Lots of testing but no diagnosis yet...suggestions welcome.

Hi Karla,
You write: “One other huge thing is that he is very disorganised.”
Though I would suggest that this may be the main problem?
Where has an ‘organisational disorder’.
This would explain why he gets overwhelmed when recieving too many instructions at once. Where his brain doesn’t automatically organise multiple instructions into an ordered sequence.
This equally applies to recieving information.
His only liking to read Comics and Magazine articles is typical, as they do not overload him with too much information to retain as he reads them. Whereas when reading a book, we need to keep in mind the previous chapters already read in a book, to keep everything in context
His ‘perfectionist’ approach to his projects, is also typical.

To put it simply, he is not a ‘big picture thinker’, but rather a Specialist in Detail. Where he will need to develop ‘organisational strategies’ to apply to different sorts of activities.
For in example, in regard to his messy room. being told to ‘clean it up’ is no good. A Plan needs to developed, which he can work through, step by step. Then a Plan for daily maintenaince.
Though be warned, that once gets he gets a plan working, his perfectionist tendency might make him ‘super-tidy’?
In regard to reading Books or long pieces of text, he also needs to plan to use when reading. Which at the age of 13 will become increasingly important.
In fact, any activity that he finds overwhelming, he will need to stop and define a ‘plan of attack’ before starting.
Over time he may become more organised than most people?

You might also like to have a look at this website on NLD; nonverbal learning disorder. Which might be relevant and helpful?

http://www.nldontheweb.org/NLD_forum.htm

Geoff.

Thanks for the reply! I did check out the NVLD information and most doesn’t apply. He didn’t read at an early age, never has had problems with any kind of motor skills. The only thing he would fit into under NVLD would be the interpersonal skills…very literal and isn’t really strong in a new social setting.

Do you have a suggestion as to where we could get instruction to “develop ‘organisational strategies’ to apply to different sorts of activities”? Any web-site with helpful info on this?

You hit the nail right on the head with him not being able to take the instruction of “clean your room”. Never has he responded well to that kind of instruction. From the time he was pretty young he would get completely overwhelmed if I wasn’t right next to him completing the “Huge” task that I gave him.

He does respond so much better too when his teacher cuts down his assignment size - doesn’t get so worked up and doesn’t feel like he’s going to be there all day doing homework. It’s hard though - because since he hasn’t been officially diagnosed with a LD I don’t think the school can “cater” to his needs as much as if he actually had been diagnosed. I wish we could get one…but I think it’s just a plain old LD….nothing specific. We hate to put him through more testing as it isn’t any fun, but if we needed to or were given a suggestion of something else to be tested for then we probably would do it. We just hate to see him go all through the rest of his school years struggling like he does. He deals with major anxiety issues and then in turn easily gets depressed and down in the dumps.

We’ve thought about home schooling but with the way he is - dealing with depression - I just don’t think I could do it. Doesn’t take constructive critisism well at all! We’d be fighting all the time!

Thanks for the suggestions!

You might want to consider some good, quality outside (of school) testing from a good neuropsychologist (possibly through a University). My son has never qualified for services until I went outside the school district and got a higher quality testing.

The disorganization sounds like your son may have problems with executive function. How are his motor skills? You might want to look at sensory integration dysfunction to see if any of these symptoms apply. Also, you say your son doesn’t like to read. Can he read well? Decode well? Also, what is your guess about his difficulty with social skills? What do you think is making it difficult for him to make connections?

I also wanted to say that a child can have nonverbal learning disabilities that are not at the level of a syndrome (described in web site you were referred to). My son was diagnosed with nonverbal learning disabilities by a neurologist but he doesn’t fit all the dimensions of the syndrome NLD.

Also, not all children with nonverbal learning disabilities are early or good readers. My son has had very signficant dyslexia as well. In fact, for some reason, kids who have a NLD profile and have reading issues, seem to have a more difficult time than other dyslexics. One reason I can see from my son is that he has had motor issues which have complicated remediation.

Beth

http://www.ldonline.org/ld2/test/article.php?max=20&special_grouping=&id=829&loc=15 is an article on developing organizational skills.

http://www.ldonline.org/article.php?max=20&id=822&loc=88 is another one.

There are more, out there — this is a ***common*** problem. However, there are a lot of quick fixes that work for some folks that don’t work for all of us… and that can exacerbate the depression issues. (“If I’m so smart, why do I keep screwing up?”)

It really sounds like you’ve got a visual thinking cant-see the forest for the trees thinker; not the “classic” combination. You’ll find plenty of people who think that all visual thinkers are “big picture” (can’t see the trees for the forest) thinkers. (There’s a site that compares visual-spatial to verbal-logical thinkers on an otherwise excellent site that aggravates me no end, because it assumes that the verbal-linear folks are also organized and sequential…. only most of the time, please!)

And I just read this on the librarians’ listserv… someone asked “so waht do you do with the kids who can’t check books out because they didn’t return them” - and she has them make “luggage tags” to go on their bookbags/ backpacks (“card stock with string on them”) to remind them, while they’re waiting.

One important thing to figure out is what the sort of “magic number” is for when things are too complicated to remember. Lots of so-called “disorganized” people find a solution and incorporate it into everything adn yowza wowza, their lives are changed. The truly disorganized soul needs to take one step - like a “luggage tag” and just practice having it and checking it every day (I’m thinking of really using a luggage tag so you could slide a different chunk of index card in it with today’s 3 things not to forget). Trouble is, really disorganized people will forget to check and then forget that there was even something to check, and then when we finally clean out the bookbag two years later, find this tag at the bottom that was giong to the the answer to our organizational woes… yea, depression is the automatic physiological response to things like that. So it really takes a “coach” who isn’t going to forget, isn’t going to ever assume that you’re forgetting on purpose (and the cure for that is making the forgetting always a little more tedious than remembering, with some task like that librarian’s of making your luggage tag, something that’s not punitive but helpful… but still takes time and effort and if you’d remembered you wouldn’t have to do it.)

http://www.ldonline.org/article.php?max=20&id=822&loc=88

Oh, one more:

http://www.resourceroom.net/older/ida_studyskills.asp

— I think the opening paragraph is a real keeper, and this article breaks things down to the brass tacks so that even a disorganized person could help the disorganized person :-) I’d tape it on the fridge….

A couple of weeks before school started last year, a small group of students were talking about getting ready for the first day of class. One student said she had bought a brand new notebook for school. She said she put it together with new supplies including a zipper bag, cute pens and pencils, dividers, and folders just like the one she had carried the year before. A boy in the group asked why she didn’t just use the notebook binder she had from last year. Her answer was classic, “Well, I lost it and have no earthly idea where it is!”

Executive Function Disorder can look other disorders or be a part of an other disorder.

Here are some links.

http://www.tourettesyndrome.net/ef.htm
http://www.nldline.com/executive_functioning.htm

What Beth and laura said!

I would get a thorough neuropsychological evaluation which is much more involved than what a school typically does. Emotional issues, anxiety and a long history of school failure can complicate the picture and you need a very good practitioner to tease out what is the root cause. Plenty of LD children who are not NVLD have social issues. It certainly sounds like something is going on and you can better choose how to intervene if you know what the problem really is. Good luck.