NLD? Anyone here an expert on evaluation/scores?

[Michelle T]

Sorry this is really long. I'm just having a hard time making sense of DS's

diagnosis, as in some ways it does seem so much like NLD, and in other ways, not at all.

 

My DS is 12. He was diagnosed in April with NLD, ADHD, and dyscalculia. I've always known he is ragingly ADHD, and dyscalculia was no surprise either. But I'm still not sure about the NLD. He does currently take Ritalin LA for his ADHD, which helps quite a bit with the attention issues.

 

He definitely has tremendous difficulty with fine motor, visual, and spatial

skills. Here are some of the testing results from April:

 

Beery Development Test of Visual Motor Integration:

He was in the 9th percentile, with a raw score of 15.

Age equivalent - 5 years 6 months

 

Wechsler Intelligence Scale:

Verbal Comprehension: 98

Perceptual Reasoning: 86

Working Memory Inventory: 83

Processing Speed: 78

Full Scale: 84

 

His lowest scores were in block design, digit span, coding, matrix reasoning,

arithmetic

 

His best scores were in similarities, picture concepts, information, vocabulary

 

The Bender Gestalt II test - this is for visual motor skills:

He had a raw score of 13, which was the .5 percentile.

 

On the Woodcock-Johnson III, his best scores were in:

oral language, story recall, reading fluency, passage comprehension

 

His worst scores were in all of the math, and written expression

 

On a couple of general psychological evaluations, the tester noted that he had trouble not being super silly, but appeared cheerful and well balanced.

 

DS definitely has tremendous problems with attention, working memory, rote memory skills. His spelling is horrible, he has never managed to learn basic math facts, I can read him a paragraph from a book he enjoys, ask him what I just read, and he doesn't remember. He does read on grade level though, his only academic subject on grade level.

 

He is very outgoing, has plenty of friends, and is very social, despite being

somewhat immature and silly for his age.

 

He has good gross motor skills, does well in karate, is very strong for his age, loves to run, ride bikes or skateboards, and swim. His fine motor skills are terrible, he just learned to tie shoes this year, still can't really work a knife and fork, trouble picking up a stack of papers, trouble with zippers and buttons.

 

I realize all kids with NLD are different, and it's hard to judge someone you

don't know, but do these test scores, and description fit NLD? Is there anything else that could cause a child to have severe fine motor/visual processing problems, but average/good verbal skills? And I'm not sure how much his ADHD overshadows all the rest. I've been reading on the web, and books on NLD, and DS fits in some ways, but so much not in others. I'm just confused by all this.

 

Thanks for making it this far!

Michelle T

[Laurie4b]

The key to a NLD diagnosis are issues with social skills and language use (not vocabulary, which is typically very advanced, but language pragmatics--understanding jokes, sarcasm, etc.) . There can be a discrepency in verbal versus spatial abilities that is not NLD. Having lots of friends and good gross motor skills are not typical with NLD. Many NLD kids also have "tape recorder" memories for what they hear and excell at rote memorization.

 

There are a lot of kids who don't fit in a particular "box." My son has large discrepencies between verbal and spatial, and the fine motor problems, but doesn't have NLD. It was ruled out because his social skills are normal and his language usage is very sophisticated. So I think of him as x+ y +z. There are diagnoses called "not otherwise specified." They mean "This doesn't fit into any of our current boxes!"

 

Use any advice from NLD books that fits and disgard the rest.

 

Is he in OT for the fine motor skills? I'd get him there ASAP.

[sandellie4]

I can't really help, as far as giving you information about whether your son fits the diagnosis. But I can say that we have a child with NLD (who's very similar to the ones with Asperger's, which sometimes makes me doubt the diagnosis even now, years later, but anywhooooo), and the diagnosis really started to fit more as she progressed into adolescence. Where she was socially awkward at age 12, she really fell behind when the other teens were making those leaps and bounds in social sophistication. Her lack of social skills and her guilelessness seem much more marked now than they did then.

 

If I were you (and I'm definitely not! :-) ), I would try to keep open about it and wait and see, and continue questioning, just as you're doing. But also, it seems like you have a lot of information that will help you address your child's needs at home and during the school day. Taking this approach has really helped me in the times when I can't be sure where others' and my perceptions meet.

 

Sandy

[at the beach]

We got an NLD diagnosis from the public school when my child was in first grade. I am on the fence as to whether it fits her or not. She definitely fits the characteristics of having excellent memory skills, excellent reading skills, dyscalcula and dysgraphia, social awkwardness. But she is making strides. Many of her eccentricities are fading as she gets older (she's only 9). Her OT suggests I not get a diagnosis because she thinks some of these things will resolve themselves and that she is not severe and that it's a strong diagnosis (pdd or something on the spectrum). But I wonder how she will do as a teen. I worry. And one thing that makes it even harder is that she so much wants social interaction with children. I am always having to coach her on what to do, not do, etc. so she doesn't drive them away. She's incredibly vulnerable and guileless and children can be so not tolerant.

 

Anita

[godpoetry]

We got our NLD diagnosis several months ago and my son sounds alot like yours. I have spent many hours researching it on the web and what I have concluded is that my son is the way he is no matter what they say. I took the information they gave me and applied it to my sons needs. It is important to realize that everyone is different and that they are not going to fit into the box exactly the same as the others. The report can be confusing I know. My sister helped explain mine to me. My neuro-psychologist did tell me that my son would not be doing as well academically if it was not for me homeschooling him, so I am doing something right. He also said that NLD children learn best be hearing, if that helps any. I have started reading all instructions to my son and have him repeat them back and that has helped.

[Michelle T]

We got our NLD diagnosis several months ago and my son sounds alot like yours. I have spent many hours researching it on the web and what I have concluded is that my son is the way he is no matter what they say. I took the information they gave me and applied it to my sons needs. It is important to realize that everyone is different and that they are not going to fit into the box exactly the same as the others. The report can be confusing I know. My sister helped explain mine to me. My neuro-psychologist did tell me that my son would not be doing as well academically if it was not for me homeschooling him, so I am doing something right. He also said that NLD children learn best be hearing, if that helps any. I have started reading all instructions to my son and have him repeat them back and that has helped.

 

 

First off, thanks for confirming that it's hard to "define" NLD kids. I guess they are just all so different. Good to know another NLD'er is similar to mine though! I think with my guy the ADHD is actually the biggest problem in academics, and his extremely poor fine motor skills impact daily living activities more.

 

Some tips the educational psych gave me on teaching my son:

 

Everything must be put into words

Manipulatives and visual props can be too confusing, so use sparingly

Videos and computer learning should be used whenever possible

Hands-on activities are too frustrating and difficult, use very sparingly

Let him use a calculator for basic math

Let him use multiplication/division charts, number lines, etc for math facts

Use computer/keyboard for as much writing as possible

Multiple-choice, true/false, fill-in-one-blank type questions are often easier for him to deal with than open-ended questions

Focus much more on his strengths than his weaknesses

Year round schooling is best, routine is good

 

I'm sure there was more, but that's what I remember right now.

MIchelle T