Return-Path: <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id gBB23cX14773; Tue, 10 Dec 2002 21:03:38 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 21:03:38 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <CJEGLEBGEJGFHJKGPLLCEEJDFAAA.veb8899@fastmail.fm> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "VB" <veb8899@fastmail.fm> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-LD:4070] Re: News about Vocational Rehabilitation X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 4984 Lines: 101 Hi Anne, I apologize for being late in responding. You asked: <What do you - and others on this listserv - feel needs to be said to change policy (besides give us more money!)?>> Ask the legislators to imagine what it is like to write important notes with a mitt on their hand; to concentrate on important legislation with extremely loud music blaring in the background; to read a passage in a language they are not familiar with, to not be able to understand how to figure out how much more money they need in their reelection campaign, to verbally label everything they pass in the Rayburn House Office Building due to a faulty visual memory. Ask them to imagine doing this on a daily basis. Just because you can't see any wheelchairs, canes, hearing aids, or seeing eye dogs doesn't mean our problems aren't life impacting because they are. You also asked: <<What are the effects of a nonverbal learning disability? This area is much more obscure than language-processing difficulties. I know that LD evidences itself as differences in information processing. What particular areas of processing that are most affected? Does attention deficit also have an effect?>> You are asking some excellent questions. For general information, if you haven't done so, I would visit these sites: http://www.nldline.com http://www.nldontheweb.org http://www.nlda.org Of course, how a person is affected by NLD varies. For me, a perfect example was yesterday on a temp assignment. At the end of the day, I had handwritten a tally for a project I had done. My supervisor wanted it in MS Word and didn't care how I did it. But I am sure she was like most people and wanted the information in a neat format. Unfortunately, because of my visual/spatial difficulties, I had a heck of a time coming up with a document that looked good. Because I knew my temp assignment was ending, I couldn't wait until the next day to perfect it and had to do the best I could. I don't think that derailed me but it could have under other circumstances. Now if I were in a regular job and knew I had to perform this task as part of my duties, I would come up with a template. But when you're temping, you don't have the luxury of doing that. NLD also affects the social area as due to visual/perceptual problems that many NLDers have, it is hard to read non-verbal language. I think I do a pretty good job of compensating but still, if someone seems stressed like my supervisor was on my temp assignment, is it because she is mad at me or is it because of stress in her job? Since it was at a news organization, I am going to guess stress but you always have that nagging doubt as to whether you are reading non verbal language correctly. Also, if someone is giving me rapid fire instructions, that is a tough situation. What happens is due to the inability to visualize, it is hard to remember everything and writing things down doesn't always help. Apparently, I misunderstood something on this temp assignment and while I don't think it was a big deal, I don't know that for sure. This person was in a big hurry so I think that might have made me reluctant to ask questions but I can't allow that to stop me as the consequences of not doing so are worse. But you want to appear competent like "normal" people so you constantly are dealing with those battles in your brain. Even though a non verbal learning disability infers that the problems are with non language issues, that isn't necessarily the case. A perfect example of this is sarcasm. Fortunately, I understand it very well but a lot of NLDers are so literal minded that they don't. Think of the ramifications of that on a job. I would say all areas of processing in NLD are affected such as auditory and visual processing. The question of an attention deficit is quite interesting. Some people swear that you can't have both NLD and ADD because they feel that the inattention problems of an NLDer are in the visual modality and what may look like ADD in the auditory modality is actually, the NLDer being overwhelmed in overusing his/her good area since a lot of people with NLD are auditory learners. Personally, I think you can have both as I have engaged in behaviors that are definitely ADD but not NLD. For example, many times, I would erroneously push in front of someone who was already at the candy machine at my former place of employment. Fortunately, I was able to use self-deprecating humor and it worked like a charm. I also have a strong family history of ADD. To confuse you even more, both people with NLD and ADD have executive function impairments, which essentially mean difficulty with organization and planning. One parent of an NLDer feels that if an NLDer gets an ADD diagnosis in addition to NLD, what the physician is really seeing is the executive function difficulties. Again, I disagree but who knows? I greatly appreciate your questions and how thoughtful they were. Vivian
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