Nonverbal Learning Disabilities:
A Distinct Group
Within Our Population
by Tom Humphries, PhD, CPsych
The purpose of this article is to familiarize parents and professionals
with a specific profile of learning difficulty referred to as nonverbal
learning disability.
A common learning disability profile is represented by the individual
who has poorer verbal abilities but average, or even above average,
nonverbal or visual-spatial abilities. On a test such as the
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Third Edition (WISC-III), an
individual presenting with this particular profile would typically have a
lower Verbal than Performance IQ, reflecting their verbal weaknesses in
contrast to their higher visual-spatial functioning. Widespread
academic difficulties in the language arts, including problems in reading,
spelling, and written composition, are commonly associated with this
profile because the individual lacks the verbal strengths to succeed in
these areas.
Although nonverbal learning disabilities are far less often seen than
verbal ones, the nonverbal profile may be characterized by more severe
difficulties that can be harder to understand and remediate.
The visual perceptual and motor difficulties that are typical of a
nonverbal learning disability are felt to result in a distortion of many
aspects of basic experience. Thus the individual may perceptually
misinterpret everyday stimuli, be awkward motorically and in moving their
body through space, and have difficulty integrating information in space
and time.
For an individual with a nonverbal learning disability, the
interpretation and expression of social cues such as facial expressions
and body language can become a major problem and lead to confusion and
social rejection. Academically, visual-spatial difficulties can make
the learning of mathematics a major challenge. Although the
individual's automatic use of oral language is intact so that their speech
and use of grammar "sounds" fluent, if one listens closely the
meaning that is imparted to certain words and relationships may be
distorted because the experience that the language represents is itself
distorted. Thus, specific aspects of oral and written comprehension
may suffer, including reading comprehension, even though word
identification or the strict decoding of words in reading may be average
or quite strong. On the WISC-R the individual's Performance IQ is
typically significantly below their Verbal IQ due to their severe
visual-spatial weaknesses.
The individual with a nonverbal learning disability has serious needs
because so many aspects of their functioning are affected. Unlike
the individual with verbal weaknesses for whom the learning of language
arts is difficult, but social and sports activities may be a relative
strength that helps to compensate, in the case of nonverbal disabilities
both social and athletic skills, as well as certain aspects of academic
learning, are impeded so that the individual is hampered in both academic
and non-academic areas. Finding a compensating strength can be more
difficult for these individuals.
In the classroom and home settings the individual with a nonverbal
learning disability may exhibit inattentiveness and poor organizational
skills, but not because they have a primary attention deficit
disorder. Their inability to integrate and interpret information
both socially and academically can result in poor organization and make it
difficult for them to remain attentive when trying to do tasks that they
do not fully understand. They can be misidentified as a primary
behaviour problem or, due to their tendency to cling to the familiar and
routine as a way of coping with becoming overloaded with information, they
may erroneously be seen as slower in their overall
functioning.
In a recent research study conducted at the Hospital for Sick
Children's Child Development Clinic, we examined questionnaire ratings to
evaluate the degree to which teachers were able to identify the
characteristics of nonverbal learning disabilities and distinguish this
disorder from attention deficit. This attempt at
"validating" nonverbal learning disabilities "in the
field" based on teachers' perceptions was felt to be important since
the disorder has been described mainly medically or clinically to date,
and understanding how teachers perceive it is a critical first step in
starting to assist them with programming to this profile in the classroom.
Our results suggested that teachers see both children with nonverbal
learning disabilities and attention deficit as having more language
problems than average achieving controls, but did not rate the two
disordered groups as differing from each other in their language
functioning. Both disordered groups were also viewed as having more
attention problems than their average achieving counterparts, but the
attention deficit children were rated as having more major attention
problems while the children with nonverbal learning disabilities received
a rating of more minor problems.
Social interaction was viewed as problematic for both disordered groups
compared to average achievers. However, children with nonverbal
learning disabilities were viewed as having problems of a more internalizing (e.g.,
social withdrawal, worrying) nature, while externalizing (e.g.,
disrupting, fighting) problems were noted more frequently for attention
deficit children.
These distinctions strongly suggested that teachers do see children
with nonverbal disabilities as functioning differently in the classroom
than average achieving children and from those with other difficulties,
such as attention and behaviour problems.
In future research the goal will be to clarify these distinctions
further in order to facilitate teachers' identification of the nonverbal
profile and capitalize on the distinctions made to design more effective
remedial and support programming for this very needy subtype.
~~~~~~~~~~
© 1993, Learning Disabilities
Association of Ontario. All rights reserved.
This article originally appeared in the
Autumn 1993 issue of the Communique, the newsletter of the Learning
Disabilities Association of Ontario, and is posted here with their
permission.
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