NonVerbal Learning Disorder (NVLD)

[Lothlorien]

I'm curious about this. I read Andy's post and noticed that Heather pointed this out. I looked at a couple of sites....but still not exactly sure what this is.

Three things that really ticked off red flags were the reading issues (Missy has a horrible comprehension), the lack of humor (Missy also cannot understand that husband or I are joking much of the time and gets upset thinking that we are making fun of her, when we aren't) and the anxiety, which is probably the worst problem.

I need more info. I actually have a meeting with the CST tomorrow. I think I want to bring this up at the meeting.

 

[Andy]

This is getting more and more interesting. The "screening" form that I needed to fill out included emotional (is your child happy most of the time?, does your child get upset easily about anything said about him?), social (does your child get along well with peers?), and academically (does your child leave out words when writing? Is your child organized?) type questions.

I think it is so cool (and important) that ALL parts of difficult child's life is being looked at to diagnos what is going on.

Who would have thought that the easily frustrated with comments about yourself (such as not recognizing joking or constructive insights) would be part of this? However, it really is part of the comprehensive issues as is being organized and getting along well with peers and being overall happy.

Loth, you described your poster very well in my thread - I think I have a visual from your words to work with. He did some poster charts when we first started dealing with the anxiety. They were very instrumental in helping him get through his days. Thank you!

 

[BusynMember]

I have a severe non-verbal learning disability. I'm going to explain it the best I can in the way that it was explained to me. I apologize if there are errors in my explanation. This is how I understood it.

When they test for a NonVerbal Learning Disorder (NVLD), they are looking for a big discrepancy between one's verbal and one's performance IQ. I have a verbal IQ of nearly 120 and a performance level IQ of only 85. That is a 35 point difference, which is very significant. Twenty points is considered important, with the verbal being higher. That's the key. What does that mean for the child?

What happens is, the person/child is very verbally astute. He sounds either bright to brilliant and has NO TROUBLE explaining anything. Often he has an excellent vocabulary, good reading, writing and spelling skills, and gives good speeches. Trouble remembering what you read is NOT a non-verbal learning disability because...

A NON-VERBAL learning disability is one where you have trouble with non-verbal tasks. Examples: I have always done well at job interviews. Potential bosses were impressed by my verbal intelligence so I would almost always get hired and the company thought it got a real a "find" haha...but...

I couldn't PERFORM up to my verbal level. In fact, I would have trouble just transposing a letter because I'd be spacing out while I typed and I'd skip a line. And I'd even screw up filing due to trouble focusing, which is part of my non-verbal problem. I'd also get confused doing factory work. I couldn't figure out how to put things together (still can't) regardless of how many times I was shown. Non-verbal stuff confuses me to this day. I can't figure out how to read a map or find my way out of a maze if I get lost. I have spatial orientation problems so I stink at math which is common with NonVerbal Learning Disorder (NVLD).

I actually think having a verbal disability is more debilitating than a performance deficit because there are very few jobs for those who are extremely verbally adept, but can't figure out how to do things. I hope I explained this well. Reading issues are more often due to visual memory or comprehension issues or dyslexia.

 

[Lothlorien]

MWM, thank you....
As you will see from my sig...I've always thought Missy was extremely bright, because she was very articulate from a very young age. She spoke sentences quite early and would actually impress other adults at how smart she seemed to be. This is why I was a bit confused when she started coming home with very poor reading comprehension scores. Her scores get progressively worse with each grade. I look at some of her work that is being sent home by the teacher and the questions that she answers are incomplete and/or blatantly wrong. Such as what is problem that the main character of the story is dealing with....She answered The Farmer (the main character). She simply sees "main character" in the question and thinks the question is "who is the main character?" and the like. Yet, her spelling is wonderful.

I don't know about the spatial issues. She's so-so in math....The main issue is the questions where reading is involved and are a few steps involved in order to get the answer.

She did have some balance problems when she was younger. She is kind of clumsy, but not terribly.

I don't know if this is her problem or not, but there are the few red flags that are waving in front of me. So, at the meeting tomorrow, I will tell them that I want this test done, which is probably part of all the testing, but I want to make sure that they aren't going to eliminate this as a possibility. She's been denied testing twice already (which the school district knows they are in hot water for, since they did not follow the 504 law, but that's another story). New director of Special Education made the recommendation for testing, per my request, and I know it will be done this time. I already have an advocate lined up if they don't.

 

[BusynMember]

Heh. I talked at ten months and started writing stories with pictures at three. My mother thought I was a genius. Then school happened...and I go a ton of "M's" which, at the time, meant "Making slow progress." They had three reading groups...fast, medium, slow and I was in the slow group in first grade (however, unlike in many other subjects, once I took off in reading, it came very quickly).

So I know what you mean. Please insist and make them tell you the results.

Good luck

 

[smallworld]

Loth, MWM has given you a good synopsis of NonVerbal Learning Disorder (NVLD). Some clinicians feel it is on the autistic spectrum; others don't. It is diagnosed by neuropsychological testing. Typically, the performance IQ is significally lower than the Verbal IQ.

The thing you have to realize is that a lot of SDs do not recognize NonVerbal Learning Disorder (NVLD) for the purposes of coding for a disability. So before you go talking about it at your meeting tomorrow, you need to discuss this with your advocate. He may not want you to bring it up at all, even if you suspect Missy has it. He may want you to have her privately tested and then coded in a way that would be acceptable for IEP coding.
I know -- doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but there is a lot of controversy in the medical community about NLVD.

 

[Lothlorien]

I get you smallworld......So, who would go about testing for this? Her IQ has not been tested at all.

 

[smallworld]

The school can still test her IQ (and that would probably be part of a normal IEP evaluation), but you just might not want to talk to the SD about NonVerbal Learning Disorder (NVLD). Or you could take her to a private neuropsychologist (but it's expensive unless covered by insurance).

Why don't you ask your advocate before tomorrow's meeting?

 

[SkunkMomma]

My difficult child has a mild discrepancy of 16 pts and you would think that he wouldn't have much trouble with that small of a discrepancy. No one around here wants to diagnose NonVerbal Learning Disorder (NVLD) they want to say in the autism spectrum but until I read the NonVerbal Learning Disorder (NVLD) books and went to the site mention in an earlier post I didn't understand, I needed to know the exact diagnosis, it was helpful how we handled his IEP etc...So research and get some books...I make his teachers read about NonVerbal Learning Disorder (NVLD) each year since no one understands this and teacher tend to believe he is being smart mouth when he actully thinks you want him to answer a certain way. He is a senior now but oh the problems we had in middle school with NonVerbal Learning Disorder (NVLD). School wanted to test him for gifted in K and 1st. I didn't think he was gifted just very verbal etc..., then in 3rd grade comprehension went to rock bottom, he has no inference skills, still as a senior can red like a whiz but can't pass a test unless he has a study guide that has the same exact questions as the test. If they reword a question he will miss it...Good luck read everything you can get your hands on.