Our son who turned 18 has coped with dysgraphia and lack of organizational skills throughout his short life. Over the last year he began to display periods of anxiety and loss in self confidence. Upon reviewing his most recent testing, it appears that he has all the signs of non verbal learning disorder, most obvious is his over 20 point difference between verbal IQ and Performance IQ. His verbal IQ is 154 with a performance IQ of 106. He has displayed many of the characteristics of NVL except the social characteristics. We have not yet discussed this revelation with him as yet and are not clear on the best way forward. He is currently enrolled in the IB Diploma program, which is the only academic program available at his international school. Does anyone have a child with NVL who can shed some light on their experiences, especially in relation to college prep?
Re: non verbal learning disorder
Laurie,
I tried posting this morning, but something didn’t work,so here goes agin.
First, good luck dealing with all the new specialists. Hopefully they’ll come up with some strategies to really help your son. My son goes to a school with about 600 kids per graduating class, and of those, less than 50 will actually get an IB diploma. It really is a very rigerous program, if done like here, and the senior year is the most stressfull due to the huge reports and all the tests the kids have to do then. If your son is just in the first year, you have time to help his deal with possible LDs before things get too hard.
As far a supports for my son, his main LD is in written expression, so always using a computer is the most helpful. He does this even for filling in worksheets. Spell check is most definitely one of his best friends.
My son also has slow visual processing, which makes for slow reading. He has learned to judge how much time assignments will take, but reading assignments will take him twice as long as a non-LD child with a similar profile.
He isn’t disorganized, and always remembers what is due and when, so doesn’t need anything like a blackberry. He does have an agenda (all the kids in the school do), so fills out assignments on that.
My son was identified as LD in 5th grade. Since then he has had intensive tutoring in reading and writing, but nothing in any other subjects. He is quite talented in math, so most science comes easily to him as well. Since high school started, he has had very little tutoring, all that hard work was done in middle school (grades 6-8 for us, so I think that’s the equivalent of years 7-9 in the UK system.)
As far as colleges, my son is looking at school with less than 5000 undergraduate students. These are all small private schools that have decent scholarship opportunities. They include Linfield, Pacific Lutheran, and Univeristy of Puget Sound. There are many similar private schools all over the US. One web site to look at is http://www.ctcl.com/ You can also google “learning disabilities” and “universities” to find some additional information.
Best wishes to you,
Kay
Re: non verbal learning disorder
Kay, thank you for your informative thoughts. We have now set up further testing with specialists to determine the issues our son is facing, including a psychiatrist dealing with adolescents with undiagnosed learning disabilities. Our son sounds like your son in that he too does not have any real social issues other than shyness. He is continuing with the IB programme for now because that is the only programme offered at his school. Once we have a more indepth diagnosis, we will address the next step. As he has already lost an academic year transfering from an A level programme in the UK, he cannot afford to lose yet another academic year. He is in the first year of the IB and whether or not he will have to change schools, we’ve yet to determine.
I would be very interested in hearing about the schools which your son is looking into. It seems obvious to us that an American college will offer more choices than anywhere else. We live in the Bahamas and are not limited by geographical location.
One more thought - have you put into place any particular support system for your son in high school which he found to be really helpful? For example, any suggestions/tips on using certain tools, like a Blackberry, to help stay on top of assignments? Did subject tutoring help him at all?
I appreciate your time and thoughts.
kindest regards,
Laurie
Re: non verbal learning disorder
Just because your son has the IQ split you describe, does not automatically put him as NVLD (which is considered to be on the autistic spectrum) If you want to learn more about NVLD, see the two following web sites:
www.nldontheweb.org
and
www.nldline.com
My son has a 20 point IQ split, with performance lower. His upper IQ is not near as high as your son’s (~130 instead) He is not NVLD. His LD diagnosis is in visual processing and written expression. The fact that he does not have any social issues (and the one NVLD diagnosed kid we know has serious social issues) was a factor in not diagnosing him NVLD.
If you son has serious anxiety issues, have you looked into other possibilities related to that. One condition would be bi-polar, another would be depression, A mental health professional could help with that sort of diagnosis.
Is your son doing OK in his IB program? The IB program in our school is very difficult, and not the only option. My son has only taken a few IB classes at his high school (he’s a senior), and will get a regular, not IB, diploma. A lot of the kids taking IB classes are on edge all the time, because it’s actually quite difficult. One possibility to help your son may be to take an extra year to finish high school. Another is to get him out of the IB program, and switch to a slower paced high school program if that’s at all possible.
My son will graduate on time, and with a decent GPA. His plan is to apply to relatively small private schools in the Pacific Northwest, and we anticipate, based on his SAT and ACT scores, that he will get in to one of them. He went through lots of tutoring at the middle school level, but has been navigating school on his own in high school. If he had to take all IB classes, he probably would have serious anxiety issues as well. Kids need some down time, and that program doesn’t allow for it.
If I were you, I would not pursue the NVLD diagnoses now, but instead look into easing anxiety, via seeing a mental health professional. See how your son copes with some help before hitting him with the revalation that you think you know what’s wrong with him.
Good luck,
Kay
Re: non verbal learning disorder
Laurie,
Good luck on your journey of educating a twice exceptional teenager. Another web forum you may want to visit for advice is
www.schwablearning.org/message_boards
where there have been recent discussions on 2E kids.
Two other web site with good information are:
www.hoagiesgifted.org/twice_exceptional.htm
and
uniquelygifted.org
Take care,
Kay
Re: non verbal learning disorder
Hi There, I ‘m new to this site and new to the world of LD. My son is 11, in 5th grade. Last year we were approached by his teacher who wanted to have him assessed for LD. Specifically, NVLD. The testing was completed by the school, the end of the year and in our meeting with the school psychiatrist and special ed teachers, we discovered that he has a discrepency in his writing/processing vs his aural-oral skills. They felt that his profile fit best in the NVLD category but in reading Kay’s response-it seems that he’s more in the visual processing and written expression. He’s got a high school reading level, lots of friends, he’s polite, respectful but also very literal. The only social issue he seems to have is trusting his instinct (which maybe he doesn’t have?) about what others “mean” by their words or actions. He’s got a great sarcastic sense of humor-so I’m not sure why he can’t understand this in others (primarily, authority figures-ppl whom he doesn’t know very well-he’s afraid to “rock the boat”, doesnt’ want to get anyone into trouble-he’s incredibly empathetic) And we love all that about him. He’s got an outstanding vocabulary. But all the reading I’ve done about NVLD-just doesn’t sound like him. Maybe his case is very mild? He does have some sensory issues-he doesn’t like it when things are too loud-never has-he’s very happy to play alone (or in a group if encouraged), he’s always been very cautious and he doesn’t like getting his hair cut. His big problem really seems to be organization of materials and thoughts and writing them down. His math skills are great, he can do complicated math problems in his head, but he can’t always tell you how he got there. If you ask him to tell you about his paragraph, he’s very colorful but his writing doesn’t always reflect that. He wasn’t late to walk, but he never crawled. He didn’t cry much either. We just thought he was a very considerate baby :). He memorizes like a feind.
The school has given him an IEP-but I’m not sure they’re working hard enough with him, cuz his coping skills are so great and he’s such a good kid. I’m afraid we’re missing something and I don’t want things to get lost or worse. I’m wondering what your more experienced opinions are? Should we have him independently assessed?
Also, why can’t we call Learning Disablities or Disorders-Learning Differences? I know I certainly learn differently from others…
Thanks for your help, Leigh
Re: non verbal learning disorder
Hi Leigh,
I have just emailed you a response because I couldn’t see the “post reply” button when reading your message. I hope my email helps.
e-smiles,
Laurie
Hi Kay,
Thank you for sharing yours son’s strengths and weaknesses. He sounds like a lucky young man who has learned to cope with his learning style. Knowing that he is quite good at maths and sciences, (something my son is not)will be a real focus in looking at colleges and thinking about majors. I went directly to the website you suggested about small,liberal arts colleges and thank you for that suggestion. Several of the colleges recommended for our son are on that list and our college councillor has told me that they are really wonderful schools. I must confess though that I’m anxious to get the ball rolling in regards to the testing and to get some kind of plan into action. How I wish our son’s previous testing had led to a diagnosis which could have been worked upon before now. There is nothing worse than putting yourselves and your child through extended testing, worrying about the outcome, being told that bits and pieces in areas need some help, but that a lack of motivation is the underlying cause of it all. At this late date I am convinced this is untrue. My husband has suggested we not get our hopes up too high and that perhaps after spending over $4,000 (!) for these additional tests and specialists, to be prepared for a piece of paper allowing our son extra testing time. So Kay, this is our journey and I thank you for taking the time to share your own experiences and for your very kind thoughts. They really have been helpful and much appreciated.
Kindest regards,
Laurie