How to waste time and irritate people (especially NLDers)

Do you like wasting your time? Probably not.

Do you like irritating people? I hope not! (Although, looking at how some people behave……)

So, why are you reading a post called “How to waste time and irritate people?”  I hope it’s in order to learn what NOT to do. And, since the post title says “especially NLDers” I’ll guess you have someone with nonverbal learning disabilities in your life. Your child, your spouse, your student …. Could be anybody.

So…. how can you waste your time and irritate people?

• Communicate in ways we can’t understand.  If you knew someone didn’t speak English at all, would you speak English to them? I hope not! If you knew someone spoke very little English, would you speak as you normally do? Or might you use simpler words and speak more slowly? (Some people speak more loudly, which strikes me as odd. Speaking French doesn’t affect your hearing!)  Yet many people assume that we NLDers will “get” their body language and tone of voice, even after we tell them that we don’t.
• Ask us questions we can’t answer. I never know where anything is. A lot of NLDers have similar problems. So, don’t ask us where things are! There are lots of other questions I can’t answer. What did he look like? How do I get there? How old was I when something happened? How long will it take to get there? What should I wear? I DON’T KNOW!
• Get mad at us for things we can’t help. It can be irritating dealing with people who have a disability. We are, in some ways, harder to deal with that people without disabilities. But we didn’t choose our disability. So, instead of getting mad at us for things we can’t help, express your irritation some other way. Complain to your friends (or your spouse, if he/she isn’t the one with the problem). Even better, try to work out ways to get around the irritation. Because just like you don’t like being irritated, we don’t like irritating you.