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.
So, my mother immediately got me into developmental preschool, and I was diagnosed with a processing disorder. They started addressing my learning deficits like gross motor and visual spatial skills and other executive functioning. They gave me exercises such as connecting dots, cutting, and other things to further develop my motor skills. When I was 4 years old, I also got into physical therapy to address the deficits I had in coordination. Later when I was in elementary school, other teachers began to think that I had attention deficit disorder because I seem to lack concentration when engaging in tasks in the classroom. However, what motivated me as a child was playing boggle, rhyming games, and getting picture-less books in order to learn how to read. I had a reading specialist that worked with me on this, and my mom also did all kinds of reading games with me. Every time I played the games correctly, I earned a penny! I am sure these types of interventions still work with kids with NLD. Later on, a physical therapist recommended baseball and soccer for me as a child in order to further develop my visual spatial skills.
I loved that as a kid, and I got to put all the money I earned into my first saving account. I was very motivated to persevere in learning and complete my work in elementary school. I continued to struggle with subjects like math and writing.
David
I am 40 years old I am special education teacher and I am still looking to somehow develop better visual spatial skills and social skills.
