Non ICD-10

Non ICD-10/DSM

• Nonverbal learning disability: Nonverbal learning disabilities often manifest in motor clumsiness, poor visual-spatial skills, problematic social relationships, difficulty with maths, and poor organizational skills. These individuals often have specific strengths in the verbal domains, including early speech, large vocabulary, early reading and spelling skills, excellent rote-memory and auditory retention, and eloquent self-expression.

• A nonverbal learning disorder or nonverbal learning disability (NLD or NVLD) is a neurological disorder characterized by a significant discrepancy between higher verbal skills and lowermotor, visuo-spatial, and social skills on an IQ test.

NLD involves deficits in perception, coordination, socialisation, non-verbal problem-solving, understanding of humour, and rote memory.

Nonverbal learning disorder is a common co-existing disorder in people who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Symptoms

Non-verbal communication

People with this disability may misunderstand non-verbal communications, or they may understand the communications but be unable to formulate an appropriate response. This can make establishing and maintaining social contacts difficult. Eye contact can also be difficult for people with NLD, either because they are uncomfortable with maintaining it or because they do not remember that others expect it. 

Verbal communication

People with NLD may be described as talking too much and too quickly, and they may be early readers, good at grammar, and good spellers. Verbal communication skills are often strong, and people with NLD often rely on verbal communication as their main method of gathering information and maintaining social contact with other people. As a result, they often depend on verbal reasoning skills to compensate in areas where they have deficits. For example, they may "talk themselves through" a situation involving a large number of and/or a wide variety of visuo-spatial and/or numerical data. People with NLD can become confused and feel overwhelmed when the number and variety of nonverbal stimuli exceed their processing abilities, especially when those stimuli must be processed in "real time."

Numerical and spatial awareness

Arithmetic and mathematics can be very difficult for people with NLD. Young children with NLD are often seen as brighter than their peers.However, as these children enter the upper elementary grades or begin middle school and they are left to handle more tasks on their own, things can rapidly begin to deteriorate. They can have problems with finding their way, remembering assignments. They can struggle with math and misunderstand teachers and peers. They can be accused of being lazy or uncooperative.

Motor

People with NLD often have motor difficulties. This can manifest in their walking and running, which sometimes appear stiff. They may have difficulty with activities requiring good balance and feel unsteady when climbing up or down. They may also be more likely to run into things, due to judging distances poorly. Fine motor skills can also be poor, causing difficulty with writing, drawing, and tying shoelaces. Those with NLD are often labeled as "clumsy" or "stiff" by teachers and peers.

Anxiety

People with NLD, more than many others, fear failure. They may feel that they have to do too much at once, and then do not know where to start. This allows them to stagnate, and then do nothing. Sometimes they try to multitask and again end up doing nothing, which can lead to frustration. They may experience the world around them as a chaos, the actions that they must perform well and quickly creating a sense of helplessness. Clumsiness in performing tasks may be criticized by teachers or in the workplace, causing further fear of failure.

Depression

Individuals with NLD also commonly experience clinical depression, often because their difficulties with non-verbal communication make it hard to make friends and they feel isolated, lonely, and misunderstood by others. There is a high incidence of suicide within the NLD population. Sometimes they are angry at themselves more than others, creating a sense of uselessness which can lead to depression and/or suicide.

• Disorders of speaking and listening: Difficulties that often co-occur with learning disabilities include difficulty with memory, social skills and executive functions (such as organizational skills and time management).