2. What is
Nonverbal Learning
Disability (NLD)?
NLD

3. NLD
 Causes
of NLD (a
pediatric neurological
disease)
 Dr.
Byron P. Rourke
believes the disorder is
caused by a damage to
the white matter in the
brain, specifically in
the right hemisphere.

4. NLD
What is Nonverbal Learning Disability?
 NLD
is not widely known and is
commonly misdiagnosed as
ADD/ADHD, anxiety disorder or panic
disorder.

5. NLD
NLD Versus. Aspergers syndrome
 Major
differences
 Age of onset
 Diagnosis
 Absence of restricted special skills in
children

6. NLD
Nonverbal Learning Disability
 Children
with Nonverbal Learning
Disability (NLD) have difficulty in
the following 4 areas:
 Tactile/Visual
 Psychomotor/Spatial
 Social/Emotional
 Cognitive

7. NLD
Areas of difficulty
 Tactile
 Children with NLD have trouble
identifying something by touch
alone.
 Visual
 They also have trouble processing
information in the visual field.

8. NLD
Areas of difficulty continued

Psychomotor
 Children with NLD have trouble
with coordination

Spatial
 They also have trouble navigating
and judging their proximity to the
world around them.

9. NLD
Areas of difficulty continued
 Cognitive
 Generalizing information is nonexistent and
mental flexibility is impaired.
 Executive functioning and ability to organize
is also affected.

10. NLD
Areas of difficulty continued

Social and Emotional
 Interacting appropriately with their peers is difficult for
a child with NLD
 Being able to adjust to new situations is also difficult.

Emotional well-being is inconsistent because of
their deficits.

11. NLD
Diagnosis
 Wechlser
Intelligence Scale Children
(WISC)
 Diagnosis
 Score 10 points higher on the verbal than
performance
Risk of NLD.

12. NLD
Psychomotor and Spatial challenges
 Obvious characteristic of
NLD children
 Physically awkward
○ physically demanding activities such as
writing, climbing or jumping
○ gauge where his/her body is in space
○ bump into people or objects around them
Frustration
Isolation

13. NLD
Psychomotor Skills and Finger Dexterity
-Presence of intention, Lack of physical cooperation
-Neurologically impaired
 Fine
Motor Skills
 Difficulty with using pencils, drawing with
crayons, using scissors etc.
 Use fat writing instruments

14. NLD
Psychomotor Skills Cont’d
Sewing
and woodworking etc.
will be very problematic…
Encourage them to participate
to develop their fine-motor
skills

15. NLD
Psychomotor Skills Cont’d
Self Help Skills:
 Difficulty with
wearing clothes
 Provide clothes that require as little
assistance as possible

16. NLD
Physical Education Cont’d
 Struggle
with the less structured nature
of regular physical education classes
 Physical therapy / Occupational therapy
instead
 Identify each child’s specific needs

17. NLD
Physical Education Cont’d
 Team sports
○ more difficult when other children are added
○ uncoordinated, and also mystified by the rules
○ cheering and shouting
○ frequent mistakes and be ridiculed
Question:
So…. Should we exclude
them from team sports???
In

18. NLD
Physical Education Cont’d
No!
 Involve them in an activity that would
make them feel part of a team +
eliminate the element of failing
 Roles such as a referee
 Direct and specific verbal instruction
about the rules that govern the game

19. 1
NLD
Spatial deficits
 Dangerous
aspects of NLD
 Keeping distance between oneself and another person
can be taught through training, BUT…
 Two deficits remain with them
○ 1-Gauging distance to objects: Combined with
physical awkwardness, increases the risk for injury
& criticism
 Estimate where to place a knife
 Estimate distance from oven
 Estimate distance from approaching vehicle

20. Spatial deficits Cont’d

2-Getting lost
 In middle or upper elementary grades
○ Spatial problem appears to be more severe
○ “He should be able to move from place to place on his
own”
○ They benefit from “markers” such as maps
○ Verbally teach how to move within the school: “Go out
the door, turn right, and count three doors on the
right, the third door which is blue, is the boy’s
washroom”
NLD

21. NLD
Spatial deficits Cont’d
Keep in mind…
 Spatial challenges, generally do not improve
over time
 Not able to find their way as their point of
reference changes
 If spatial problem is severe, they need the help
of a paraprofessionals; shadowing if improved
 NLD children should not be disciplined for
being tardy to class

22. NLD
Social and Emotional Functioning
NLD children usually reluctant to socialize
 Developmentally younger than peer groups
 Strong verbal skills, but hard to initiate a
conversation

 Similar to Temple

23. NLD
Social and Emotional Functioning Cont’d

Nonverbal communication
 Vocab. and language alone don’t make effective
communication
 Only 35 % of all communications are verbal
 Remaining 65% are nonverbal
 Gaze, facial expressions, body language, tone of
voice…
○ infants respond to their mothers’ smile and tone of voice

24. Social and Emotional Functioning Cont’d
 Concrete
and Literal
 They process exactly what is said
 Difficulty with open ended questions
○ Example: “how is your family” ?
NLD

25. NLD
Social and Emotional Functioning Cont’d
 Communication
handicapped
 We don’t expect a blind person to see!
 Example: seventh grade NLD confuses
“United Kingdom” in her social studies, and
“Families of animals” in science when used
interchangeably

26. NLD
Social and Emotional Functioning Cont’d
 Acceptance by peer groups and
adults important

27. Social and Emotional Functioning Cont’d
NLD
 Behaviour
 rude, spoiled, lazy or defiant  None of these is true
 Anxiety
 sometimes their main difficulty
 Source: Communication, Social deficit, Other learning
issues
○ Providing predictability to them, Reliance on their
schedule and anxiety

28. NLD
Teaching strategies for math

Difficulty with at least one aspects of math due to
several factors:
 Poor fine motor, visual, spatial and processing skills

Failure to form numbers, recognize mathematical
symbols, not knowing what to focus on

29. School Environment and
Placement

A child with non-verbal learning disability requires…
 Consistency
 A highly structured, predictable day
 Maximum class size of 6-8, fewer being the ideal
 Both teacher and aid

NLD
A child with NLD should be placed in a regular
education classroom

30. Classroom Setting
 “Circle
NLD
time” not effective for child with
NLD
 Decorations as distracting and frustrating
 NLD child should be seated in the front
row in front of the teacher, next to quiet
children
 Desk formation should be in rows, not pods
 Blackboard should be kept clean of any
extraneous writing or other material, and
only have information directly relevant to
the lesson

31. NLD
School Placement- Ideal Placement
Characteristics
 Creative,
flexible staff who is
knowledgeable about NLD, or willing to
be
 Physical layout that is easy to navigate
 Small total student population (50-200)
 Small class size
 6-8 for middle school
 10-12 for older children

32. NLD
School Placement- Ideal Placement
Characteristics Continued
School continuity
 Teacher continuity
 School philosophy of teamwork
 Zero tolerance policy for bullying

Every step taken away from the ideal will
significantly compromise the education of
the NLD student

33. School Placement - Options
NLD
 Public
school
 Private School
 Home school
 Search for alternative education is likely to
happen around middle school, when puberty
is starting and the demands of a traditional
school overwhelm the NLD student

34. NLD
Strengths in a Student with NLD
 Reading
 Rote
memory
 Vocabulary
 Spelling

35. Areas of Concern for a Student with
NLD

Reading
 Decoding

Comprehension
 Integrating information
 Making inferences
Visual Processing
 Penmanship
 Parroting vs. Learning

NLD

36. NLD
Teaching Strategies

Rubrics


Scoring tool that lists the criteria for a particular
piece of work
Models
 Example of a completed
project or assignment
 Graded model

37. NLD
Teaching Strategies Cont’d

Use unimodal instruction
 Concentration should be on verbal instruction

FM trainer
 Overcomes the distance between teacher and
student
 Reduces competing noises

38. NLD
Teaching Strategies Cont’d
 Frontloading
 Begin the lesson by telling students what
they’re going to learn today
 Examine what you already know
 Provide background information
 Provide context

39. NLD
Teaching Strategies Cont’d
 Cooperative
Learning
 Small groups of students work together
on an assignment or project to
maximize each others learning
 Each student has a different strength to
contribute to the team

40. NLD
Other Suggestions
Students with NLD to be provided with
notes before a lesson and not required to
take them as the teaching is teaching
 Amount of information on any pages handed
out should be reduced
 Use Flip Charts and Overheads
 Directly teach concepts such as
main idea, drawing conclusions,
making inferences


41. NLD
Other Suggestions
Develop alternative methods for educational
engagement, understanding
 Use books on tape
 Use a marker, ruler, or
index card while reading to help
with tracking
 Verbal description of how to form the
letters


42. NLD
Other Suggestion
Use larger pencils
 Use pencil grips
 Practice shapes before letters
 Teach either printing or
cursive
 Use graph paper for spacing
 Use a keyboard


43. NLD
Group Activities
Please
form small
groups for
activities, YES
YOU!

44. Nalo Hopkins Video: An award winning writer
with NLD
NLD

45. NLD
Nalo Hopkins: The bright side of
Nonverbal learning disability

Awards:
 World Fantasy Award and the Sunburst Award for





Canadian Literature of the Fantastic
John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer
Ontario Arts Council Foundation Award for Emerging
Writers
Locus Award for Best New Writer
World Fantasy Award and the Sunburst Award for
Canadian Literature of the Fantastic
Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic

46. NLD
Final note and Questions