How Non-verbal Learning Disorder Affects a Child's Ability to Learn

At Chamberlain International School, a team of clinicians, educators, and support staff collaborates to serve adolescents with a variety of challenges. Chamberlain International School welcomes students with a variety of mental-health issues and learning difficulties, including non-verbal learning disorder.

Although it is not yet a clinically defined diagnosis, non-verbal learning disorder (NVLD) encompasses a set of challenges that can affect a child's education. Children with these difficulties do not have any difficulties with reading, writing, or rote learning. This means that the non-verbal learning disorder is often missed by educators and professionals, who mistakenly assume that the child has a behavioral issue.

In reality, the child is struggling with the skills that involve the right half of the brain that allow a child to recognize and apply a pattern or concept. He or she cannot adequately process visual-spatial information and thus cannot copy a shape or understand spatial relationships between objects in a room. As a result, the child often seems awkward or clumsy.

NVLD also affects a child's ability to understand patterns in mathematics, narratives, and even social communications. Because they struggle to conceptualize rules of group behavior, they often act out inappropriately or withdraw from social situations, favoring instead the predictability of video games. They have similar trouble with the necessary organizing and planning of everyday life and cannot plan a project or deconstruct an expectation into smaller, more manageable pieces.