NonVerbal Learning Disabilities

by Alice Huskey, Academic Instructor, NorthStar Center

"She has put off trying to do anything for years. Everything she started she quickly quit until she refused to try anything at all. We couldn't understand why. But she continually said that even small things stressed her out and frustrated her. And she was embarrassed and ashamed that such small things would stress her out that much. This nonverbal LD may be why that was happening. So the first step in transforming a negative to a positive is understanding what caused the negative. This may be the beginning of that understanding." P.C., NorthStar Parent, 2006

As the "Learning Differences" specialist at NorthStar, I can share that we are seeing more and more students with under-identified Nonverbal Learning Disorders (NLD or NVLD). So, what is NLD? A Nonverbal Learning Disorder/Disability is a neurological syndrome consisting of specific assets and deficits. The assets often include early speech and vocabulary development, remarkable rote memory skills, attention to detail (but not necessarily the details we might hope they would attend to), early reading skills development and, sometimes, excellent spelling skills. In addition, these individuals often have the verbal ability to express themselves eloquently and have strong auditory retention. So how is this a disability?

Students with NLD may talk a lot, but have difficulty getting to the main point. Their ability to comprehend what they read is often poor because they cannot organize the information in their minds. Math becomes a struggle as the concepts become more abstract. And, one of the most problematic deficits is in the area of social functioning. "As young children, adults describe them as 'not fitting in.' They want to play with other children, but can't seem to figure out how to interact. Their difficulties in understanding nonverbal cues are a real handicap in social situations with other children, where much of the action is taking place on a nonlinguistic level. Often, they revert to maladaptive ways of getting attention, like clowning or acting out, or become withdrawn and depressed." (Heller, 1997)

The disability itself is quantified by a significant discrepancy between the verbal abilities and the performance, or nonverbal, abilities of the individual. A difference of 17 points or more between Verbal IQ and Performance IQ on an Ability, or IQ, test is required for an identification of NLD. When such cases occur, no one area of ability should be used as a measure of intellectual potential-all areas of strengths and weaknesses must be taken into consideration. While the individual's verbal strengths may be solid their abilities to organize, visualize, reason and respond may be significantly inhibited.

NLD is not recognized frequently and is often under-considered. The social/emotional and behavioral characteristics don't always present until the student is older. While they may have been doing well through elementary school, by middle school, things change. They have always been told how smart they are so it becomes very frustrating to "know" they should be able to do something and yet struggle to do it. Then there is the executive functioning* deficit, which is highly impactful, and the impaired social cue reading ability. So what do we do?

At NorthStar, our orientation process focuses on identifying individual strengths, learning styles and multiple intelligences. Students have the opportunity to go over their psycho-educational testing and learn what it means to them, in terms of their educational path and what accommodations they are eligible for or should request. All students benefit from DBT skills training to learn how stress can be handled in productive ways through Distress Tolerance, Emotional Regulation and Interpersonal Effectiveness training. All students take Goal Setting and Time Management, which addresses executive functioning skills, and have the opportunity to take Group Dynamics, which helps build social interaction skills and leadership. The academic setting at NorthStar addresses the common issues faced by students with distractibility and impulsivity, considers the remediation needs of students, addresses the emotional needs of the students and helps students build a positive sense of self. The more students work to understand themselves, through education, therapy and mindfulness exercises, the easier it will be for them to discover ways to accommodate for their weaknesses and maximize their many strengths.

*definition of executive functioning: Neuropsychological functions including, but perhaps not limited to, decision making, planning, initiative, assigning priority, sequencing, motor control, emotional regulation, inhibition, problem solving, planning, impulse control, establishing goals, monitoring results of action, self-correcting.
From http://www.behavenet.com

Heller, W (1997). Understanding Nonverbal Learning Disability (NVLD). NLD on the Web, Retrieved May 31, 2007, from http://www.nldontheweb.org/heller.htm