Differentiate between Asperger's Syndrome and Nonverbal Learning Disabilities?

Question

My 14 year old daughter has NVLD, hypotonia, SI. Asperger's is so close to most of my daughters issues. How can I be sure she has been DX correctly? Is there something different in the Nuro test that set these two learning disablites apart?

Answer 1

Here is a good link that describes the overlap, and then the difference between the two. My son actually has been diagnosed with both.
http://www.nldontheweb.org/Dinklage_1.htm

Answer 2

Asperger's Disorder (or Syndrome) is a psychiatric or psychological diagnosis that is found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - IV (DSM-IV). If you go see a psychologist, they are more likely to give psychological diagnoses. Many insurance companies will (if at all) reimburse parents for diagnoses that are only found in the DSM (or ICD-10, which is another classification for medical doctors).

Nonverbal LD is a neurological diagnosis, while Sensory Integration Disorder and hypotonia are labels used in the neurological or physical/occupational therapy fields. They are not psychological diagnoses per se, but have some overlap in symptoms.

Answer 3

The diagnosis of AS is complicated because of the lack of standardized diagnostic criteria. Instead, several different screening instruments and sets of diagnostic criteria are used. AS is often not identified in early childhood, and many individuals are not diagnosed until they are adults.

that's a good question and I'm not sure the answer. By NVLD...do you mean she doesn't speak or just has trouble expressing her self verbal. I'm not sure even the 'experts' know all the answers. I have a 18 year old son who we have recently discovered prolly has Asperger's.....high fucntioning....he does not do well around other peple like dealing with school was just awful for him! have you tried doing some research on Asperger's?

here are some places you might check out...

http://www.aspergers.com/
http://www.aspergers.com/aspclin.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome (i really like this one for really explaining it)

does your daughter know like everything there is to know about a certain subject for example.....airplanes

you can e-mail me if you would like some support....Good Luck!

Answer 4

in order to get 'disability payments' you have to prove you cannot do any type of work anywhere. Somebody who has vision problems could still talk on the phone in a customer service position And obsessive compusive disorder would be a good executive secretary--these recruiters look for highly organized. As in EXTREMELY. OCD would be an asset to the position. It's intentionally difficult to get disability because the lawyer has to prove the person cannot function at anything. It can't just be 'I don't think I can work" otherwise everybody would apply.

Answer 5

People with Asperger's have one interest which is their main focus and they really like, and some think very well in pictures. A characterist of NVLD is that people with it have a hard time thinking in pictures, and the one interest is not one of their characteristics.

Answer 6

The biggest difference is Aspergers learn through visual channel while NLD do best with the auditory.

Answer 7

Asperger's is often looked at as more of a social disability as opposed to a learning disability because most of these children are able to learn just like other students. Asperger's is often confused with Autisim, but is diffferent.

I would talk to your child's school. Because they see so many kids and the interactions between them, they can often give you information based on what they see. They may also be able to direct you to a local agency as well as provide this information to the agency.

Answer 8

I think the point you may be missing is that within a "label" of a disorder you can have specific learning catagories within the disorder.
They call in Comorbidity- more then one existing disorder simultaneously with and usually independently of another medical condition.