My daughter has NLD and Social Anxiety Disorder. She is now 25, graduated from high school 6/09 and entered college last month, where she is struggling with 2 basic classes. The most major effect is that family members and friends do not understand her disabilities. They expect her to act and react in ways she is not capable. She has always needed a lot of extra help and understanding. At 25, she is like a 17 y/o. Thankfully, she understands that she is delayed, does not want to have children for a long time and does not pressure herself nearly as much as when she was younger. Another negative effect is that in her search for acceptance she hooked up with a very negative b/f for 5 1/2 years which caused a lot of stress on our entire family.

It was very difficult to find teachers who understood her disabilities when she was in public school. Nearly all of them tried to pound this square peg into a round hole, which was terrible for her self esteem. She still thinks she is stupid and suffers from very low self esteem. We took her out of school at 15 because of many issues and successfully homeschooled for 10th and 11th grades. She then entered the local adult high school for a year and did much better there. The teachers then and recently were much more understanding and helped her a lot. Possibly teachers today would be better educated about her issues, but from what I read on these posts, maybe not.

Good luck with your education and your quest for understanding children with disabilities. Maybe you can make the difference for some of these children and their families. It is a daily struggle that does not end at adulthood. Understanding teachers make the struggle easier.