possibility, and are treatable.

Viti

I have lost much of my vocabulary and writing skills due to working with the public. I have to really take things down to a simple level for the majority of customers and like an unusued muscle, my speech and writing has weakened.

Posting and reading here has helped, though, and I have gotten some of it back.

A friend of mine complained as well, that after teaching ESL for many years she has lost her vocab and complex sentence structuring as well.

jayh

I know a woman with several children who says she lost IQ with each one--all that baby talk.

Actually does the OP get migraine headaches (or the painless variants such as visual 'auras' --flashing lights, temporary blind spots?) When I get these symptoms I can see a marked drop in vocabulary and comprehension (which recovers in my case when the event passes)

Side point:

People notice that families that have lots of reading produce children that are good readers and assume that it is the love-of-reading atmosphere that does it (though statistically children adopted into such families do not follow that pattern).

Reading for me is normally effortless, hours of reading is fun and pleasant. But when I get hit with a strong migraine (even with little or no pain), my ability to read drops to near zero and is very uncomfortable and extremely tiring. To hear me attempt to read out loud at that time would sound exactly like the traditional very poor reader. This has gotten me to realize how much of success in reading depends on almost innate effortless word recognition, something we normally don't even think about or appreciate, and I've started to speculate that in some poor readers, perhaps for hereditary reasons, those associations are not easy and no amount of 'reading is fun' indoctrination or remedial instruction will make it easy or fun for those people.

Maybe it's time to reconsider what makes a person a poor reader.

JaredM

Certain drugs, such as anti-convulsant and anti-psychotic drugs, can cause serious cognitive problems. This has been observed in many patients treated with such medications.

--Jared

starling

I dunno really. I've been having problems with that too. (Yes people I did used to be more coherent than now!) I advise you use the capital 'I' and don't worry about it too much. Try to find fun in what you want to do; if you learn to revel in the ecstasy of eloquent words, then even burgeoning mental problems won't take you down but a smidgen at a time.

EasyTarget

My writing skills have definitely deteriorated from disuse, although reading/posting here has helped a bit. If my blood sugar goes down, it's hopeless, though. Mmmm, food...