Nonverbal Learning Disorder: An Academic and Social One-Two Punch
Learning differences don’t just affect school performance
I always knew there was something a little different about my daughter. Looking back, I can trace a line from the earliest age — when she was unwilling to be cared for by anyone besides me — to today, when despite all the growth she’s made over the years, she still struggles with a wide array of skills on both the academic and social sides of life.
Family members and friends shrugged off her idiosyncrasies. Kids are all different, they’d say. She’ll catch up. And, kind of, she did. It never failed: As soon as I called in an expert about one aspect of her development, she’d leap ahead in that domain and then begin to fall behind in another. She was a moving target.
In the academic setting, she struggled with specific skills like pencil grip and word recognition, as well as broader abilities like following the most familiar of routines and lasting the entire school day without breaking down into tears.
Socially, things were often harder. She loves other kids and wants them to be her friend, but she often doesn’t know how to relate to them. She can be overbearing, which can turn other kids off, and she also tends to overinterpret their reactions. She might say…
