When people hear my nice accent in a foreign language, they naturally assume I am fluent. But my language-learning journey reveals a very different reality: smooth pronunciation often hides struggles. As long as I can remember, even back in middle school, I made more progress in class than in immersion. Read More
My boyfriend introduced me to the sport 4 years ago, and at first I got into it without any expectations; at the beginning, progress came quickly, but soon enough, I felt completely overwhelmed, leaving the gym exhausted and frustrated.
Honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever go beyond V3s as my baseline anymore because it’s like being tone deaf in music: I simply lack spatial intuition, and I am unable to form mental images in my head. I end up wasting way too much energy on a single movement while some make it look effortless. At V3s and below, the holds are generally good enough to figure out the movements directly on the wall, but above V3, the hesitation costs me way too much energy, and I freeze because I don’t have that instant spatial map. Getting stronger helped me hang onto worse holds longer, but I still felt something was off. Read More
Love isn’t just for the young. Yet for many mature neurodivergent adults—whether autistic, have ADHD, a learning disability, or another form of neurodivergence—dating can feel like competing in a marketplace that often rewards speed, charisma, and unwritten social rules rather than authenticity.
For those of us entering or re-entering the dating world later in life, the challenge isn’t simply finding someone. It’s finding someone who appreciates us for who we are. Read More
One of my biggest frustrations has always been how IEP teams don’t encourage students with an NVLD and similar disabilities, such as Autism and Dyspraxia, to join school or community sports teams. Sports can bring many challenges for individuals who have gross motor skills; however, I truly believe that the incredible benefits that can be gained far outweigh any negatives. Being part of a team leads to having incredible mentors and building strong friendships, given how you spend so much time working together during your athletic seasons. So in this piece I will discuss the remarkable positives of being part of a sports team and the how difficulties help you grow. Read More
In elementary school, chocolate milk was the ultimate reward. Whenever we did well on a test, the teacher would hand out those little packets of powder to mix into a small milk carton. My friends would rush, stirring their spoons with excitement, drinking this magic drink. I would just sit there, puzzled, staring at the milk. I would taste it, and it was awful—gritty, strange, earthy with clumps of undissolved powder floating at the top. I couldn’t understand what was going on. Why was everyone smiling? Read More
In my previous piece discuss the importance of having similar expectations and goals for all of your children. Now I will continue sharing the importance of this. In addition I will discuss how things won’t be exactly the same unfortunately but the end results will be very similar such as achieving your true potential and being able to have personal connections. Yes, it may seem hard but I highly believe it will help reduce tension within your family life.
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I am that mom who has had to go toe to toe with all persons interacting either my son who has NVLD. Read More
Growing up with an older sister who excelled in everything and held multiple leadership roles such as being a class officer made me inspired to overcome as much as I could as I wanted to be able to have some of the same experiences she did. This was largely influenced by our parents placing a strong value on us to always do our best and to be connected within our school and community, yet we’re fully aware that our overall results would be different. So in this piece I will discuss the importance of having similar expectations and goals for all of your children. While it may seem hard it will help reduce tension within your family life.
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I have always felt like Alice in Wonderland. Living with a Non-Verbal Learning Disability (NVLD) often feels like walking through a world that was never designed with me in mind. Society operates on rigid, ableist expectations, and rules that assume everyone processes information, time, and social cues in the same way. Read More
I believe I inherited my learning disability from my father, who was diagnosed with a processing disorder in his 20s. At around 3 years old, doctors told my mother that it was possible that I wouldn’t be able to write and do other things that require visual spatial skills, such as driving. The occupational therapist also discovered that I could not cross midline meaning I could move left arm to my right side across the center of my body which indicated a disruption in the connection between the right and left hemispheres in my brain. Read More
