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What would you say is the organizing force in your life? Is it your family? Or maybe your friends,  your job… Or your passions?

How about TIME?

The Oxford Dictionary defines time as: “The indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole.” Read More

While I understand students with an NVLD need to address all their areas of weakness such as their slower processing speed, motor skills deficits, and poor visual processing skills, I also believe students sometimes receive too many services and modifications to help them overcome these.  I believe this because their self-esteem greatly decreases as they are intelligent enough to realize having these modifications and receiving services isn’t the “norm” which can make them feel “stupid” compared to others. Due to this, I feel services should be delivered through the push-in model or through indirect services. Also, I feel accommodations should be used before modifications.
One example of this is placing  NVLD students with gross motor deficits in Adaptive Physical Education for their gym placement. I understand these deficits need to be addressed so one solution would be to provide push-in services.  This would entail having an APE and regular Gym Teacher co-teach the class. It would allow the students to receive the modifications and accommodations they need while learning the importance of physical activity with all of their classmates.  An example of this would be lowering the net for volleyball and always offering programs like weight training at the secondary level. Studies show these students  are more accepting of the services this way. Personally, I would agree with this theory.  I  enjoyed  gym class so much more when students like myself started to receive push-in and indirect APE Services  which for me  was in the 3rd grade  as I loved participating with my classmates.

Another example is having  work modified rather than using accommodations. The downside  of modifying is that it can often give students a false vision of what they’re really achieving. Many students do notice this at the end of year through their lower than hoped for grades on their final and state exams. One suggestion is to have teachers use ‘effort’ grading. This  is often better as the student still completes all of the requirements but effort is included more when grades are calculated. This also involves your academic teachers sharing what your strengths and weaknesses were for each marking period with your resource room teacher. This gives you more of an understanding of what you have actually achieved and where improvements need to be made. Passing my regents exams made me a believer in this approach.

The next example is continuing a shared teacher’s aide in high school. In my experience needing direct support such as a scribe decreases as most courses are lecture and discussion based and teachers often provide notes  to you on a powerpoint. However I do agree that in classes like a science lab an aide is often necessary as  many NVLD students have fine motor skills deficits so needing assistance in the lab setting is likely. Therefore having  a part time shared aide on your IEP for the beginning of high school and gradually removing it would likely be a better option. I believe this because removing my aide support led me to being a much more  active participant in my classes. More importantly I learned how to go to my teachers to get  my class notes and to  set up test/quizzes arrangements which prepared me for college.

Another example being pulled out for Speech Therapy  as eventually it reduces the amount of class time you have to  finish your academic requirements and this can overwhelm some students.However I completely understand many face social communication deficits so continuing  speech therapy is so important for their overall success..  Therefore studies do show a good  solution would be  to have both pull out and push in support starting in 7th or 8th grade which could take place during your resource room period.  Your difficulties such as asking questions appropriately and following directions would be addressed by helping you with  your assignments not just  through direct practice. Personally I do agree with it as  through receiving speech therapy through both models I observed an increase in my motivation levels  which brought greater progress..

Lastly, saying  yes to every offered service  isn’t necessarily a good idea as leaving the classroom too much can hurt the students emotionally. These services are typically needed especially  in the beginning school years though understandably being  in the classroom is important too for social and academic development.Therefore, parents and  IEP teams should decide what services are the most needed.  If you’re unsure a reasonable approach would be to pick one or two  services that you believe can be effective through using the push in model . The reason being  you have to remember, a typical school day is only 7 hours so spending as much as time as possible in the classroom is vital to achieve social and academic success.

Eileen

Eileen is a Project Social Ambassador and blogger for The NVLD Project. She loves helping others understand they can achieve their goals and dreams through hard work and dedication.

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Two things I greatly believe that are especially important for students with an NVLD and similar disabilities are that they need to be in regular classrooms as much as possible for both services and courses and that special education coordinators need to be very mindful of who they assign as a paraprofessional for these students. The reason is that these students need more practice with social skills than others so being in the classroom and having an aide who has the skills and the personality to connect with all classmates makes creating friendships easier. This can be tricky but I do believe it’s doable and will benefit you. Read More

I want to talk today about being more than the labels we were given. Whether that’s short, tall, thin, big, smart, stupid, white, black or brown, LGBTQ. Sorry if I forgot one of those letters in there. Neurotypical or neurodiverse. I don’t want to minimize these labels if you think they are part of you. But I want to remind you that they aren’t the totality of you. I hope that makes sense. Do you ever feel excluded because of the label you were given by a social construct? I mean construct or by doctors, therapists, professionals, or politicians? I know for me it’s often difficult to think of my qualities that aren’t related to my NLD or chronic migraine condition. I do know that I am more than these two labels in my social life. I’m a podcaster minister’s daughter and one of the project social ambassadors for The NVLD Project In the work world, I am an admin app and a tech social media assistant. and freelancer with custom tech services.  Read More

Hi everyone,

In this post, I will be talking about driving and my first car accident, which I got into two months ago.

In June, I was driving up to the city where I was attending graduate school because I had a job up there for three weeks. I had been driving back and forth each week to stay with a friend for the days I had to be up there. As I was getting on the highway to head up to my school, a van came up and was not going to let me on the road, so I sped up to get past him and then tried to get into another lane. As I was getting into the other lane, there was a car in my blindspot and I ended up hitting their right rear passenger fender.

I was so shaken up. I had never been in a car accident before, let alone caused one. Driving has always been overwhelming for me. Due to my Nonverbal Learning Disability and anxiety, it took me until I was 22 to get my driver’s license. So getting into a car accident was not fun for me, nor is it for anyone. Since then, I have not been driving much. I only drove when I had to.

This past weekend, I had made plans with my friend who had just gotten engaged and we wanted to celebrate. She had to get her car serviced in town and she had asked me to pick her up from the car dealership where that was happening. I said I would but I was super nervous about driving to the other side of town on the local highway.

As it turns out, I did okay. I made it to pick my friend up and did not have to deal with much traffic. And I also made it home with no problems too!

Driving can be very scary sometimes, so if you are someone who is new to driving or has not driven in a while, especially if you have anxiety about it, it’s okay to be nervous but you just need to practice and put yourself back on the road again!

Caitlin

I am an NVLD Project Social Ambassador. I am in graduate school at the University of Northern Colorado.

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I have a 30-year-old who is in denial. He was initially diagnosed with ADD as a child, and then with NVLD in 2019. He took occupational therapy when he was a child. He is an extremely smart guy and holds a master’s in Finance, but he fails at every job he gets hired leading him to be laid off due to mistakes, time management, etc.  He is slow, has a visual-spatial deficit, and has a high level of anxiety which he demonstrates when driving. His speeding behind the wheel and his zig-zag driving pattern are a big concern for me as a parent.
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One of the defining characteristics of having a nonverbal disability is the never-ending conga line of social gaffs. You say the wrong things, misinterpret social cues, and hyperfixate on certain things–all of which can be deadly to any budding relationship.
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Hi, I’ve never really connected or reached out in a way to a community of peers such as this, but here goes!

My name is Andrew and I’m 22 years old, I was diagnosed with NVLD around nine years ago and again about five years ago.
School unfortunately for a lot of us with NVLD can be extremely difficult in many different ways, and for me, there was no exception. Read More