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.
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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Science fiction is a fantastic genre for discovering different aspects of humanity, ranging from a more diverse future to the challenges of navigating a post-human frontier in the world beyond. Naturally, neurodiversity has become a more popular topic
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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
First Example- Growing up I was fortunate enough to have widespread support though the family that made the strongest impression on us was the Pinkerton Family as never once did having an NVLD matter. This led to many hours of playing at each other’s houses. With our mothers loving the outdoors many winter days were spent playing in the snow and summer days were spent in our pool. In addition, Mr.Pinkerton had me on his baseball team despite my poor gross motor skills. Additionally during my high school years when the social deficits showed up more, the Pinkerton kids never once ended their friendship with me and their parents were always there for our family too. It truly set a great example for not being afraid to reach out to neighbors for support or be afraid to join outside groups.
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Hi everyone,
It’s been a while since I have written on my blog. I have had a lot happen in the last few months or so.
First off, I wanted to talk about how I made it through my first year of graduate school. It was a rough road but I did it! I faced many challenges including some with my mental health and personal issues that occurred during this time. This made grad school very hard.
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Introduction- As an individual with an NVLD I strongly believe IEP teams need to make a few changes to how they set up for inclusion. One change that needs to be made is encouraging full inclusion in sports. Yes, I understand for many students with disabilities like NVLD team sports would be hard but individual sports can most certainly be included. So my goal for this piece is for you to understand why I feel this way as too many students are missing out on forming wonderful mentors and benefitting from all the wonderful things that being a teammate brings. Read More