"Social-emotional learning disability" (SELD)

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I thought about something described below...

SELD ("social-emotional learning disability") is a cognitive deficit or group of cognitive deficits which appears to be associated with lack of theory of mind or serious deficits in it. It may be said that "land of emotions" is an "unknown land" for people with SELD. It occurs for example in childhood autism (Kanner's syndrome) and "classic" forms of Asperger's syndrome.

Symptoms of SELD may include:
- lack of empathy (especially cognitive one) and (or) compassion,
- lack of understanding of lying and intentions,
- inability to mentalise emotional states of others,
- lack of understanding why something is offensive for other person,
- "painful" honesty,
- being very naive and gullible,
- lack of pragmatic skills,
- literal interpretations,
- policing behaviors (applying the same rules to everybody regardless of the circumstances),
- thinking that other people thinking just as I (and have, for example, the same interests as I),
- lack of interest in rivalisation and (or) understanding of it (why someone is happy when is a winner?),
- poor understanding of social situations,
- poor understanding of motives of other people,
- alexithymia,
- lack of common sense in social situations (for example taking toys of other child because a child with SELD thought that other child will like "me" because of it) - idiosyncratic and "illogical" behaviors in social interactions,
- "intense" imitative behaviors (associated with cognitive deficits in socio-emotional area?),
- lack of knowledge about emotion which should be felt in particular situation (such as after death of an uncle),
- difficulty with describing emotional states of other (for example characters in the novel) and creating stories containing descriptions of emotional states,
- problems with imaginative play and understanding of it,
- problems with recognising people and faces and memorising facts about people)

SELD is clearly a cognitive deficit, a "learning disability" in socio-emotional area. It is serious deficit of knowledge about social and emotional "realms".

I think that when symptoms such as lack of eye contact, lack of interest in making friends and attachment rather to objects than to people are seen in childhood they do not necessarily mean that this serious cognitive disability is present. They may be associated in other group of symptoms than described above.

I have a few of the symptoms but I don't have most of em.

I almost have not symptoms of it. So I do not have serious cognitive deficit associated with understanding of social and emotional areas. But I have large social ineptitude despite it.

i had a fair few as a child but i thought this was part of autism and that you have to have some of these symptoms to be diagnosed, not something seperate? I may be wrong though.

Childhood autism is the same as Kanners autism? is that true?

Symptoms included in first post in this topic are present in "typical" ("bookish") forms of autism or "typical" Asperger's.

SELD is not a diagnosis on its own.

I suppose that SELD can occur also in people who have not signs of "classic" autism, like:

- speech delay (or even lack of it),
- language impairments,
- problems with communicative use of language
- lack of central coherence,
- difficulties with looking to objects or ideas as a whole, seeing everything "in parts"
- no "internal voice" in head (lack of verbal and (or) conceptual thinking),
- clear dominance of visual thinking,
- literal, concrete, rigid thinking,
- lack of abstract thinking, difficulties with understanding abstract concepts,
- having "narrow" mind,
- over-attention to detail, missing the "big picture"
- echolalia,
- pronoun reversal, lack of using the pronoun "I"
- difficulty with differentiating self and others,
- serious or even profound problems with sensory integration,
- being overwhelmed by sensory stimuli easily,
- "meltdowns", attacks of anger or fear
- "splinter skills", "islets" of abilities
- necessity of sameness,
- compulsive adherence to nonfunctional routines and rituals,
- stereotypical movements like hand flapping, body rocking, head-banging, tiptoe walking,
- preoccupation with the parts of objects;
- gluten and casein intolerance

Someone might have symptoms of SELD described in first post but not have symptoms of "classic" autism described above.

"Infantile autism", "childhood autism" ("classical" autism) is the same as "Kanner's syndrome":

Autism (also called autistic disorder, infantile autism, Kanner's syndrome or Kanner syndrome) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that manifests itself before the age of three years. Children with autism are marked by impaired social interaction, impaired communication, and restricted and repetitive behavior. These three characteristics reflect Leo Kanner's first reports of autism emphasizing "autistic aloneness" and "insistence on sameness".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Pervasive_developmental_disorders

Childhood autism (ICD-10)
Used when the person's behaviour fits the full picture of typical autism.

Autistic disorder (DSM-IV)
This is the same as childhood autism.

http://www.autism.org.uk/labels

I think that "social perception deficit" is an other phenomenon than something described in first post in this topic. After typing "social perception deficit" in Google (https://www.google.pl/search?q=indifferent&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=ZedIVaTbM6f5ywO8nYCIBw#q=%22social+perception+deficit%22) first link contains such a description:

that social perception deficit was a type of nonverbal learning disability. Several studies that followed up on this hypothesis have found it to be consistent.

And the link is about "Social Perception in Students with Learning Disabilities and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder" (http://download-v2.springer.com/static/pdf/456/art%253A10.1023%252FA%253A1022932315274.pdf?token2=exp=1430844486~acl=%2Fstatic%2Fpdf%2F456%2Fart%25253A10.1023%25252FA%25253A1022932315274.pdf*~hmac=920f3fa60300723d1506dc5e8289a6f00a99555797a8e1faa1acc84641023832)

"Social-emotional learning disability" is a cognitive deficit which limits knowledge about emotions and motives, intentions of others which appears to be caused by serious problems with theory of mind. But someone can have social perception deficit despite lack of significant impairments in theory of mind. Overlap between "pure" forms of SELD and social perception deficit should not be so large. Social perception deficit may be associated with something which may be called "social NVLD" (for example described on this page: http://non-vld.wikispaces.com/NVLD+Subtypes). Another description of "NLD" with predominant deficiency in social perception:

The third subtype of nonverbal learning disorders outlined by Dr. Grodzinsky is characterized primarily by difficulties interpreting social signals. Children in Port Washington with this subtype often have more difficulty understanding implicit social cues, such as gestures and vocal intonation, than most children their age; this can cause them to misinterpret or overinterpret things said by others, or to misjudge a person’s mood when they say something. This interferes with their ability to form friendships and can lead to social withdrawal, anxiety, and depression. Dr. Grodzinsky notes that due to the nature of the social difficulties, this type of nonverbal learning disorder is sometimes mistaken for Asperger’s; however, it can be differentiated by the lack of restrictive interests and repetitive behaviors.

http://braincoreny.com/3-types-nonverbal-learning-disorders/

I only have one trait from the list (trouble remembering faces). I probably had a few more when I was a kid.

I have a lot in the list. I was diagnosed with childhood autism. I am high functioning.

I have a lot from the list. Pretty much everything - if not now then as a kid.
Too bad a diagnosis like it doesn't officially exist.

I still don't really understand. Isn't SELD and autism spectrum disorder the same thing?

Something which I named here as a "social-emotional learning disability" appears to be often present in individuals with autism spectrum disorders. SELD does not refer to symptoms such as repetitive, restricted behaviors, activities and interests, but to basic social cognition deficits which appears to be associated with serious, developmental lacks in theory of mind.

Having SELD is not necessary to be autistic, for me a child can have autism and not SELD, but opposite situation may be impossible. A person can have serious problems with communication (especially nonverbal one), social reciprocity and relations without SELD.

I was diagnosed with Asperger's, did not think about eye contact so much as a child, have problems with fixative interests, but my abilities associated with theory of mind appear to be really good in comparison to the descriptions of problems of (many) other individuals with AS(D) diagnosis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnJpqrNTASU - film about "social learning disability". For me "social learning disability" is not associated with poor eye contact, lack of need of mutual relationships and limited attachment to people. The description of "social learning disability" from this film in many aspects appears to fit me, unlike many traits of ASD. But for me "social learning disability" is not an emotional diffrence.

I would even name "social learning disability" from this film as "autism" (it appears to be difference in "character" and emotionality ("loner" personality, tendency to fixations), not a cognitive deficit), but "social learning disability" would be something different for me.

"Social learning disability" would be for me a developmental condition associated with serious deficits in knowledge and understanding of basic social "themes", such as lying, intentions, hidden meanings, imaginative play, empathy (especially cognitive). "Social learning disablity" - it means for me significant, developmental deficit in theory of mind.

"Social learning disability" does not mean that someone has "loner" personality or tend to fixate on certain topic! "Social learning disability" is a true learning disability, an obvious cognitive deficit, not "other attitude towards reality" (especially in social area)!

http://www.daytondailynews.com/videos/news/social-learning-disability-is-not-autism/vCYhbC/

Join the discussion with Steven Sussman, Ph.D, child & adolescent psychologist, about need to redefine certain groups within the autistic spectrum as having social learning disability rather than auti

For me autism is "other way of functioning", not theory of mind deficit (although I doubt and wonder if a child with serious deficits in theory of mind can be named as "not autistic"), unique cognitive style or specific way of interpreting sensory stimuli.

http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/history-of-autism#1

Where Did the Term "Autism" Come From?

The word "autism," which has been in use for about 100 years, comes from the Greek word "autos," meaning "self." The term describes conditions in which a person is removed from social interaction -- hence, an isolated self.

Eugen Bleuler, a Swiss psychiatrist, was the first person to use the term. He started using it around 1911 to refer to one group of symptoms of schizophrenia.

In the 1940s, researchers in the United States began to use the term "autism" to describe children with emotional or social problems. Leo Kanner, a doctor from Johns Hopkins University, used it to describe the withdrawn behavior of several children he studied. At about the same time, Hans Asperger, a scientist in Germany, identified a similar condition that’s now called Asperger’s syndrome.

Autism and schizophrenia remained linked in many researchers’ minds until the 1960s. It was only then that medical professionals began to have a separate understanding of autism in children.

The word "autism" was at the beginning associated with a gropu of symptoms of scizophrenia.

I think that some conditions, which I would name as "autistic", can be now (mis)named as "social learning disability" or "nonverbal learning disorder". "Autism" is not a learning disability or cognitive deficit for me. Autism has not to be associated with theory of mind deficit. Kanner's syndrome and similar conditions are not only types of autism which can occur in children.