Post by SharonF on Mar 2, 2012 8:59:31 GMT -5
hsmom--
Thanks for your post. Who would think that a cyberconversation from eight years ago...would still have ripple effects today? I wonder what conversations are happening on Millermom today that parents will be referring to in 2020?
I'm not surprised that more voices are calling for NLD to be added to the DSM. It will happen eventually, in some form or fashion.
Going over that book's suggested diagnostic criteria for NLD, I'm reminded again of why the NLD piece was so frustrating for me to understand. My dd was diagnosed with competing diagnoses. She had severe CAPD affecting many aspects of language processing. Yet she had many traits of NLD (but definitely not all of them) including much higher VCI than PRI.
She had also just been diagnosed with ADHD-in, but some teachers and doctors thought her ADHD difficulties were not due to ADHD but were actually aspects of her CAPD...or of her NLD. She definitely did not meet the DSM criteria for ADHD. Thank goodness for her ped-neuro who understood that ADHD-in, especially in girls, doesn't always look like the DSM definition.
Having one LD can be baffling enough. But when a person has "bits and pieces" of various LDs, it's even more baffling. That goes back to the abstract you posted this week that cautioned against thinking of LDs as "all or nothing" diagnoses.
NLD is not "all or nothing." My dd has definite traits of NLD. Some traits are significant. But she has excellent social skills (except for being pretty shy.) She thinks in pictures--so her visual recall is amazing! She has very good gross motor skills and was an award-winning athlete. So the NLD checklist might make it sound like she doesn't have NLD. She clearly does. But only certain traits of NLD.
I think all this relates to the first post on this thread. NLD is hard to understand. Even for experts. You don't just put the kid in Resource or add some "skill and drill" and magically make NLD go away.
NLD is especially difficult if the school tries to rely on placement ("isn't ESE") rather than appropriate instruction. NLD often doesn't become a problem until middle or high school. But most middle and high school teachers think that all LDs should have been remediated in lower grades. That's why shragae accurately believes the school is providing fewer services now. They probably are--because high schools usually don't provide services. They provide placement. And most existing "placements" are not a good fit for NLDers.
Most teachers don't understand how NLD can cause over-reliance on rote memorization...that implodes when the kid takes a test (in any subject) that requires application of memorized knowledge and requires abstract reasoning.
And NLDers are often bright--in certain circumstances. They shine in certain types of learning and certain subjects. That creates the illusion they are equally adept in all types of learning environments and in all academic subjects. We NLDers figure out pretty quickly that our "smartness" is all an illusion. We don't want others to know that we are hiding behind an *illusion* of competency. That creates anxiety, perfectionism and defensiveness.
All of that is NOT in the official material that explains NLD. But the more I learn about NLD, that information should be!
Thanks for your post. Who would think that a cyberconversation from eight years ago...would still have ripple effects today? I wonder what conversations are happening on Millermom today that parents will be referring to in 2020?
I'm not surprised that more voices are calling for NLD to be added to the DSM. It will happen eventually, in some form or fashion.
Going over that book's suggested diagnostic criteria for NLD, I'm reminded again of why the NLD piece was so frustrating for me to understand. My dd was diagnosed with competing diagnoses. She had severe CAPD affecting many aspects of language processing. Yet she had many traits of NLD (but definitely not all of them) including much higher VCI than PRI.
She had also just been diagnosed with ADHD-in, but some teachers and doctors thought her ADHD difficulties were not due to ADHD but were actually aspects of her CAPD...or of her NLD. She definitely did not meet the DSM criteria for ADHD. Thank goodness for her ped-neuro who understood that ADHD-in, especially in girls, doesn't always look like the DSM definition.
Having one LD can be baffling enough. But when a person has "bits and pieces" of various LDs, it's even more baffling. That goes back to the abstract you posted this week that cautioned against thinking of LDs as "all or nothing" diagnoses.
NLD is not "all or nothing." My dd has definite traits of NLD. Some traits are significant. But she has excellent social skills (except for being pretty shy.) She thinks in pictures--so her visual recall is amazing! She has very good gross motor skills and was an award-winning athlete. So the NLD checklist might make it sound like she doesn't have NLD. She clearly does. But only certain traits of NLD.
I think all this relates to the first post on this thread. NLD is hard to understand. Even for experts. You don't just put the kid in Resource or add some "skill and drill" and magically make NLD go away.
NLD is especially difficult if the school tries to rely on placement ("isn't ESE") rather than appropriate instruction. NLD often doesn't become a problem until middle or high school. But most middle and high school teachers think that all LDs should have been remediated in lower grades. That's why shragae accurately believes the school is providing fewer services now. They probably are--because high schools usually don't provide services. They provide placement. And most existing "placements" are not a good fit for NLDers.
Most teachers don't understand how NLD can cause over-reliance on rote memorization...that implodes when the kid takes a test (in any subject) that requires application of memorized knowledge and requires abstract reasoning.
And NLDers are often bright--in certain circumstances. They shine in certain types of learning and certain subjects. That creates the illusion they are equally adept in all types of learning environments and in all academic subjects. We NLDers figure out pretty quickly that our "smartness" is all an illusion. We don't want others to know that we are hiding behind an *illusion* of competency. That creates anxiety, perfectionism and defensiveness.
All of that is NOT in the official material that explains NLD. But the more I learn about NLD, that information should be!