Important Definitions

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Someone with TS is likely to be diagnosed with developmental and mental health conditions. The terms disability and disorder are sometimes used instead of condition. However, they really are just differences in how the brain works. Understanding those differences lets you understand your strengths, which can be used to overcome challenges associated with them and succeed in pursuing your passion. 

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• Condition: When physical or mental health interferes with everyday activities or impacts overall wellbeing.
   

• Disability: A physical or mental condition that negatively impacts how someone moves, perceives the world around them, or everyday activities. 
   

• Disorder: When the body or brain doesn’t function normally because of a disease, genetic factor, or traumatic event (i.e. accident). A disorder can be mental, physical, genetic, emotional, or behavioral.  
   

• Diagnosis: A label used to describe differences in how someone learns, thinks, feels, and acts which cause problems in multiple areas of their life.
   

• Developmental condition: Also known as neurodevelopmental conditions, developmental conditions are brain-based, life-long, and are often noticeable early in childhood. How they affect someone and their treatment needs may change over time. They can impact learning, remembering, or applying skills and information to everyday life, including physical tasks, language and communication, and behavior. This can cause challenges with school, relationships, work, and important life skills like cooking. Many people with developmental conditions have specific learning and mental health conditions.
   

• Mental health conditions:  Are brain-based and how they affect an individual and their treatment needs may change over time.  Mental health conditions make it harder to use skills to appropriately respond to stress, sometimes in ways you can’t see. 

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Common Developmental Conditions Related to Turner Syndrome

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• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Causes challenges with regulating attention and emotions, as well as with executive functioning. (ADHD)
   

• Nonverbal Learning Disability (NVLD/NLD): As defined by the NVLD Project, individuals with NVLD often have verbal strengths but struggle with executive functioning, nonverbal communication, cognitive flexibility, math, reading comprehension, sensory and visual-spatial processing, and motor skills. This can result in academic, professional, social, and emotional challenges. Receiving a NVLD diagnosis and appropriate interventions is often difficult.
   

  • There’s a lot of overlap with ASD and ADHD, but individuals with NVLD may express more desire for relationships than individuals with ASD. 

  • Since NVLD is not listed in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM-5 TR), mental health and other medical professionals may not be familiar with the diagnosis or treatments.
     

• Receiving a NVLD diagnosis and appropriate interventions is often difficult.
   

• Since NVLD is not listed in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM-5 TR), mental health and other medical professionals may not be familiar with the diagnosis or treatments.
   

• Specific Learning Disability (SLD): A group of developmental conditions that impact skills in reading (dyslexia), writing (dysgraphia), or math (dyscalculia).
   

• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (includes Asperger’s Syndrome): Causes challenges with understanding and using language, as well as understanding and using nonverbal cues, which impacts social skills. Also causes challenges with cognitive flexibility and sensory processing.
   

• Social Communication Disorder (SCD): Impacts verbal and nonverbal communication skills, resulting in social challenges.
   

• Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD): Impacts learning motor skills that require coordination, resulting in challenges using those skills in everyday activities.

Common Mental Health Conditions Related to Turner Syndrome
 

• Major Depressive Disorder: Feeling unhappy or feeling emotions less intensely for much longer than normal. 
   

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Causes someone to worry more than typical about situations, events, or activities in the past or future. It is often unlikely that what they worry about will come to pass.
   

• Social Anxiety Disorder: Excessive fear of embarrassing yourself or others in social situations and others negatively judging you.
   

• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD): Causes an intense desire to avoid something negative with their thoughts or actions (obsession) and an inability to resist acting on that urge (compulsion).

This list of common conditions was compiled by Mira K. Cohen and TSSUS in consultation with Dr. Knickmeyer and Dr. Mooney.

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