NVLD and AS- What's the Difference?

Post Reply New Topic

I've seen both sets of DSM criteria (criteriae?) and they seem pretty similar. I've also seen documentaries where the terms are used itnerchangably.

I have a friend with it, but I think hers is pretty extreme- she's seventeen and she is frequently mistaken for a fifth grader, and not just because of her height.

I'm interested in the answer to this question, too (if there is one). I'm diagnosed with both Non-Verbal Learning Disability and Asperger's Syndrome, so I think there is a lot of overlap.

I'm not sure but I think NVLD people tend to fall down on anything that isn't verbally mediated?

Hmm. Those do seem like really small differences-- small enough that it seems like they could be described as simple personality traits.

Thinking about the differences you gave:

-- people with NVLD often focus on asset based interests and tend to be more broad in interests, when AS tends to have much more focused interests.

Some of my interests are broad, like astronomy or theology. But others are very focused, to the point that they could be considered "fixations," like learning the history of a few specific sports teams. So I guess these both describe me. What are "asset-based interests," though?

-- Also with body language a person with AS may see the body language and not intuitively understand it, where a person with NVLD often does not see the body language.

I'm not sure if it would even be possible for a person to tell which of these two descriptions fit them more, since they are about what you don't notice. I don't find myself thinking "What on earth is that body language supposed to mean?" though, so either I understand most of it or I totally miss most of it. There's no way to know which.

-- Also there are visual and spatial processing issues with NVLD, and that is not really the case with AS.

I don't know quite what this means either; I haven't noticed issues I would describe that way.

But of course, since I am diagnosed with both NVLD and AS, I think any of these differences could be true of me or not, and the diagnosis would still fit me!

I read somewhere that people who have AS are good at math, and people with NVLD are not.

*shrugs*

People with NVLD have a very high verbal IQ / hyperlexia but score poorly when it comes to visual-spatial reasoning. Some people with AS or HFA have the mirror opposite profile in terms of cognitive strengths/weaknesses, i.e. exceptional visual-spatial reasoning with lower verbal IQ. That's the main difference I see. I also believe people diagnosed with NVLD alone, i.e. without the AS label, don't have as severe social deficits as those diagnosed with both NVLD and AS. However people with NVLD almost always have learning difficulties when it comes to visual-spatial stuff, even if thier social symptoms are very mild.

I have been curious about NVLD also...but have never really been able to wrap my mind around it....I have something weird going on though

I am right-brain dominant/left handed....but I also have problems with my right brain, as is evidenced by the fact that I can hardly see out of my left eye...(which is controlled by the right hemisphere correct?)
This really messes with my visual spatial cognition.

I come from a family of architects, artists and musicians...but my artistic skills, although present, are very 2-dimensional...my sense of perspective is abysmal....
I also have dyscalculea....and very mild dyslexia...and CAPD

I sometimes wonder which side of the fence I might land on...but my mind will not quite let me comprehend NVLD

Also...can someone please describe an asset-based interest? I don't quite understand what that means.

No..I have had very little contact with the sorts of people that would assess a person with that sort of thing...I was never told if any of my teachers ever noticed something very off about my mathematical skills...other than the extreme imbalance between my verbal and mathematical capabilities.
I never even heard about dyscalculea until I joined WP....I just know that one of the reasons I have been historically very bad in math has to do with my strong tendency to mix up the numbers and repeatedly do things in the wrong order. I am extremely mathematically impaired.
I pretty much fit the criteria according to wikipedia to a tee...(noting specifically the "potential symptoms" section)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyscalculia
It is not just being simply bad at math..there has been historically something wrong with the way that I process numbers no matter how hard I try...I have always had to use pictures to process anything mathematically. To this day, at a restaurant when part of a party of 3, I always automatically mentally count 4 because I count myself twice...counting myself inside my head and my physical self as seperate...I have trouble writing the numbers out in word form when I write checks and have to force myself not to write some of the letters as numbers.....I have struggled with math for years, but not for lack of effort...
I think I can confidantly account for at least some of my deficits as having to do with dyscalculea.
Ironically, I am extremely good at games like dominoes...where I am presented with a visual quantity rather than a written number.