Learning Disabilities

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Do you have any and how has it affected your life?

This should be an interesting thread. I don't think I've seen one before that invited a discussion of LDs in general among members.

I have Nonverbal Learning Disorder. As a result, I have impaired abstract reasoning and visual processing skills, among less severe symptoms. Because of these traits (even more than because of my autism traits), I was unable to attend mainstream school. I also failed every standardized test I took as a kid because I couldn't generalize the concepts I learned and apply them to questions that were posed in an unfamiliar format or context. You'd think it would've affected my self-esteem to constantly fail academically, but I liked learning and I didn't care about official results.

When it became apparent that my test scores were not going to improve, though, my parents decided to give me full control of my education, and I was unschooled. I was very lucky in that I was highly motivated to read and learn independently. I moved ahead of my peers in middle school, leaning towards my strengths in reading and writing. I wrote novellas, short stories, and essays. I won two awards for my writing and was published for the first time when I was sixteen. I even did well in math, working at my own pace. In that kind of environment, NVLD didn't hurt me at all, practically.

It affected me more in high school, when my parents took over my education again and enrolled me in an online school that my older siblings had graduated through. I struggled with the math and didn't have a teacher or tutor to help me, or access to accommodations. The science courses were Creationist. I'd already read all of the books assigned in my English courses by the time I was eleven. Throughout all of that, I always wanted transfer to a public school, but I was never able to develop the skills necessary to attend, although by this point that was more due to worsening autism symptoms than academic issues. I ended up graduating a year late because of how much I struggled to cope with the online school's curriculum.

I'm not sure how much NVLD affects me outside of academics because it's hard to tell where autism ends and NVLD begins sometimes. Getting through high school was a lot tougher because of it, though, and I wish that my parents had listened to my complaints about the curriculum. I think it would've been much easier if I'd continued learning on my own as I did in elementary and middle school.

I have always learned a bit different than the one size fits all of school, but nothing was every established as a learning disability. That is until after high school I was told I have an "unidentified learning disability in math".

How did it impact me? I struggled, struggled, and it tore me apart. I thought I was stupid and my teachers thought I was lazy. School was an absolute nightmare for me. I don't struggle as much with learning as when I was young, partly probably because I figured out how I learned best. But I still get full of fear and anxiety when I have to learn something new/preform something new. The math part, well with technology it's not too big a problem...just don't ask me to remember numbers or do math in my head.

I've never been diagnosed with learning disabilities and I always excelled in school. But I have noticed about myself that I cannot learn well through just hearing something, or even hearing it with visual aids such as overheads and pictures. Therefore I always take notes. It's as if when I see the material in writing, THEN I learn it.

Occasionally when attending a seminar or class, the presenter would say "you don't have to take notes, this is all in the handout." But I knew I did need to take notes. That was necessary for me to understand and recall the material.

I have visual/spatial processing problems and it makes navigating and the more geometric areas of math really hard for me. I'm trying to get tested for it but I really can't find any resources for this as it's very specific and I'm not sure if I can get accommodations for it.

I can’t read instructions on how to put together something—say, from IKEA.

I have to have a picture of the actual item in order to have even a slight chance of putting it together.

I don’t remember, precisely, dimensions of things, or a room’s decor/layout.

To remember the size/color of something, I need a picture of it.

Since 3rd grade I was behind in maths, and it got worse year by year. I wasn't and likely never will be, able to pass high school maths

I have severe dyscalculia; I absolutely suck at math. It made schooling even more noxious an experience than it already was, and limited my options in college and opportunities in the workforce. However, it's highly preferable to dyslexia; I think that the consequences of equally severe reading difficulties would be horrible.

People with dyslexia often compensate well in other areas.

I’ve met dyslexic people who are great leaders.

I went to 7 different schools which probably didn't help me. Each time a teacher or teacher's assistant was about to do something about my learning (like letting my parents know), I would move to a different school. I failed years 8, 9 and 12. I was told to get a job as no university would accept me.

It wasn't until years later when I was studying for my intermediate boiler operator's ticket (intermediate because the boiler ran on two fuels) at work that I thought I may not be so stupid after all. That's because with each small assignment I did, I tried to answer the questions in my own words instead of copying straight out of the accompanying book. The rest of the class copied straight out of the book and it was all too obvious to the instructor. I turned out to get the highest score in the exam.

So I did end up going to uni. But I found that I had to do about twice the amount of study than the other students did just to get the concepts stuck in my head. It took me much longer to write essays and reports. I loved it though, so I stuck with it.

I don't have a learning disability as such (unless you count ADHD) but I have realised that I'm slow. Slow to learn everything. When I'm about to learn something new, I get nervous, especially if someone is right there teaching me and expecting me to keep up.

I'm looking over my ASD scores:

Verbal (25th percentile)
Non-Verbal / Performance (5th percentile)
General Adaptive Behaviour (Extremely Low)
Conceptual (Extremely Low)
Social (1st percentile, Extremely Low)
Practical (Low)

Panic 99th percentile
Social Phobia 99th percentile
Worry / Fear 99th percentile

Depression 99th percentile Significant Clinical Risk
Anxiety 99th percentile Significant Clinical Risk
Diminished Interest >99th percentile Very Significant Clinical Risk
Cognitive and Physical Fatigue >99th percentile Very Significant Clinical Risk

Alexithymia - Yes

RAADS-R: Consistent with females with ASD

Social Responsiveness Scale: Severe Range > Social awareness, cognition, communication, motivation
Restricted Repetitive Behaviour: Severity equivalent to Level 2

ADOS-2: Autism Spectrum Disorder

There's a whole list of Executive Function task scores (10 tests).
I got a composite of 99th percentile
Metacognitive: 99th percentile


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I know these aren't "Learning Disability" scores but I was thinking of going back to the assessment centre for a Psycho-Educational profile. Can anyone tell me which types of other tests would be administered? What else needs to be screened in terms of learning disabilities?

She told me I learn best by reading, not by visual and not by listening.

I like testing so I thought I'd do a little more out of curiosity.

I have dyscalculia, dyslexia, dysgraphia, adhd, auditory processing disorder and poor memory.

I have learning disorder-nos.

I've heard of "sluggish cognitive tempo". Anyone else heard of that? Or is it one of those buzz-word/phrase type things which is just a fad?

I have some and they cause me to struggle intensely in school especially with math. Causing me to take an extra year of high school.