Nonverbal learning disorder (NVLD or NLD) is a proposed neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by core deficits in nonverbal skills, especially visual-spatial processing. People with this condition have normal or advanced verbal intelligence and significantly lower nonverbal intelligence. A review of papers found that proposed diagnostic criteria were inconsistent. NVLD is not recognised by the DSM-5 and is not clinically distinct from learning disorders.

NVLD symptoms can overlap with symptoms of autism, bipolar disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). For this reason, some claim a diagnosis of NVLD is more appropriate in some subset of these cases.

Signs and symptoms

alt=A plain clock, with the hands pointing to 8:31|thumb|Using an analog clock to tell time is difficult for people with symptoms of NVLD.

Considered to be neurologically based, nonverbal learning disorder is characterized by:

  • impairments in visuospatial processing
  • discrepancy between average to superior verbal abilities and impaired nonverbal abilities, such as:
  • visuoconstruction
  • fine motor coordination
  • mathematical reasoning
  • visuospatial memory
  • socioemotional skills

People with NVLD may have trouble understanding charts, reading maps, assembling jigsaw puzzles, and using an analog clock to tell time. Motor coordination deficits are common in people with NVLD, especially children, and it may take a child with NVLD longer than usual to learn how to tie shoelaces or to ride a bicycle.

At the beginning of their school careers, children with symptoms of NVLD struggle with tasks that require eye–hand coordination, such as coloring and using scissors, but often excel at memorizing verbal content, spelling, and reading once the shapes of the letters are learned. A child with NVLD's average or superior verbal skills can be misattributed to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, defiant behavior, inattention, or lack of effort. Early researchers of NVLD, Johnson and Myklebust, characterize how the children appear in a classroom: "An example is the child who fails to learn the meaning of the actions of others [...] We categorize this child as having a deficiency in social perception, meaning that he has an inability which precludes acquiring the significance of basic nonverbal aspects of daily living, though his verbal level of intelligence falls within or above the average." dysgraphia, or dyspraxia.

Cause

Research suggests that there is an association with an imbalance of neural activity in the right hemisphere of the brain connected to the white matter. These overlapping conditions include, among others:

  • attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
  • autism, especially high-functioning autism
  • bipolar disorder
  • dyscalculia
  • social-emotional processing disorder
  • Gerstmann syndrome

There is diagnostic overlap between nonverbal learning disorder and autism, and some clinicians and researchers consider them to be the same condition. there is ongoing debate as to whether (or the extent to which) existing conceptions of NVLD provide a valid diagnostic framework.

As presented in 1967, "nonverbal disabilities" (p. 44) or "disorders of nonverbal learning" was a category encompassing non-linguistic learning problems. "Nonverbal learning disabilities" were further discussed by Myklebust in 1975 as representing a subtype of learning "disability" with a range of presentations involving "mainly visual cognitive processing," social imperception, a gap between higher verbal ability and lower nonverbal processing, as well as difficulty with handwriting. Later neuropsychologist Byron Rourke sought to develop consistent criteria with a theory and model of brain functioning that would establish NVLD as a distinct syndrome (1989).

Questions remain about how best to frame the perceptual, cognitive and motor issues associated with NVLD.

See also

  • Alexithymia – difficulty with understanding emotions
  • Children's Nonverbal Learning Disabilities Scale
  • Deficits in attention, motor control and perception

References

Further reading

Books

By authors with NVLD

  • NVLD Project