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NVLD Bloggers

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Unprepared, by Katrina

By NVLD Bloggers

I wasn’t diagnosed with NVLD until the last semester of my senior year of highschool. I’d been seeing a counselor for years but she had retired and I had started seeing a new one who immediately asked if I knew about NVLD, I didn’t. I’d always struggled with my handwriting, coordination, and interacting with others but just thought it was because I was just odd but as I learned about NVLD I realized that the descriptions I was hearing sounded familiar.
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Remember, by Nicholas

By NVLD Bloggers

People have always been surprised by my memory, both what I do remember and also what I don’t. I can’t remember where I parked my car, but I can remember when your birthday is. I can’t remember how we set up the room for that event, but I can remember that story you told me about how your parents said they were getting a divorce at Thanksgiving and now it’s completely ruined for you forever. I can’t remember how much rent is going to be for this month, but I can remember how people used to make fun of for your stutter, even as you were just trying to make friends and fit in. Read More

Smart, But Tests Say Otherwise, by Samantha

By NVLD Bloggers

In the 2nd grade or 3rd grade the private school I attended administered the CTP (Comprehensive Testing Program), or as my peers and I nicknamed it the Child Torture Program. I always seemed to score very poorly on these tests year after year but the teachers were unsure why since I was a bright child who seemed to be succeeding in school otherwise. I was always very talkative in class, often times I would get so excited that I would interrupt the teacher or my peers even though it was unintentional. And on unit tests in various subjects I seemed to do well, although I always had to work harder at math.
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Embracing Limitations: An Alternate Perspective, by Gabriela

By NVLD Bloggers

When most of us hear the word limitation, we think of something negative. In our society, a limitation is often thought of as a barrier or blockade, something that prevents us from achieving our full potential and the cookie cutter idea of what it means to have success. Limitations are to be overcome and avoided at all costs, and as children and adults most of us fear the idea of something holding us back. For most of my life, I too shared in this understanding and clung tightly to this value at all costs.
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Why are we ignored?, by David

By NVLD Bloggers

I was diagnosed in my fifties, but not with NLD, with a cognitive disorder, NOS. The neuropsychiatrist who tested me said he knew immediately that I had NLD, but since NLD is not recognized by the APA, it was categorized as a cognitive disorder. So why isn’t NLD recognized? If this disability, and that is what is NLD is, a disability, has specific symptoms and traits that definitely identify those of us who have it, why isn’t it recognized by the APA? I had a nervous breakdown in the fourth grade because of NLD. Too smart in reading and grammar, too stupid in math, and my parents and teachers concluded I had a character flaw. Decades of failure. Failure in school, in jobs, in relationships. The failure is very real, as are the symptoms. But according to the APA, NLD isn’t a real thing? Expletive deleted, APA.
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