Q: Our 13-year-old son was recently tested and we were told that his problems in school might be attributed to a non-verbal learning disorder. The psychologist explained the syndrome to us to some extent but we are hoping you could provide us with some more information and perhaps some resources.

A: Non-verbal learning disorders, or NLD as this syndrome is commonly called, are finally receiving the recognition they deserve in the medical and academic world. Unlike other learning disabilities, NLD is often difficult to diagnose, as students with this disability may be excellent readers, gifted spellers and articulate speakers. The following are a few precursors to academic problems experienced by the NLD child:

• The child talks incessantly.
• The child appears to ignore his teacher’s disapproving facial expressions.
• The child is clumsy or uncoordinated for no apparent reason.
• The child has difficulty with visual-spatial-organizational tasks.
• The child makes inappropriate social remarks.
• The child has difficulty relating to his peers in an age-appropriate manner. *(Sue Thompson, "The Source for Nonverbal Learning Disorders", LinguiSystems, Illinois, 1997)

In such children, there is often considerable discrepancy between their verbal and performance IQ scores; performance scores are invariably lower. It is only recently that NLD has been acknowledged in the medical and academic communities. Even today adolescents suffering from NLD are frequently misidentified and misunderstood.

The problem of NLD seems to rest in the right hemisphere of the brain, where diminished functioning "impedes all understanding and adaptive learning." (Thompson). The symptoms found in the NLD teen are not dissimilar to those of patients with head injuries, hydrocephalus "water on the brain", missing right hemisphere brain tissue or an absent corpus callosum (the band connecting the two hemispheres of the brain). If the disorder remains unrecognized and untreated, the child may suffer greatly. Disabilities of this nature can spell disaster in an academic environment if accommodations are not made. Typically, the NLD student’s difficulties are attributed to immaturity, boredom, laziness, lack of discipline, clumsiness or perfectionist behavior. Often students are not properly diagnosed until they are struggling in middle school or high school.

In an academic environment, the disorder manifests itself in three basic areas: motor skills, visual-spatial-organizational and social. In the area of motor problems, this student typically has great difficulty handwriting and keeping a notebook that requires cutting and pasting of any notes. They may appear awkward and uncoordinated in sports. On the organizational level, this student will lose or only complete parts of assignments missing the essence of the whole. Time management is very difficult for this teen (more so than for the average adolescent!) and the more "pieces" of a task there are, the more overwhelmed he might feel. For this student, who was able to rely on a particularly adept rote memory during his early years of school, middle school and high school assignments, with their increased complexity and focus on more abstract reasoning, prove unwieldy and anxiety producing. Any assignments requiring visualization and spatial organization will prove frustrating, as will unpredictable situations and transitions. In a social setting, this is the teen that is accused of attention getting behavior. They have great difficulty reading social cues - especially non-verbal ones involving changes of facial expression, tone of voice or gestures. Sue Thompson states that an NLD teen can be characterized by his very literal approach to assignments and the world in general. Such an approach translates into a naïve, trusting orientation with new situations and with new people by an adolescent unable to read between the lines in interpersonal interactions. Others may see this teen as a smart aleck - one lacking in social graces whose verbal style is frequently curt, abrupt and even rude by most social standards.

Some suggested strategies for helping a teenager with NLD cope with school:

• Provide for extra time to get to classes as needed and offer verbal cues to help navigation
• Don’t misinterpret verbal intelligence for an ability to manage schoolwork. Teachers and parents need to intervene in assisting with organization and time management.
• Don’t push independence and autonomous behavior before the teen is ready. This adolescent may take longer than the average to self-manage.
• Avoid power struggles, punishment and threats, says Thompson. "This child does not understand rigid displays of authority and anger."
• Keep pencil and paper tasks to a minimum, including those involving folding, cutting and arranging material in the form of maps, graphs or charts.
• Modify assignments that require mainly copying text, especially from a board. Tape lectures.
• Build in additional time to complete assignments and minimize confusion by keeping assignment instructions simple, clear and concrete.
• Verbally check for comprehension and keep expectations clear and consistent.
• Keep routines predictable and minimize transitions. This student may well not be able to handle 6-7 classes a day with that many different teachers and expectations. It may be best to mainstream the NLD adolescent into 2-3 classes and to provide one-to-one instruction for the rest.

For more information on NLD, you may want to consider visiting a site on the Web: www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/NLD_SueThompson.html. Sue Thompson, an educational consultant and therapist specializing in intervention for individuals with NLD, has published an excellent book called The Source for Nonverbal Learning Disorders. Further information is available from SHARE Support, a parent organization with a focus on kids with neurobiological disorders and health concerns. SHARE is sponsoring an April 4, 1998 symposium on NLD at Children’s Hospital in Oakland. For more information, call 510-820-4097 or the NLD Hotline at 408-624-3542.

Copyright © 1998-2002 by Beth Samuelson