Has anyone heard of someone with NLD or Asperger’s who is good in math, not a good rote learner,who has good handwriting, and who had no stereotypical behaviors or special interests in childhood?
I was just diagnosed on the NLD - Asperger’s continuum. On IQ testing, verbal was higher than performance. Although rote memory was very superior on testing, in my everyday life, I consider my memory to be poor, possibly because of a retrieval problem. I thus tend to learn by conceptualizing rather than memorizing. (I have a cyst in my left temporal lobe which may contribute to a retrieval problem.). I have had very narrow interests (preoccupations) as an adult, despite not having had them in childhood. I did have severe skin picking, starting as a teenager, which continued for many years.
I do have many characteristics of these disorders. I am poorly coordinated, have poor imagery, have always had trouble with visual and auditory memory
(music and art in college were horrific because I couldn’t remember the pictures or musical compositions), have had difficulty learning motor sequences, was poor in sports, had trouble with social skills, tended to be literal and to become easily confused in classes like literature and history, often have trouble following movies (sometimes confuse characters and sometimes just miss what’s going on), have trouble with planning and organization, have difficulty understanding technical material, can’t hold several things in my mind at the same time so will often interrupt rather than losing what I want to say if I focus on listening, have trouble with loud sounds and auditory distractions, get easily overwhelmed, etc.
I have been referred to someone who specializes in NLD for remediation, so maybe he can help me to accept this diagnosis if it is, in actuality, accurate.
Any reactions? I would really appreciate feedback.
Re: diagnosis
Dear Rose,
Thanks so much for your response. It makes me feel less alone. The idea of not being alone, but rather a member of a “tribe” feels just wonderful.
Again, thanks.
Arlene
Re: diagnosis
Arlene,
I confess, what is NLD? Neurolinguistic Disorder? What is that? I have some of the same things you describe, and others that are different. I had trouble into adulthood with turn or go left or turn or go right directions; however, I seldom ever get lost in city or country. Got a good sense of interpreting where I am or how to get wherever I want to go, but still a little trouble with left and right. I really struggled with every math concept thrown at me, struggled with foreign languages (always wanted to interpret it in English first, then speak it back in the other language. I didn’t get too far with that in college. And never obtained a degree. I follow movies easy, but can’t remember them later nor the books I read or authors, dates, etc. Have a lousy sense of time. I can see someone I haven’t seen in 15 years, and pick up with them like I’d last seen them yesterday. I can spend 6 hours on the computer thinking I’ve spent 1 1/2 hours. It takes me forever to write, but still I write pretty well. On dice or dominoes I can’t look at them and add them, I have to use my fingers to count.
Can’t remember cards, so count me out for anything like Bridge. I have had a stereotypical disorder in the past that went away, but came back when my husband died suddenly and very recently. I had a lot of trouble putting a term paper together, and in one instance got so facinated by the subject, I just read and read, and forgot to take notes, so then I couldn’t separate out what I’d learned from what I knew—glitch in brain. I have a retrieval problem, anxiety, a little OCD, but not enough to treat. As for social interactions, I don’t shine there either. I like people, but they stress me out after a short while. Maybe it’s more noticable since I’m going through grieving process. I always did well with graphs and diagrams in school. And my visual seems to be at cross-purposes with my hearing. I can focus on the phone, but less in person. Visual stuff distracts my hearing, and thus learning.
Wren
Re: diagnosis
Arlene,
I’ve never been formally diagnosed as NLD, but fit the profile to some extent (~60 pt. gap between verbal and performance IQ, problems in visuo-motor integration, social anxiety etc.)… I actually started doing better in math when it got more abstract, and I can conceptualize, so I guess I don’t fit the standard NLD picture either.
I think the memory picture is really interesting, because like you I find that while I do have a fairly good memory, it often fails me in everyday tasks. I find it has to do with the type of material, and my interest in it, as well as how many distractions I have around me. E.g: the digit span test in the WAIS- I can do it forward, but not backward, because backward requires visualisation/manipulation of the numbers. I’m also much better remembering words rather than numbers.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the final diagnosis, as long as it helps you get the help you need. Very few people, IMHO, fit the diagnosis completely, and it sounds from your discription like someone who specializes in NLD would be able to understand some of your issues & work with you.
BTW, there’s a nice bulletin board at
www.nldontheweb.org (mostly parents of NLD kids, but might be useful)
Re: diagnosis
This is a wonderful site; my question is, i does anyone have information that states that ADHDA is generic? I recently learned more about ADHD after taking my daughter to the dr. for learning problems she was having in school. My brothers have never been dx, but based on what I’ve learned so far, it sound like its very likely that this is there problem. I have 36 & 43 year old brother who have both dropped out of school, both have had D/A problems since they were in JR.High school. Both have talked about not being able to understand what the teachers want when they were in school. We would get in so much trouble when we were kids when we make careless mistakes on our homework and in class. The 36 yr. old has decided to go back to school and is finding that he is having the same problems understanding just like he did when he was a kid.
Re: diagnosis
This is a wonderful site; my question is, does anyone have information that states that ADHDA is generic? I recently learned more about ADHD after taking my daughter to the dr. for learning problems she was having in school. My brothers have never been dx, but based on what I’ve learned so far, it sound like its very likely that this is their problem. I have 36 & 43 year old brother who have both dropped out of school, both have had D/A problems since they were in JR.High school. Both have talked about not being able to understand what the teachers want when they were in school. We would get in so much trouble when we were kids when we make careless mistakes on our homework and in class. The 36 yr. old has decided to go back to school and is finding that he is having the same problems understanding just like he did when he was a kid.
Re: diagnosis
There does seem, from what I’ve read, to be a genetic component in ADHD. (probably not in all cases) If you read through posts on these bulletin boards, you’ll find that many parents became aware of having ADHD or learning disabilities after their children were diagnosed.
Other learning disabilities also seem to run in families, and sometimes families have members with different learning and/or developmental disabilities (e.g., one child with autism, a sibling with ADHD)
Fortunately, a lot more is known now than it was years ago, and now adults, as well as children, can be evaluated.
Some of us are such a hodge podge of eccentricities and idiosyncracies aren’t we? I suck at writing. Thank the diety of the day for word processors. I was good at math as long as I could do it in my head. I could compute a lot in my head quickly. If I had too write it out on paper, I’d get confused. I can’t remember the things I see correctly. When I look up a page number in the index of a book, I know there’s a good chance I’ll have to look it up a couple of more times before I can remember it long enough to actually find the page. Confusing characters in movies is something I can relate too. It took me years to realize that I don’t remember faces in general. Combine that with my off kilter social skills and we’re talkiing seriously socially challenged. High school was litterally impossible for me. But everyone thought I just wasn’t motivated. I think going back to college year after year for 12 years, even though I ended up dropping out most of the classes, is proof of how motivated I was to get an education. Finally, I was DX with LD. I graduated from university after another 4 years. Now I have a son with visual processing issues and another son on the autistic spectrum and I’ve spent a bit of time trying to figure out how my genes produced two so completely different children. I’ve come to the conclusion that we’re capable of every different possible combination of developmental differences. The doctors just add up the numbers to see which label fits best but no lable fits perfectly because we’re all unique. I can relate to the Asperger’s thing a bit, so can most of the people I like best. Perhaps we’re a slightly different species and finding eachother is a gathering of our tribe:-)