Just diagnosed with a Nonverbal learning disorder

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Hello all.

I recently participated in a cognitive research study and I received word from them today that they've found me to be a pretty good fit for a nonverbal learning disorder.

I guess my question is what exactly is it and what are some resources I can find to get some more information?

NLD / NVLD characteristics fit me perfectly, so I identify with this "label". Since there's no social security help for those with this kind of neurology, we are diagnosed with Asperger's. We will get the NLD dx once it's in the DSM and we can get the Social Security help. The biggest difference with AS is that the strength lies in linguistic skills rather than Engineering. The biggest common denominator with AS is the social part - it's identical.

NVLD is not the same as AS, and vice versa. And it is very possible to have both diagnoses. I do. Don't count on NVLD being in the DSM anytime soon. There aren't any plans for it in DSM-5. The way I currently view the differences between NVLD and AS that the DSM fails to comment on is the following: AS alone is just a typical case of Asperger's. NVLD alone is having a VIQ that is statistically higher than your PIQ, meaning very poor visual-spatial abilties. There may be some mild AS traits, but without the presence of special interests and severely impaired social skills. Having both NVLD and AS, as I do, means that you have a typical case of Asperger's along with the VIQ > PIQ and extreme deficit in visual-spatial abilities.

Clinically, AS trumps NVLD, because AS affects all spheres of a person's development. If you want good info on NVLD, check out the website called "NLD on the Web." Dr. Bryan Rourke is the one who created the profile/diagnostic label of "Nonverbal Learning Disorder," so any of his past literature is the best place to start.

Finally, it is a stereotype that all Aspies are prodigies in engineering and physics. Many Aspies who do NOT qualify for a comorbid NVLD diagnosis have better verbal abilities than mathematical abilities. People with NVLD alone tend to be better auditory learners, whereas Aspies tend to be visual learners. I still mix up my right and my left and have always been abysmal at geometry, but I still am a scientist who is an incredibly visual (and verbal) thinker.

Thanks for some great information! I think what tipped the scales towards NVLD was the fact that my linguistics skills were unbelievably high whereas my mathematical/visual spatial reasoning was in the toilet. That said however, I am actually a very intense visual and auditory learner and I do have several highly focused and intense interests. However, some strange things happen when the visual and auditory sort of collide (I see music and some sounds as colors and shapes and I have very clear pictures for almost every word I know as well). However, I cannot do math to save my life.

That plus my woeful social skills sort of make me think that I'm sort of on the border of NVLD/AS. On another day, I feel that the diagnosis might have been different.

No, not Canada. Asia.

Welcome. I'm another one who has NVLD and AS.

I'm not diagnosed with anything but I seem to fit a lot of NVLD and AS traits. On the NVLD side:
Extreme non-visual thinker.
I can get lost anywhere.
Utterly useless at sports - looking at an old school report, all my scores apart from sports were B or higher. Sports was F.
It took me a very long time to master writing due to poor coordination.
Poor at maths, relative to my education level. Even after an extra year of tutoring I simply couldn't get calculus. I'm not too bad at geometry these days but I have had a LOT of practice.

On the AS side:
Stimming
Restricted interests
Very good at engineering/electronics/computers.

Of course there are also the social issues etc that are common to both.

I think that I do not have just a NLD. I even doubt if I have NLD at all.

On the NLD side:
- quite poor, "blurred" visual thinking
- good speech development
- some problems with directions (such as confusion between left and right) in earlier life
- probably higher VIQ than PIQ

But I have some other traits:
- good mathematical abilities (not gifted, but still good, not dyscalculia)
- I like maps, rather do not have problems with clocks, graphs
- I like colors, visual stimuli

On the PDD side:
- "profound" developmental dyssemia, not so large number of social contacts, failures in peer relations
- limited or idiosyncratic social interactions (maybe talking "to" people than "with" them, I am not so interested in being loved, but in quite early childhood I had stupid "sexual" obsessions about single girls)
- large obsessiveness:
* atypical, not so practical, somewhat "obsessive", stereotyped, restricted pattern of interests
* strange customs, rituals
* significant inclinations to different games from childhood
- somewhat hyperkinetic behaviors, some stimming, hyperactivity
- weird thinking and emotions (magical thinkings (it caused many strange rituals earlier), strange fantasies (such as about special powers or "grandiose"), blatantly bizarre ideas or suspiciousness (from some years); happiness when an evil or a tragedy occurs and fantasies about it (psychopathic, I fought with it and it nd it is better now), bizarre sexuality from early childhood (patological thing), paragelic incidents (attacks of uncontrollable, involuntary and loud laghter in childhood), inadequate shame (I am not ashamed by some "typical" things, but I had "shame" about being in some veicles, having head, human body (I even said that I have not head and imagined "myself" as black, built form triangles very powerful headless being, I even prayed to be his being)); many physical and existential fears; I think that I am really immature emotionally and childish)
- some sensory problems (such as when having a shower (water is easily too hot or too cold), I quite significantly dislike injections; paralinguistic problems (taliking too silent or too loud, too fast or too slow(?), with disturbed prosody, difficulties with rhythm), I have minor problems with literal interpretations, but was quite gullible (maybe even naive) earlier; some motoric issues
- supposed "executive dysfunction", concentration deficit disorder: being prone to daydreaming, "spacey", somewhat "drowsy", slow, somewhat confusable, difficulties with more complex tasks, not excellent auditory memory; I do not think about job in the future so much

I think that I may not be on the "autism" spectrum etiologically (I have not "Kannerism"), but phenotypically. Autism "spectrum" should be "phenotypical", not "etiological", it is rather a "ballpark", not a "spectrum". "Social NVLD" (bad, inadequate name) looks like mild pervasive developmental disorder from that article: http://www.aspergersyndrome.org/Article ... ldren.aspx. Asperger's is a category which contains developmental problems of differnet etiologies, not only (some) high-functioning forms of "kannerism".

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