misdiagnosed adhd as auditory processing disorder

Misdiagnosed adhd as auditory processing disorder manual#

“Virtually every child I’ve seen with NLD was first diagnosed with ADHD,” says the late Marcia Rubinstien, who was the founder of the Nonverbal Learning Disability Association.

Also like Marci, kids with NLD are often misdiagnosed with ADHD. Like Marci, most children with NLD have large vocabularies, outstanding memory and auditory retention, and average to superior intelligence.

Strongly genetic in origin, NLD affects girls as frequently as boys and is characterized by poor visual, spatial, and organizational skills, poor motor performance, and difficulty recognizing and processing nonverbal cues - body language, facial expression, and the nuances of conversation. Once considered rare, NLD is now thought to be as prevalent as dyslexia. Nonverbal learning disorder (NLD) is a constellation of brain-based difficulties. Not until seventh grade did Marci and her parents learn the true problem: Marci has a nonverbal learning disorder, or NLD - a condition that doesn’t respond to the treatment regimen commonly used to treat ADHD. But behavioral therapy - the standard treatment for ODD - was no more helpful to her than Ritalin or Adderall had been. At this point, Marci was diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). Given her obvious intelligence, her teachers considered her C average evidence of laziness or defiance. She had stopped finishing classroom assignments and often left her homework incomplete. Neither did Adderall.īy sixth grade, Marci was all but friendless. Later that year, Marci was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ( ADHD). Her third-grade teachers said she seemed inattentive in class, blurted out inappropriate comments, and bumped into classmates clumsily when they lined up for recess. Marci did well academically in grades one and two, although she didn’t have many friends. More interested in talking to her parents than playing with her peers, she preferred asking questions to physically exploring the world around her. But unlike other children her age, Marci, who lives in New York City, never liked the sandbox or the playground. “She soaked up words like a sponge,” her mother, Irene, recalls. Her parents started calling her their “little professor” because of her incessant questions and articulate chatter. By age three, she was reading The Cat in the Hat. started talking when she was 15 months old. Studies show that 30 to 50 percent of individuals with autism show symptoms of ADHD, and that up to 60 percent of individuals with ADHD have symptoms of autism. That means there’s a substantial possibility that an individual with ADHD could also have autism.Marci G.

Misdiagnosed adhd as auditory processing disorder manual#

The latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) opens the possibility that an individual can be diagnosed with both ADHD and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which was not the case before. Early detection and treatment of autism are important, but because symptoms of both conditions overlap, diagnosing and separating the disorders can be difficult. Some early symptoms are extreme sensory sensitivities, lack of social skills or a preference to be alone, little understanding of abstract language, and obsessive interests. Autism is characterized by difficulty in communicating and forming relationships, and in using language and abstract concepts. A therapist tries to determine if the child has ADHD or autism.Ī 2013 study, Autistic Traits in Children With and Without ADHD, suggests that kids with ADHD are 20 times more likely to exhibit some traits of autism spectrum disorder compared with non-ADHD kids. Just like ADHD, there isn’t a lab test to diagnose autism.