FRIDAY, JUNE 12,1998

Rainbow Rowell

She Knows It's 'Not Just Me'

Tera Kirk learned to read when she was 3. She's always had a huge vocabulary. She's learning two languages at once. And she's a whiz at tests.

You would think she's a gifted young woman. not someone with a learning disability.

But the truth is. she's both.

The most recognized learning disabilities affect verbal skills. But Tera, a recent Mercy High graduate, has nonverbal learning
disabiiities, or NLD.

She could read the encyclopedia in second grade. But she couldn't find her way home from school, two blocks away.

Though these visual-spatial problems affect nearly every aspect of her life, Tera, 18, is determined to succeed--both for herself and for other young people with NLD who badly need proof that it's possible.

'Lost in Space'

Tera wasn't diagnosed until she was 13, but an aunt summed up Tera's troubles when the girl was just 3.

"Tera walks like she's lost in space."

Any information that goes into Tera's brain through her eyes is likely to get jumbled.

She has poor depth perception. She can't remember things that she sees. And she has trouble with spatial and abstract relationships.

You could point to a coffee cup and ask Tera to pick it up, and she might not be able to recognize the cup. She just can't sort out the visual information.

And even if she can, she might not remember it.

If she watches a horror movie and one of the characters dies, a few minutes later Tera might wonder what happened to the character.

Now. if the movie is narrated or the characters do a lot of talking, she'll remember it all. She processes the world in a very literal, verbal way. For example. she never liked the movie "E.T." "It wasn't wordy enough for me." And she has a problem with Snoopy because he doesn't talk.

Because Tera's other gifts were so evident, it was always hard for her to get help.

When her mother, Kathy Kirk, tried to explain to teachers and doctors that something was wrong, they couldn't see it. Tera passed all the standard learning tests.

Her Own World

Yet it was obvious to both mother and daughter that Tera didn't see the world like everyone else.

Tera's motor-skill difficulties were dlagnosed early. But her learning disabilities weren't pinned down until she was 13.

She believes her disabilities might have been caused by a bout with staph infection when she was a newborn.

Though there's no real treatment for NLD, it helped Tera to have a name and to know there were other people having the same sort of problems.

"A lot of times" she said, "it's not diagnosed, so you don't have a reason to explain the way you are."

She's learned all that she can about NLD and related disorders such as autism.

There is so little information about NLD that she has started her own Web page with links to her favorite resources.

The page received an award for excellence by an online company, and it has helped her meet peopie from around the country who are struggling wilh nonverbal learning disabilities.

In April, she was invited to speak at a symposium about the syndrome.

It was such a relief to meet other people like herself, she said.

"There are a lot of us out there. We are a community of people. It's not just me."

She was especially glad to talk to other young people and their parents.

People with NLD often have trouble forming relationships. Their poor visual skills prevent them from communicating nonverbally. They might not be able to interpret facial expressions, gestures or tone of voice.

The social isolation can bring on serious depression. That's a worst-case scenario, Tera said, but what little reearch there is on NLD always seems to deal with the worst case.

She remembers reading these horror stories when she was growing up and wondenng whether she would turn out the same.

People love talking to Tera, someone who is succeeding In school, making friends and even going on to college.

"A lot of stuff (they read) is negative," she said, "they're glad to see someone with NLD who's doing well."

Reprinted with permission from the Omaha World-Herald June 12, 1998.