Anyone with NVLD on WrongPlanet?

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I've self-diagnosed myself with NVLD recently instead of AS, but haven't found any forums on the web for people with NVLD and I don't recall anyone on here mentioning being NVLD.

I'm curious to know how people with NVLD make a living. In my personal experience, the kind of jobs I can do as NVLD pay minimum salaries.

NVLD = Non Verbal Learning Disorder (ie poor ability to grasp anything that is not expressed in words). A close cousin of AS, but job skills are opposite.

I have NLD, and there are a few others on this board as well, although I'm blanking on names.

I'm about to start a career as a speech therapist (I'm graduating this month with my Master's degree)- which will capitalize on my strong verbal and analytical skills. I know there are some limitations in the types of settings I'll look for though.

These are some of the things I heard every week from my supervisors in school:

Poor time management during sessions
Poor organization
Inappropriately fast speaking rate
Poor eye contact

I've found though that when I work with cognitively impaired clients my eye contact improves, and my speech rate decreases. Working with clients of normal cognitive/language ability, such as articulation/voice/stuttering clients therefore, is a bad idea. I do well with kids with autism and adults with brain injuries/strokes, however. Additionally, my poor organization and time management mean that a school is out, because writing lengthy, periodic school reports would require way more executive functioning skills than I possess- hospitals have small amounts of daily paperwork, which fits my style much better. Also, in a hospital, I won't have the same crazy schedule I would have in a school- the type of schedule that would drive me insane with stress. So I've decided to work in a hospital, rehab center, or nursing home, since I feel those settings fit my interests and abilities the best.

I think the specific impairments you experience with NLD can definitely limit your options in careers (ex. I love neuroscience but having to read MRIs or CT scans or perform surgery with my visual processing issues would be a *bad* idea), but it may be possible to work around them. What are your interests?

Good luck!

Anyone without NVLD on WrongPlanet?
The characteristics are almost the same as Asperger's.....they overlap quite a deal......
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonverbal_ ... g_disorder

I just dont know what I have. I think it is just a milder Aspergers. I dont see NVLD as being different from aspergers, just another form of it.

Me, me! I was diagnosed in high school. I've only met one other person in "real life" with a NVLD diagnosis. I want to know how we make a living, too. I'm looking for a job right now and it's hell on earth. I had no idea that I had executive function problems until I started this job search. Oddly enough, even though I have a "learning" disability, I always did really well in school because it was structured. Now that I have to plan my own time, it's much harder.

I don't really know what exactly I think about the relationship between AS and NLD. My social problems are definitely milder, but my visual/spatial processing problems are pretty bad. I guess "another form" might be a good description.

Man, welcome to my life. Grad school was a *nightmare*.

I find I have empathy deficits, though not as strongly as some aspies I know... but I dont get the social overload a lot of aspies get. I find I can spend a lot of time around people without getting tired, though I cant understand their behaviour per se.

Some of my biggest problems are with movement and the physical world.. I seem to get overload from weird things, like vacuuming, or carrying heavy things, or trying to walk the dog. So maybe I also have NVLD.

I was dxed with NLD when I was 18.

I don't like the term though -- it makes no more sense than saying "verbal learning disorder" for every single learning disability involving language. Too vague, means too many things, and if I were to say I had it people wouldn't realize I have significant strengths in nonverbal areas.

Hey Green Tea. I have NLD. I've always worked below my ability. For instance, I have a fairly high I.Q., but found myself delivering newspapers and maps for almost a decade of my life because it was a way to work and avoid people.

Try this site here. You just have to register at that site to read the messages because it isn't a public site. To register just explain to Al, the Administrator, on the request form that you have NLD and he will most likely let you join : ) I've posted there for quite some time.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nldadult/

Hope to see you there.

~LG

Last edited by Felinity on 14 Aug 2008, 2:41 am, edited 3 times in total.

Yeah thats the official diagnosis for me at the moment. I sort of consider them all a form of autisticyness, and myself AS with NVLD as the little extra descriptor.
Only exception, they always implied NVLD would cause math problems, and I'm absolutely fantastic at arithmetic. Does that make me not NVLD?

I am not very good at maths. I get confused while counting sometimes. I like the system of the old tribes who had two numbers: one, and many.

I really hate paperwork too.

WOW, thank you everyone so much for your comments so far ! ! I feel less alone on here with my little difference

Felinity, I'm awaiting Al's approval, can't wait to start reading the posts. Thank you ! !!

I have a big visio-spatial impairment, and the occupations that fit people with AS are the ones I'm worst at. I have the typical NVLD HUGE gap in IQs, which makes it impossible to calculate my IQ - extremely high in verbal skills, extremely low in Math, shapes, etc. I studied Sociology and Linguistics at university, got the best grades in all subjects but had to drop out of Sociology due to Statistics and Computer proframming, which I wasn't even able to learn minimally.

Lol! When I was at uni I passed all papers over 3 years except for the maths one: I got a D on that. I also find that the careers that suit AS are not appropriate for me and I have a low performance IQ and high verbal IQ. The careers that I feel most attracted to are counselling, and perhaps photography. The irony of having poor social performance, yet wanting to be a counsellor is not lost on me.

Oh, and another un-aspie career that has appealed to me at times is... PR. I know, crazy. But I am not entirely sure what it entails, it just sounds like fun. On principle though I refuse to participate in a career that involves bending/distorting the truth in any way, and i have often wondered if this is what might be involved in public relations. Im not sure how popular I would be amongst potential clients if I insisted on presenting the truth to the public!

Last edited by zen_mistress on 12 Aug 2008, 2:51 am, edited 1 time in total.

Zen Mistress,

Same here, I always wanted to be a counselor. But I know better than try because with my alienation of humans...it's not a good idea. I indeed used to be an excellent English teacher, as they say NVLD should be teachers. But I don't like it.

I've recently taken up Photography as a hobby, and I enjoy it immensely. Must be the first time I enjoy doing something non-verbal... I don't know how far I can go in something very technical and visio-spatial like Photography, though, so I don't think about it as other than a hobby.

I fit just about all the criteria, except I'm really good with math. I have visual and auditory processing problems, but I am good with higher math (just not arithmetic).

Also, does performance IQ relative to verbal IQ typically correlate well with ability in higher math? I had a low performance IQ (77), which is about a standard deviation away from my verbal IQ (93), but I did AP Physics and AP Calculus (without taking physics or pre-calculus), and am going to major in physics in college.

So while the test says performance is lower (and hence I would've thought it'd mean that math skills are lower), in real life, math skills versus writing are about same, with math a little more I'd think.

I do creative writing, and am told I'm good at writing essays and fiction, but when it comes to language in my head (before editing it over and over on a computer or paper), it's very much jumbled and confused. However, I did about average on the block construction, and above average on the matrix reasoning and shape stuff - I just did way below average on most everything else.

I have a friend with NVLD, and she also had some aspie traits, though probably not enough for dx (definitely not NT though). She has difficulties in math, and on tests does much better on verbal than in math, but the performance IQ seems to include a lot of visual and motor skills and timing (at least for most tests), which someone who's good with shapes and math may have trouble in. I remember I used to think of performance IQ as being a good indicator of math skills, but good not to put too much emphasis on these tests.

So I've not been identified with it officially, though I probably could be technically, with the higher verbal score and the other traits.