Recovery In Action | Fall 2019

Even from a young age, I struggled with mood swings and never felt safe. This was due to my parent’s choices with crime and drug addiction. School was never a priority only a place to get a meal. I was the primary care taker of all the other five children, all responsibility landed on me. My parents were always being arrested or too busy to be bothered with responsibility.

On one occasion when I was 10 they were both arrested the day before Thanksgiving. I remember spending that whole day on the phone calling bail bondsmen and churches to provide food for the holiday for my siblings. When my dad got out of jail he insisted that I accompany him in the crimes he committed stating, “If I have you there no one is going to kill me with my child present.” I can’t begin to express the fear I always had.

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”
– Lao Tzu

In this book about Nonverbal Learning Disorder (NLD) and Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) you will learn how to help children with these disabilities. At the time the book was printed (2002), there were about 2.7 million Americans diagnosed with NLD. NLD causes:

• Social problems (difficulty making friends and relating to others)
• Rigid, black-and-white thinking
• Sudden meltdowns
• Trouble using language (although the child may have an extensive vocabulary, he or she cannot use language effectively to relate to others)
• Particular topics of interest in which the child becomes an ‘expert’
• Disorganization
• Trouble pretending
• Ultra-sensitivity such as being unable to tolerate the feeling of a tag in a shirt, or the sound of a ticking clock
• Difficulty with motor skills including writing, playing sports, or tying shoelaces