Difference between PDD, NVLD and Dyssemia?

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pervasive_ ... l_disorder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonverbal_ ... disability
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyssemia

What are the differences?

I think, from reading this, that the last term is a more global term - sort of like saying blue and yellow are colors. Dyssemia is like "colors" there.....

nice to think of

PDD is essentially the DSM-IV-TR/American rest category of those with a form of autism that isn't how medicals or professionals think autism should be.

NVLD can appear alongside with AS or any other form of autism or alone. Some speculate that it is part of the autistic spectrum, just without a couple of symptoms needed for the diagnosis of an ASD.
However, it is not a diagnosis that is in the ICD or DSM, but it is diagnosed by professionals in the US and maybe also in other English-speaking countries.

I think you only need half of the symptoms for AS to be considered PDD-NOS. At the same time NVLD can be used to explain a lot of behaviour of any type of autism, even if one doesn't have NVLD like me.

Anything else the article on NVLD says itself:

Don't know if it's true, but it's interesting to take note of.

Apparently it means that maybe most people with AS have some sort of brain damage/'abnormality', but whether that is an essential part of AS itself or whether it is an additional disorder remains entirely unknown. Both is possible.


Often the case, but not always as performance IQ can surpass verbal IQ in autistic people.


Possible in autistic people, but the opposite is possible too.

Have you read this article yet? http://www.nldontheweb.org/Dinklage_1.htm

I've never heard of dyssemia before.

Thanks, especially for this:

It fits pretty well, except for a few things which would surely be pretty important, e.g. my visual memory is better than my auditory memory, possibly because of my (already known) auditory processing problems.

I would guess the difference is people with Dyssemia, aren't inflexible, don't have obsessions, and sensory issues. I can imagine aspies being diagnosed with it instead.

People with NVLD have troubles with visual spatial and Dyssemias don't.

I have sensory issues but maybe they go with the Tourette syndrome.

I don't have trouble with visual-spatial, but I do with auditory, suggesting more Aspie than NVLD, but then we go back to the inflexibility and obsessions, which I have to a severity not warranting dignosis (i.e. mild).

I have a lot of visual-spatial difficulties, such as with navigation, telling right from left, also trouble reading clocks not digital, and spatial awareness, yet I am really good with math and science (which generally people are good with visual-spatial stuff and high performance IQ if good at math and science).

For NVLD, I seem to match most the description, except that I am much better with math and science (especially geometry and physics) than with more verbally based subjects. Strangely enough, though, my performance IQ is about 15 points lower than my verbal IQ (although, my verbal IQ was obtained by answers from what I typed, as I didn't speak most the answers).

From what I was told, it's usually considered a learning-disability when there is a difference of 2 or 3 SDs. NVLD would be such an ld, but I am not sure on these official terms and categories. 15 points would be 1 SD usually. My scores also differ but by no greater than an SD, because my PIQ is higher than my VIQ.

I have a difference of 2.5 standard deviations between my VIQ and PIQ (I have NLD), although I think a difference of 1 SD is considered "clinically significant" when there are other problems. Actually, when I'm given purer tests of my perceptual abilities, the difference is more like 4-6 standard deviations (very superior compared to mild-moderate impairment), since I'm able to compensate to an extent with most nonverbal reasoning tasks like the ones they have on IQ tests.

Psychologists also look at the difference between subtest scores also, as there may be a pattern evident in the subtests that doesn't show up as a VIQ-PIQ difference. Not all NLDers show a large PIQ-VIQ discrepancy, but there will be a large variation among subtest scores. For me, my nonverbal subtest scores are 10-13 and my verbal subtest scores are 17-19, but an NLDer's scores may not necessarily cluster so neatly based on PIQ/VIQ, which is why they may still have the ld without having the PIQ-VIQ difference.

People with "non-pervasive" "NLD" have not so large problems in life. I don't think that Asperger's is just an atypical form of high-functioning classic autism. I think that Asperger's is a psychological and psychiatric phenomenon, not a neurocognitive one. I do not think that lack of imaginative play or theory of mind are required to AS diagnosis (even in DSM-V they aren't). If someone has NLD + "social disability", then this person is an Aspie.

PDD for me is a developmental socio-emotional-behavioral disability (DSEBD).

NVLD is for me just a visual-spatial learning disorder.

Dyssemia = nonverbal communication impairment. First symptom of autism and AS in ICD-10 and DSM-IV.

I think that most people with NVLD diagnosis are misdiagnosed. "NVLD" is an other way to developmental "autism", not just a learning disability. Learning disability does not make you "weird" and socially inept.

"NVLD" is often a PDD for me.

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