NVLD

(11-7-13)

The concept of “nonverbal learning disabilities”

• I. Myklebust: Nonverbal Learning Disabilities
  • Spatial Agnosia
    • deficiencies in learning to dress
      • in learning left from right
      • in reading maps
      • in finding directions
      • in math
  • Seizures
  • Disturbed Social Relationships
    • differentiating strangers and friends
    • inability to learn the meaning of the actions of others
• II. Voeller: “Right-Hemisphere Deficit Syndrome in Children
  • Problems with affectively appropriate behavior
  • Left-sided neurological findings
  • Better verbal than visuospatial ability
  • Higher reading and spelling achievement scores than arithmetic test scores
  • Poor recognition of affect in others
  • Attention deficit problems
• III. Rourke: “Syndrome of Nonverbal Learning Disabilities”
  • Assets
    • Neuropsychological: verbal and rote learning
    • Academic
      • word decoding
      • spelling
      • verbatim memory
  • Deficits
    • Neuropsychological: dealing with visual-spatial stimuli, novelity, context
    • Academic
      • graphomotor/handwriting (early characteristic)
      • mechanical arithmetic
      • mathematical concepts
      • science
      • reading comprehension
    • Socio-Emotional/Adaptive
      • adaptation to novelty
      • social competence
      • emotional stability
        • depression & suicide
      • regulation of activity level

Possibly related concepts:

• Asperger’s Syndrome/Disorder (Autistic Spectrum Disorder)
• Arithmetic/Mathematics Learning Disorders; Motor Coordination Disorder

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Neuropsychological Deficits

• tactile perception
• visual perception
• complex psychomotor performance
• dealing with novel material
• tactile visual attention
• exploratory behavior
• tactile-visual memory
• concept formation
• problem solving
• oral-motor praxis
• prosody
• phonology better than semantics
• difficulty with pragmatics of language