Diagnosis & Intervention Strategies for
Non-Verbal Learning Disorders (NLD)

by

Margaret J. Kay, Ed.D, NCSP, DABPS

Brain Basis of NLD

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Research evidence suggests that disruptions of right-hemispheric functioning, typically caused by early damage to the white matter connections in the right-hemisphere, form the neurological basis of Non-Verbal Learning Disorder (Badian, 1992; Denckla, 1978; Rourke, 1995; Voeller, 1994).

White matter connections are particularly important for intermodal integration for which the right-hemisphere is specialized (Rourke, 1995). Developmental insults to the right-hemisphere may result in subtle or obvious impairments in one or more of the following areas:

• Social cognition
  
  
• Higher level mathematical reasoning
  
  
• Complex comprehension of novel material
  
  
• Inferential thinking
  
  
• Visual-spatial organization
  
  
• Perception of non-verbal social cues, such as body language, gestures, facial expressions and tone of voice
  
  
• Handwriting & writing organization
  
  
• Attention
  
  
• Memory for visual & tactile input
  
  
• Problem solving & hypothesis testing
  

Risk Factors for NLD

• "A little less than half of all children with right-hemisphere deficit syndrome have evidence of an antecedent prenatal or perinatal encephalopathic event" (Voeller, 1994).
  
  
• Genetic predisposition for Non-Verbal Learning Disorder has been found in over half of the cases studied and about 40% of children with right-hemispheric syndrome have a history of either prematurity, fetal disturbance or birth trauma (Voeller, 1994; Weintraub & Mesulam, 1883).
  
  
• Children, who are exposed to radiation treatments of the head, surgical removal of brain tissue from right-hemispheric regions, head injury, hydrocephalus or agenesis of the corpus callosum, also often exhibit NLD characteristics (Thompson, 1997).
  

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Last modified: July 11, 2010