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yamato_rena
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08 Feb 2013, 11:16 am

When I was being evaluated for ADHD and Aspergers, the evaluating psychologist had me take an IQ test. At the time, I had a 36-point gap between my verbal subscore and my perceptual-spatial subscore (verbal was Superior; perceptual-spatial was Below Average, with a few subscores falling into the Deficient category), so the composite score was deemed irrelevant. About 10 years later and living on my own, I'm wondering if there's some sort of training that I can do to improve my perceptual-spatial abilities. I'm getting mixed messages as to what works and whether that's even possible. Does anyone know much on this subject?



OddDuckNash99
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08 Feb 2013, 11:31 am

I have NVLD, too. I've never read anything "official" as far as how to improve one's visual-spatial deficits. I would be interested to hear if others have read any training methods. I have been fortunate that some of my visual-spatial deficits have vastly improved with time and practice. However, the IQ gap is still always there (and always will be). It interests me how I've been able to improve on certain tasks with time, but with other tasks, it's a hopeless cause.


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yamato_rena
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08 Feb 2013, 11:36 am

OddDuckNash99 wrote:
I have NVLD, too. I've never read anything "official" as far as how to improve one's visual-spatial deficits. I would be interested to hear if others have read any training methods. I have been fortunate that some of my visual-spatial deficits have vastly improved with time and practice. However, the IQ gap is still always there (and always will be). It interests me how I've been able to improve on certain tasks with time, but with other tasks, it's a hopeless cause.


Oddly enough, I wasn't diagnosed with NVLD, in spite of the gap. I was diagnosed with LD-NOS, which I didn't discover until a few months ago (My parents didn't seem to notice it either and focused on the more familiar ADHD diagnosis), but that seemed to have to do at least as much with my poor short-term working memory as the IQ test gap.



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08 Feb 2013, 1:27 pm

LD-NOS can be NVLD since the DMS does not have NVLD as a separate diagnosis.

As for remedies? Vitamin D, a few ipad apps, martial arts involving lots of kicking and turning, and vision therapy are things that I am trying. So far, Vit D and the POV ipad app have led to improvement. It's too early to tell with the other things.



yamato_rena
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08 Feb 2013, 2:12 pm

Tyri0n wrote:
LD-NOS can be NVLD since the DMS does not have NVLD as a separate diagnosis.

As for remedies? Vitamin D, a few ipad apps, martial arts involving lots of kicking and turning, and vision therapy are things that I am trying. So far, Vit D and the POV ipad app have led to improvement. It's too early to tell with the other things.


What sorts of iPad apps are you trying? Are any of them free?



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08 Feb 2013, 3:47 pm

What helps me is receiving verbal explanations, studying them, and lots-lots-lots-lots of practice.


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08 Feb 2013, 3:57 pm

What does it mean when you have specific difficulty with verbal or written instructions, but not with visual?


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Tyri0n
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10 Feb 2013, 4:30 pm

People with NVLD counterintuitively do better with visual instructions compared to oral instructions. The main reason is because understanding complicated oral instructions requires organizing and visualizing skills while, with visual instructions, you can just look at it many times until you understand it. It's counterintuitive, but yeah, that's how it works.

As for ipad apps -- I think taking the Spatial IQ tests (there's 10 of them) over and over again helps A LOT. I've taken to doing one or two before a party or social event, and it seems to make interacting and moving through space easier. It's really quite amazing how it has the effect of cutting of big portions off my awkwardness temporarily.

Lumosity may help, but it's not quite spatial. Cubed is a really good one (and free). POV Spatial Reasoning Development is not free but pretty good. Another one I like is Mouse Maze. If you have a weak eye contributing to your NVLD, Captain Lazy Eye used with a patch is good for training it. Cube It is ok, as is Block Runner, and Flow is relaxing.



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10 Feb 2013, 6:18 pm

Thanks for the input Tyri0n, that's interesting. I have a friend diagnosed with NVLD and she is highly verbal which apparently is a trait, but I am quite the opposite. Actually, the constant talking really tires me out.


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