44 years ago, I entered the world as a child brimming with potential, the convergence of a sportsman father with an affinity for the natural world and a mother with a creative vision. Read More
Being 19 years old, living in a college two hours away from my home, and having NVLD is both good and bad. I was diagnosed with NVLD at 12 years old and ever since then, I’ve always been seen as the “weird kid” and I took that to heart and made it into who I am. Read More
I am the parent of an amazing 13-year-old boy who loves all things aviation, enjoys being with family, has a great sense of empathy for others, and also has a nonverbal learning disability. As a learning specialist, I’ve focussed my career on helping students reach their potential and I’ve preached for many years that it’s not about the label, the diagnosis doesn’t define the child. Yet here I sit today, desperate for a diagnosis, a label, a formula, a treatment plan… or even just an understanding of the challenges my son faces every day. The truth is, without the diagnosis, the blame is projected onto the child and the focus becomes what they can’t do. A neuropsychological evaluation can certainly shed some light on the why behind the can’t, but without a diagnosis (or at least an accurate one), the child is entitled to very few services and is often labeled as inattentive or behavioral.
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Have you ever had the awareness that you misunderstood a situation, in hindsight?
After 66 years of lived experience with non-verbal learning disability, selective mutism, and autism, I know what it is like to misunderstand and be misunderstood.
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I was born with NVLD due to a likely brain injury during labor. I grew up with it unknown to myself, family members, schools, or professionals. It wasn’t even known as a category then. One sign of its presence was my precocious reading ability in the early years, probably as a compensating strategy. That continued into later school work and higher education. In addition were growing social skill deficits with communication issues. These continued through years of struggle, learning some improvements with various therapy sessions. I later ran into difficulties with my vocation, enduring a number of failed attempts over time (more on that below). Yet no one ever discovered any connection to NVLD until recently. Read More
In my previous piece, I discuss how it appears that the vast majority of students with an NVLD and other disabilities still struggle to form friendships and mentors. Understandingly this greatly affects these students, their families, and their service providers as being connected is so important for their self-worth and overall happiness. However, it doesn’t need to be this way as discussed in Part A there are several ways they can and do from friends and mentors. It‘s just that IEP teams and the parents still hesitate to expand inclusion of the classroom. In addition, these students are still not taking the appropriate level of courses and despite popular belief, this really does limit the opportunities to form meaningful friends. So now I will add to my examples of how these students can and do form mentors and friendships. Read More
My story starts at the age of 18 months (, or so I’m told. ) It centers around a rocking horse that my cousin gave me for Christmas one year! I loved that rocking horse but I just couldn’t figure out how to maneuver to get on it. This is where my mom said that there was a problem and got me in to see my pediatrician. They didn’t know anything about NVLD in 1993 and they said it was a disability, motor issues otherwise not specified. Read More
I am a 66-year-old retired businessman. Reading about NVLD for the first time, as it related to Guz Walz, gobsmacked me. My ex-wife called it “that spatial thing” and derided me throughout our marriage. I knew in the fourth grade something was wrong with my brain. Rudimentary math baffled me and it only got worse as I progressed through middle and high school. I flunked Geometry in the 10th grade and never took a math course after that. In 8th grade, I was forced to take a drafting class. Total disaster. Flunked that too. Read More
From the outside looking in, very few people know how challenging this year has been for me and that is not for one particular reason, it is a combination of things. To be honest, I went from teaching students with learning differences at a boarding school to putting myself first again – being in a graduate program that asks me who I am as an artist and who I want to be. And oftentimes that can be confusing, it is a process of learning to trust myself all over again. Read More
I was reading the FAQ page on the NVLD project website recently. One of the questions was from parents asking for advice about how to help their child who is struggling to pass his road test. Reading this question and the answer below made me think of my experience as a 16-year-old learning how to drive with the visual/spatial challenges NVLD can bring. I also thought of the “driving rules” I have for myself because of NVLD-related challenges. I say “driving rules” because said rules have helped me progress in my supportive driving school, pass my road test on the first try, and drive safely with no wrecks to date. I have other considerations I keep in mind when I drive and have discovered other strategies over the years that I will also share. Read More