Nonverbal learning disorder vs. AS?

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I never saw a problem with eye contact mentioned with NVLD either. And Soccer Freak spoke of how SHE had NVLD(As I recall SHE was rediagnosed also), was apparently good with motor skills, and social.

As for me, I still think I have AS. As I recall, some aspect of NVLD didn't fit. I don't have THAT much of a problem with eye contact, though I don't like it, and stims aren't a problem. I don't have the problem with learning the way someplace. If I do it myself once, I can learn it. If I do it a few times, it can be automatic.

No, actually I'm studying speech pathology. My Masters thesis is going to be on evaluating the speech of bilingual English/Spanish speaking kids, which is probably an area I'll stick with for my doctoral program as well. Unfortunately, it's hard to work NLD stuff into speech pathology. As I mentioned though, I might be doing an independent study in the spring with a professor who does a lot of neuro-imaging. We just got our own fMRI machine- I'm so excited! I might be able to talk my supervisor into letting me look at my own brain, which would be awesome.

You might be surprised. Initially my insurance refused to pay, but they did in the end.



That's really cool. I had an MRI of my brain once when I was 6 or 7, but that was because they were checking my pituitary for a tumor (nothing there, thank goodness), so that was the only area they were looking at.

That's really unusual. Usually the motor problems are actually pretty bad (way worse than mine, which are mild). In fact, it's frustrating, because the two books I've read on NLD (both by moms of kids with it) focused mostly on the motor stuff, not any of the visual-spatial stuff. I guess for different people though, their different skills are affected to different degrees. They also mentioned eye contact in one of those books, and I have problems with eye contact as well.
Regarding being social, a lot of kids with NLD, just like with AS, want to be social, but have difficulty because they have trouble with nonverbal communication. It isn't usually that they don't want to be social. Of course, if they develop problems with anxiety, then it may be stressful to be around people for any length of time, which makes being social hard.

NLD is a fairly new construct. Both AS and NLD have cookie cutter diagnostic requirements, really it does not work like that in nature. Many experts have already started dropping terms like NLD or AS and putting it all under ASD. That is what is purported to be happening officially by 2010. It make more sense like that, those terms popped up because of what happen to have been found historically. Just because it called a spectrum doesn't mean it is one dimensional. Why would you think that NLD is a mild form of AS necessarily? AS can be mild itself.

Thanks for all the info guys! I just stumbled across NVLD yesterday, so I don't know much about it, but I'm sure I will by Monday, since it looks like this will be one of my mini-obsessions.
I have to admit that I do fit the NVLD profile pretty well. I can't find my way out of a wet paper bag, I absolutely cannot visualize places, and spaces that are not right in front of my face, my coordination is atrocious, math was extremely difficult for me in school, and still is. However, I did learn to write, tie my shoes, and ride a bike at about the age expected. I remember having to work at it a little harder then other kids, though. I also don't learn things by hearing them very well, but by writing them. I do have eyecontact issues,and stims (handflapping, twisting, and flicking my fingers, and leg bouncing mostly).
I came across a box the other day that had all of my gradeschool stuff in it. It was interesting to read. In most of my testing there was a pretty good discrepancy between my reading level, and language. My reading level was off the charts, but language was around average, maybe a little higher. I also wrote a lot about not having any friends, and being afraid of the playground equipment. I hated anything that involved climbing, because I was sure that I would fall off. I did get some friends in about 2nd grade, but they weren't very nice to me, though at the time I didn't seem to notice. I was THAT socially awkward, that if someone was being very mean to me (wedgies, taking my food ect..) I'd still consider them my friend. I was always voted the nicest kid in the class, because I was never mean to anyone, for anything. Another thing that really stood out to me was that in every picture I was always stiff. My body was hardly ever relaxed. I also refused to stand very close to anyone in pictures. I still have personal space issues. I do not like to be touched, or have my space invaded.
And, to throw another confusing perspective into the discussion how does NVLD differ from topographic agnosia as related to spatial issues? I made a post about it a few wks ago. http://www.wrongplanet.net/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=39082

this was another criticism i had on some teaching evals.... that i never remembered what their names were...

but i dont think im that bad... they didnt stop to think that i have 60 students per term and that i had been teaching 6 terms throughout my MS... that's a lot of names for ANYONE imo.

i dont think im that bad, but i do struggle with it... and i do avoid names too. i get confused due to various things... either their face reminds me of the wrong person... or ill see their written name and mix up their first or last with some other student with a similar name (though look very diff) or ill confuse their identity due to where they sit in the class room and mix them up with someone with the above combinations of looks/name that sat in a similar place in the room...

there's really lots of ways to F up someone's name!

that is the rebuttle.... but that is not the crux of the argument when they try to stereotype criminals ect who have been DXed with AS or autism... it's alsways clearly described as having a LACK of emotion.

i associate feelings with pictures a lot as well... is how i translate through languages too.... i just read a word... learn its context and associate it with a feeling or way that i would use the word through invisioning something... i think i was somewhat hyperlexic as a kid and i did start teaching myself spanish @ 10... but i remember lots of things with pictures.... even the angle of the picture in my mind denotes context and heirarchy in meaning

im pretty clumbsy in that i trip all the time and runinto the corners of things... but ive been doing martial arts since i was 10 yrs old and do have some amount of grace! i think that prolly helped a lot so i cannot say how i would have been otherwise. i can be social and enjoy it... i think most of my reticence to it has been ingrained through many many awkward moments over the years. but now, i prefer to do just a small subset of activities with ppl i know... and i dont really have a desire to "try" anymore.

and yeah... once i figure out my way of doing things.... i can really get moving. i think i have what ive been reading about being described as organizational skills issues... prolly related to executive decisionmaking.

i dunno though... ive always told people that i have to just bang my head against a wall over things for a while before they go in (and i didnt mean that as a behavioral joke referring to certain autistic behaviors... as all this stuff is still relatively new to me)

you know humans... always pigeon-holing

is another reason why evolution is so misunderstood.... people need a concrete definition of what a species is... when it's really more flexible..

try googling "biological species concept" or "ringspecies".... linear thinking is so limited

i think they might be the same disorder, although people with NVLD often dont have pirticular intrests or something

Damn this is so interesting! I'm tutoring an 11 year old kid that I thought was AS but his dad informed me that his dx is NVLD and the only thing I haven't seen is that he doesn't stim, with me anyhow. But he's so much fun because he knows a lot about dinosaurs and animals and animal behavior. Sadly, he just doesn't seem to be getting the math stuff- how to perform algebraic manipulations to simplify problems before solving, how to isolate variables of interest and the like. I hope he can learn, because he is such a smart kid, high raw intelligence overall I think.
Myself, I am pretty much "map blind" and often get lost in stores and neighborhoods that I go to all the time, like every day or near to it, I also can't make sense of maps and never have been able to, I don't remember people's names unless I hang with them a whole lot and I NEVER remember people's b-days or phone numbers Not even my mom's or any of my brothers' birthdays!
However, I am a visual and auditory learner and many classmates, particularly new ones at the semester's begining, are surprised to see me editing my research articles or reading novels during class because I remember everything the teachers say, often word for word.

A couple weeks ago I forgot my four-year anniversary with my girlfriend, and we talked about it just the day before.

I'll bet that went over real well with her.

Yeah it was fantastic.

I told her sometime that day that when she's visiting we should spend more time doing our own thing apart from each other, because I need time alone to focus on some of the things I really like to do. She got really upset and went back to bed. I talked to her and we went for a walk, but I still didn't understand why she was feeling that way. It was only that evening that I learned why she got upset.

To make it up to her we went to the aquarium the next day, but it was a sunday and extremely crowded. To see any one tank we had to wait behind a crowd, and there aren't any organized lines or anything, just a lot of people trying to push their way to the front. I got really tired just being inside. The only time when I really started to enjoy myself was when we were looking at the big tank. Our little window was surrounded by some type of vertical support beam on either side and I was able to focus on the fish and forget there was anyone there but the two of us. Including the stop at the caf we stayed there no more than an hour.