The most recent thing I read that has really helped me think my way through this is a little pamphlet or whatever provided by the albertan goverment. It has one of the most clear and succinct descriptions of NLD I’ve seen:

(well… the pdf won’t let me copy and paste the relevant sections, so I guess you’ll have to read them yourself)

But, leave it for me to say that (for this list at least) I have basically all the elements and most of the deficits to a degree. This particular pamphlet is useful for me because it clearly lays out the type of behavioural things that would be expected from someone with NLD. Most of the other things I’ve seen written about this don’t have it quite as clear.

Certain things are making sense to me. Like how I learned to read at the same time as my sister. Except that she is two years older than me, and so was learning at the more regular time of about 5 but I was 3. I started school knowing how to read. And I can still remember the very first book I read.

I think the biggest area of deficit I have is in the visual-spatial area. Not being able to see images in my head. Having zero ability to remember images (I can recognize things, but can’t remember what they looked like unless in my face). And I, for the love of me, cannot ever get distances or quantities right. Like… will constantly use a container twice the size of my leftovers ‘cause I can’t tell how much there is. Or I remember distances by how long it takes me to travel.

Anyway. This is just me organizing some of my thoughts.

It also explains why I have such a hard time writing things by hand and why my marks in english consistently got better the more I was allowed to use computers (most notably, I remember winning the ability to write one of my final exams on the computer and it was such a massive help for me).