Diagnosing children can be tough, even for the experts; many symptoms overlap, and most of the diagnoses fall along some kind of spectrum of how a child is impacted. I don't know much at all about NVLD, but I have known (through a casual friendship, this isn't someone I know well) an adult who has NVLD. I've also known (again, very casually) a parent of an older child with NVLD. The adult I knew is female, tended to withdraw into herself at times from stress, but overall was a social person. Her challenges were related to understanding math (she just couldn't ever understand it really), and I think she was dyslexic too - I don't know the details, but school had been a struggle for her. Same for the child of the parent I knew... but he absolutely had friends and enjoyed being with other kids.
I think the thing to do right now is to read up a bit on NVLD so you have some idea of what it means, and then wait for your full report from the neuropsych. Our reports were always considered "drafts" until the parent had seen them and had a chance to review and ask questions. Will you have a follow-up face-to-face meeting with the neuropsych? Even if you've already had your follow-up, I would be sure to ask this question and any other questions you have once you've had a chance to read the actual report.
Back to NVLD, I thought the WISC profile that is usually associated with it is a significantly higher score in VIQ than PRI (perceptual reasoning) (I think > 1.5 or 2 SD difference). That doesn't mean that a large difference is diagnostic of NVLD, it just means that if the neuropsych sees that, they would look at other information (parent concerns, child's developmental history, school behaviors, as well as administer other types of tests to clarify why the difference in scores) - and from the combined picture of all the info they have they come up with a diagnosis.
The other side of the issue is neuropsychs do seem to see what they are used to seeing to a certain extent, does that make sense? So if one neuropsych is used to seeing primarily clients on the autism spectrum, they may be more aware of autism traits than a neuropsych who is usually seeing kids with OCD for instance (that's just an example I'm pulling out of the air fwiw). When there are so many overlapping symptoms and traits between diagnoses, it's not out of the realm of possibility for one neuropsych to see one thing and another perhaps see bits and pieces of something else... particularly when a child's diagnosis is very borderline. The thing I think is important overtime is to look for consistencies in profiles (is your child scoring with the same pattern on the WISC etc) and how is she impacted in *life*. If a diagnosis makes sense, go with it. If it doesn't make sense, use what does make sense in terms of accommodations that will work for your child, and then move forward and know that the diagnosis may very well change. It's not unusual from what I've seen for parents of children with challenges to see the diagnoses evolve over the years as their child matures.
Best wishes,
polarbear
