I first noticed that I was different in preschool when the other students had no problem working jigsaw problems, while I struggled with them. This surprised me because I was better than them at most activities. My Kindergarten report card noted that I still couldn’t tie my shoelaces. On the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, my answer for all of the rotated figure problems was “none of the above”. I always get lost easily. If I am by myself in an unknown area, I am helpless.
In college, I was given the Wechsler test, where I was told that I was two standard deviations apart on the two parts of the test. (It would possibly have been greater, but I did very well on the last part of the performance section. I was told that I was perfect on that task, and that many people never get it finished on time). My drawing has always been VERY poor. Although I am very musical, I am not a good dancer. I struggle reading charts and graphs. (My 8th grade science teacher thought that I was putting him on when we were studying maps). I am not good at math, and have avoided it as much as possible. I took a lower-level math class in college, where many/most? of the students had had high school calculus. When I told my professor what my math background was, he asked why I was in the class. I managed to do well on the tests in class because I memorized the problems. If the professor had changed the problems slightly, I am pretty sure that I would have been lost.
I often have trouble remembering faces, and had one embarrassing experience when I confused two sisters that I had tutored. I have always been very good verbally. I am a good writer, and have had some of my creative writings published. I am very good at picking up foreign languages, especially the pronunciation. Even as an adult, I can imitate foreign words and phrases very well. (Note that my talent for languages did not help me with ASL). I also tend to pick up the accent of whomever I am listening to.
My father, brother, and sister all have/had problems getting lost. None of us were good at drawing or crafting. Interestingly, my father and my brother are exceptional at math. My brother was a college physics professor. My sister and I clearly are more strongly affected than my father and my brother. (I have been wondering if this is because our mother smoked and drank alcohol more frequently when she was pregnant with us than she did with my brother). My elder son seems to have inherited some of my issues, e.g., problems drawing and problems visualizing 3D objects. However, he is also exceptional at math. (He is an actuary). My daughter has none of these issues, and she and her two daughters are talented in the visual arts. My other son isn’t especially talented in the visual arts, but he doesn’t have the issues that I have. He is very talented musically. I also am fortunate to have a good singing voice, and I feel that my visual/spatial deficits have possibly improved my auditory abilities.
Susan
From a very young age, I have known that I and some members of my family have visual/spatial problems that those around us didn’t. I always called it “the Lockett gene”. I am very pleased that I have recently looked more deeply into this and found the NVLD Project. Although I don’t possess all of the NVLD/DVSD attributes, I do possess some that I hadn’t realized were part of this condition, and I understand myself better now from what I have learned and continue to learn.
