Non-verbal learning disabilities - Impact on social skills

I wanted to share some information this week on non-verbal learning disabilities.  It's an LD that isn't always understood, is difficult to recognize, and shares many of the same characteristics of Austism and Asperger's Syndrome. 

Here is some good, basic information on NVLD and its impact on individuals from the Learning Disabilities Association of Halton's website.

Rhonda

Non-verbal Learning Disabilities - Impact on Social Functioning and Interpersonal Skills

Maggie Mamen, Ph.D., C.Psych

In our complex social world, it is vital that we become competent at recognizing important cues from the environment that trigger appropriate behavioral responses. Many of these cues are contained in the language that we speak, and we are attuned to listening to what someone says in order to judge what is expected of us in interpersonal situations. It has long been accepted, however, that communication skills are substantially non-verbal, and therefore it is critical that we learn not only to listen to the words, but also to be attuned to the wealth of non-verbal data that provide vital information to shape and direct social responses. It is therefore not surprising that disruptions in the ability to process this non-verbal information can have profound effects on an individual's ability to function appropriately in a social environment.

Non-verbal learning disabilities (NVLD) effect most non-linguistic aspects of communication, for example:

• Interpretation of visual social cues, such as body language, gestures, facial expressions.
• Understanding of tone of voice, mood, emotional cues
• Comprehension of information not immediately contained in words, such as nuances, humor, sarcasm, metaphor, imagery
• The pragmatics of language, particularly social language; knowing what another party knows or needs to know, what to say when, when and how to initiate and maintain conversations, when and how to terminate communication, and so on.

In addition, deficits are frequently found in the following, more general, areas of functioning:

1. General organizational abilities: most specifically, in the ability to break down a complex task into its component parts and to work through the steps in order to complete the task;
2. Difficulties with part-whole relationships
3. Mastery of nonverbal mathematical concepts such as time, space, quantity, visual array
4. Ability to grasp and manipulate spatial relationships in one-, two- and three- dimensions
5. Understanding of the position of self in space, orientation, directionality
6. Visual pattern recognition and memory
7. Visual-motor integration and fine motor control

The overwhelming impacts of deficits in these areas on the life of tile NVLD individual is consistently underestimated. Adding to the problem is the fact that many NVLD children have such strong, sometimes superior or very superior, verbal abilities, that they are frequently an enigma to those who live with and teach them. Verbal strength may be used both as a defense and as a weapon, and NVLD children are sometimes viewed as "mouthy," overly verbose, or even verbally aggressive. Since expressive vocabulary is seen as a reliable predictor of "intelligence," NVLD individuals arc frequently expected to perform as uniformly competently as they appear to be from their perceived verbal abilities. Frustration is a very common, natural result of the discrepancy between expectation and reality, on the part of both the NVLD individual and those around him.

Read the rest of the article online here.

Don't forget, Bridgeway and Turning Tides Community Outreach provide social skills programs for students with NVLD.  Visit our websites for more information.