#Nonverbal Learning Disorder

[thatsveryvortex]

Dear disabled people in school, please know your rights! If you have an IEP or a 504 plan with your school, your accommodations are not suggestions; a teacher cannot refuse them. If a teacher, coach, or other school staff chooses to ignore or disregard your accommodations, you can and should report them to the school.

The school, under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, will not/cannot tell the teacher that it was you who reported them, nor can the teacher question you or your class about being reported.

Remember it's against the law for the school or anyone representing/working for them to deny you your accommodations, no matter your age or grade, no matter the disability, and no matter how the school is funded.

[its-murderous-business]

An Introduction to Nonverbal Learning Disorder

Happy disability pride month! I am celebrating by trying to educate people about my learning disorder, because it is one of the least known learning disabilities and deserves more recognition.

What is Nonverbal Learning Disorder?

Nonverbal Learning Disorder (also called Non-Verbal Learning Disability and other variations on the same name), often shortened to NLD or NVLD, is not a new concept, but the idea of it as its own diagnosis is relatively recent. A common misconception upon hearing the name is that people with NVLD are non-verbal, but this is not the case. The name essentially refers to the fact that people with this disability are affected in almost every area except verbal and language skills, where they often excel.

What areas can NVLD effect?

NVLD can take a lot of forms, and not everyone with it will be affected in every area, and other areas are also able to be affected this is just a general list:

- exceptional skills in the areas of comprehension (understanding) and production (ability to utilize) of verbal language. Basically, we are really good at reading, writing, speech, spelling, and have large vocabularies.

- difficulties with visual spatial processing skills. Fun fact, NVLD was briefly called Visual Spatial Processing Disorder! Visual spatial processing is a term that describes the process of seeing things and then understanding how they relate to one another in space.

- difficulties with understanding non-verbal forms of communication such as tone, facial expressions, gestures, metaphors and exaggerations, and (sometimes) context.

- difficulties with math, including arithmetic, fractions, geometry, telling time, pattern recognition, and much more. This can be very similar to dyscalculia.

- difficulties socializing (often presents similar to the social difficulties faced by autistic people)

- other miscellaneous neurodivergent traits such as hyperfixations, difficulty regulating emotions, distress when faced with change, sensory overload, motor skill and coordination deficits, attention deficits, and executive dysfunction

How does that affect people with NVLD on the day to day?

Let’s use me as the example. I love to talk to people but I often run into issues because I take things very literally, struggle to read social cues, and can have trouble connecting with others. Growing up I was always in advanced English and literature classes, but was in special education for math due to my extreme difficulties with it. I have a lot of trouble dealing with last minute changes in my plans and loud noises bother me A Lot.

I struggle greatly with visual spatial processing skills, specifically for me that can manifest as not knowing where my body is in space (causing me to bump into things a lot), difficulty navigating maps, struggles with knowing left from right, a complete inability to use the knowledge of how an object looks from one angle to visualize how it would look from another angle, and many other things.

NVLD can present in a number of different ways and affect different parts of peoples lives. I have multiple neurodivergent comorbidities which can make it difficult to tease the exact symptoms apart from one another, but there are plenty of articles online where people discuss their own experiences if you look for them.

Is NVLD in the DSM/an official diagnosis?

ehhhhh it’s complicated. NVLD is not currently it’s own differentiated diagnosis within the DSM-5, however it can be diagnosed (as it is with me) under the DSM-5 as Specific Learning Disorder with Impairment in Mathematics which serves as a sort of catch all for any learning disability that affects math or areas other than reading/writing.

NVLD as its own diagnosis is a relatively new idea, as historically it’s been lumped within other diagnoses (typically autism, adhd, or specific learning disability). However over the last 15 years and especially the last 5 years, there has been a significant increase in academic literature and acknowledgement of NVLD as its own distinct diagnosis. Columbia University has been conducting research on the disorder alongside the NVLD Project, which is the only organization that exclusively does advocacy, education, and research around NVLD. These groups are doing a lot of work to attempt to get NVLD classified as its own diagnosis in future editions of the DSM.

How common is NVLD? What causes it?

NVLD is uncommonly diagnosed due to lack of official DSM recognition, misidentification as other neurodiverse conditions, and lack of awareness of NVLD from neuropsych evaluators. However one study from earlier this year estimated that between 1-8% of children have NVLD depending on what diagnostic criteria is used.

There has been some early evidence that NVLD is the result of dysfunction in the right hemisphere of the brain or more specifically the inability of the right hemisphere of the brain to effectively communicate to the left hemisphere.

Why are you telling me all of this?

The majority of people do not know that NVLD exists, and as such those of us with this condition often get left out of neurodivergent and disability communities. I would like to be included in advocacy and understood by the community since we all face very similar challenges! I really encourage y’all to learn more about Non-Verbal Learning Disability

Here are some links to learn more!

From the Child Mind Institute

Psychology Today article

From ADDitude Magazine

Article from Very Well Mind

Medical News Today article

Learning Disorder Association of America article

From Learning Disability Association of Ontario

And of course the aforementioned NVLD Project website!

[inhumanliquid]

Happy learning disorder awareness month to folks with ones that aren't dyslexia, btw. I'm sorry nobody's aware of us. We should be allowed to kill with our teeth about it.

[starlit-paws]

me when i mask too hard at the autism re-evaluation and instead get diagnosed with a disability that isn’t even on the DSM-V

[kkkurasss]

you know when you think someone is mad at you but they dont say it outright?

and you also have trouble with nonverbal language so you think it’s just your anxiety and rejection sensitivity?

but you’re right? and they’ve actually hated you the whole time?

Be like me, be straight up. Use your damn words (constructively)

[mlmshark]

I hate when a special interest gets too overwhelming like I wanted to play genshin and tried out the new game mode but everything got too overwhelming and confusing and I had to turn off my game, I can even farm for artifacts rn because I’m so overwhelmed. I just wanted to indulge in my special interest man :( now I have to sit here and watch calm YouTube videos and play with my dragon before I can do anything else

[prozac-hater]

does anyone else feel cheated by being diagnosed with the nvld label over autism.

[disabledsysboxes]

Learning disabilities - 2

[louisetaylor]

aN INCIDENT

Me, neurodivergent: doing my job quickly and well, feeling like I'm good at something, enjoying myself

Coworkers: did you remember to do the thing? Because you have to do the thing. You can't find something? Here it is, right next to where you looked for it.

Me, neurodivergent: COULD YOU GIVE ME A CHANCE TO REMEMBER ON MY OWN LIKE THE REAL ADULT I AM. FECKING DAMN IT ALL TO HELL. I HATE HAVING TO ANSWER TO OTHER PEOPLE EVEN THOUGH I AM AN ADULT.

Coworkers: have a great day!

Me: too late

[phospadparadscha]

more of u guys need to look into nonverbal learning disorder because I swear to god I’m not the only one in my life who has it.

[neurodiversity-now]

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A post shared by Tomas Ponzilius (@neurodiverse_canadian)

We, the neurodiverse, often live a very lonely life. I have NVLD/VSDD and have had problems building relationships of any kind for a very long time.

[gladiatordonut]

so awhile ago for school i was able to check out a copy of Doris J. Johnson and Helmer R. Myklebust's Learning Disabilities; Educational Principles and Practices, an incredibly important text in our understanding of learning disabilities, for many reasons, one key one being that it's the first text to describe non-verbal learning disabilities (referred to as "nonverbal disorders of learning" due to a bunch of cultural stuff i won't get into)

here are some fun highlights from the text imho:

“since nature works so wisely and effectively, we do not recommend interfering with handedness”  -- a fun little reminder that it's the 60s, and some people still believe being left-handed is the sign of the devil or w/e

this section i like to call "things that could have been written today" and it is depressing:

“however, it is not uncommon to find children with learning disabilities who have gone unrecognized by the school for ten years or more"

“merely knowing that he [has] ability, that there are reasons for his failure and that something can be done is of great benefit”

“often the child with a learning disability is labelled slow or lazy when in reality he is neither”  

and the section on what would become nvld, which has some mildly worrying (if you have nvld) bangers:

"He has no difficulty in learning the word red, but cannot acquire the experience red” (p.273, emphasis in original).

"The problem of social imperception referred to here should not be confused with severely abnormal behaviour in autistic children…The child who has a learning difficulty and is deficient in social perception is not bizarre and makes every effort to conform” (p. 295)

"They cannot interpret the behaviour of others from observation, failing to learn the meanings of facial expressions, actions, and gestures. As a result, they are described as being tactless and stupid" (p. 296).

[pixieokapi]

Question about stimming behaviors:

Recently I have found myself humming or clicking my teeth (mostly my molars) together without realizing I’m doing it. It’s almost compulsive, but without the intrusive thoughts nature that my ocd thoughts come with (if that makes sense). It’s largely unconscious, usually occurring when I am tired or bored (it happens a lot recently because I have been tired all the time). If I stop myself from humming, then I usually start clicking my teeth, and vice versa.

If I have recently talked to someone or listened to music I don’t do it, but after a while the humming or teeth clicking seems to inevitably come back and now that I’ve been doing it a lot it’s starting to annoy me when I notice it (I assume because I start getting overstimulated? Not sure) but I can’t seem to stop.

I have adhd, and some research (mostly reading what articles I can find on google) say that stimming behaviors can occur with that, although for different reasons than autistic stimming. I am not autistic, although I do have nonverbal learning disorder, which can sometimes manifest similarly.

Having that background information, does anyone think these behaviors could be called stimming? And does anyone have any advice on how to regulate or at least moderate these behaviors, whether or not they are actually stimming, so I can stop overstimulating myself? Any help would be appreciated!

[mlmshark]

Autistic kid that smelt bad because they were never taught how to properly wash themselves to teenager that’s constantly paranoid about how they smell because they were ”the smelly kid” pipeline is real

[titan-god-helios]

hi all !! i'm not nonverbal or semiverbal myself but MANY nonverbal and semiverbal people, autistic and not, have expressed their wishes that only people who are non/semiverbal FULL TIME describe themselves as such.

for speaking people/autistics who lose speech, please do not say you're "going nonverbal" or that you're semiverbal just because your ability for speech dips in specific scenarios. instead you can say that you're experiencing verbal shutdown, selective mutism, or another term that is not nonverbal or semiverbal

the strong opposition in the nonverbal and semiverbal communities to speaking people describing themselves as non/semiverbal is largely due to the fact that being non/semiverbal is a LOT more pervasive than what speaking people who experience verbal loss experience. it is all the time, 24/7, and is a HUGE part of their lives. making it out to be only under specific conditions or worse, a "choice" of sorts, damages non and semiverbal people to no end, and opens them up to even more discrimination and misinformation in daily lift than before.

also, being non/semiverbal means a lot of the time that they get almost immediately clocked as disabled by EVERYONE. strangers, friends, etc., which is incredibly dangerous thanks to the existence of ableism. speaking people with verbal loss do not experience this unless they are visibly disabled in another way, and even then, it is not the same, and so a speaking person using those terms for their verbal loss dulls down the experience of those who are non and semiverbal round the clock.

so yeah !! instead of those, verbal loss, verbal shutdown, selective mutism and such are good alternative terms, and also listen to nonverbal and semiverbal people, go into the tags and reblog a bit if you can, because they're so often left out of the conversation when they absolutely shouldnt be.

Hiii I have a question

I read that the term "nonverbal" should only be used for completely nonverbal autistic people, not for someone experiencing speech loss

Do you know if this applies to semi verbal autistic people, and could you think of any alternative terms to use in that case?

Thank you so much

Hi there,

This is a very difficult question to answer as I am not nonverbal or semi verbal. As language wise, I think it’s okay to use. Especially when you’re describing someone (if that makes sense).

I can’t see how it would be offensive and negative.

To my nonverbal and semi verbal friends, how do you feel about this? I feel like it’s something I cannot say.