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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Nonverbal learning disability (NVLD), a poorly understood and often-overlooked disorder that causes problems with visual-spatial processing, may affect nearly 3 million children in the United States, making it one of the most common learning disorders, according to a new study by led by Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
The study, the first to estimate the prevalence of NVLD in the general population, was published online today in JAMA Network Open.
"NVLD is a huge and hidden public health burden," said Jeffrey Lieberman, Chair of Psychiatry at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and Director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute. "This important work might never have come to light if not for the support of dedicated advocate and their philanthropic support. We hope that these findings raise awareness of the disorder and lead to an understanding of its neurobiology and better treatments."
The name of this neurodevelopmental disorder may be part of the problem: children with NVLD are not nonverbal, as the name suggests, and have no difficulty reading. Instead, children with NVLD have difficulty processing visual-spatial sensory information, which can cause problems with math, executive function, and fine motor and social skills. "Children with this disorder might shy away from doing jigsaw puzzles or playing with Legos," says lead author Amy E. Margolis, PhD, assistant professor of medical psychology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. "They may have trouble tying their shoes, using scissors, or learning routes or schedules."
NVLD was first described in 1967, but compared with other learning disorders it has received little attention. There's little consensus among physicians on how to diagnose the disorder, and it is not included in the current edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The cause of NVLD is not known and there are no treatments.
Few parents have heard of NVLD. "Most parents recognize that a child who isn't talking by age two should be evaluated for a learning disorder. But no one thinks twice about kids who have problems with visual-spatial tasks," says Margolis.
[...] Margolis advises parents to seek evaluation for children with symptoms of NVLD. "Diagnosis can be accomplished using basic assessment tools," says Margolis. "It doesn't have to involve complex and costly neuropsychological testing. We envision that all clinicians who use DSM5 will be able to use our new criteria to determine who may meet criteria. They can then send patients for basic psychological testing that is always available through schools to identify/quantify a problem with visual-spatial processing."
-- submitted from IRC
Journal Reference:
Amy E. Margolis, Jessica Broitman, John M. Davis, Lindsay Alexander, Ava Hamilton, Zhijie Liao, Sarah Banker, Lauren Thomas, Bruce Ramphal, Giovanni A. Salum, Kathleen Merikangas, Jeff Goldsmith, Tomas Paus, Katherine Keyes, Michael P. Milham. Estimated Prevalence of Nonverbal Learning Disability Among North American Children and Adolescents. JAMA Network Open, 2020; 3 (4): e202551 DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.2551
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday April 29 2020, @06:17PM (5 children)
8% of men are colorblind, I'm struggling to see that as a character trait.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 29 2020, @06:45PM
Funny thing, that. Colorblind people are better at spotting motion than those with "normal" vision. It could very well have been an affirmatively selected trait back when hunting was crucial and colors were largely irrelevant.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday April 29 2020, @08:03PM (3 children)
Perhaps it's written in color?
:-}
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday May 01 2020, @01:35AM (2 children)
My wife endlessly retells the story of how I called a maroon awning purple, and how obviously different the two colors are. Now, if I focus hard on my pantone pallettes I can tell maroon from purple, but to my eyes they're really close - apparently not to hers.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday May 01 2020, @03:01AM (1 child)
I guess I've been around many artistic women, but I've observed that most women seem to see, or at least process color much more richly than most men. In other words, most men are somewhat colorblind compared to most women I guess. Rather than chide you for having a slight bit of a known trait, perhaps she could revel in her keen color perception?
I see color fairly well, but my dad was somewhat colorblind, and he got some exasperated mocking from time-to-time. I definitely see a big difference between maroon and purple, but I might blurt out "purple"- just because it's a simpler word to bring up and into the speech flow.
Ever take any of those color perception tests?
Okay, this one is infuriating. I'll tell you my score if you tell me yours: https://www.xrite.com/hue-test [xrite.com]
Ever hear of these? I don't know much: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EnChroma [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday May 01 2020, @12:30PM
There are proven genetic biases for better color perception with two X chromosomes, then there are the freaks with four color channels (extending into the UV range) - they also tend to be female.
Until presbyopia set in, I had 20-10 or better vision on the eye tests, and I think some of that comes down to better high resolution contrast perception, which probably is a trade off for less color perception.
I scored 0 (perfect) in that test, but I'd swear that several of those squares were identical and I was just getting lucky... makes me want to screen cap it and check the hues. Also, fun fact, LCD monitors often have only 6 bits of RGB display capability, even though they take 8 bit input values.
🌻🌻 [google.com]