Nonverbal Learning Disorder
When people talk about learning disorders, dyslexia is one of the most common conditions that come to mind, and in fact reading disorders are the most common type of learning disability. However, there are several types of reading disorders and dyslexia is just one of them. Generally, people with learning disorders might have trouble perceiving information, putting different concepts together, remembering things or expression and movement. Other learning disorders besides reading disabilities involve impaired ability in things like writing, listening, math and motor skills. People with a writing disability might struggle with having proper handwriting, while a person with an auditory disability would have trouble processing or understanding what they hear. A person with a math disability could have difficulty with numbers, and someone with a motor disability might have a hard time with organizing their actions and judging spatial relations between objects.
These are all disorders that demonstrate explicit performance deficits in a variety of fields. However, a nonverbal learning disorder isn?t as easy to detect, and learning disorders can be difficult to diagnose in the first place. It?s easy for us to overlook nonverbal communication and learning because it?s so subtle that we don?t realize how important it is, or we don?t even realize that it?s in action. We use nonverbal cues and make use of nonverbal information in almost all of our interactions. When you?re talking to someone, you pick up on their facial expressions and gestures, and when you learn certain concepts you can pick up on implications. For example, you can see the sign for the women?s bathroom and know that men probably aren?t in there even if it didn?t explicitly say so. But seeing and reading are one thing, and understanding is another. People with a nonverbal learning disorder often demonstrate excellent verbal skills, but it?s the nonverbal implications that they don?t pick up on or understand. They might read at a very high level, but they might not comprehend what they mean. To use an extreme example, it would be like recognizing the women?s bathroom sign very clearly, but not realizing that it means that the bathroom is for women only.
A person with a nonverbal learning disorder often appears to lack social skills because they don?t understand the unspoken rules of interaction. They might ramble, or interrupt or divert attention back and forth without noticing the other person?s reaction. This isn?t on purpose, but it can come off as rude and alienate others. It?s very similar to behavior that?s observed with people with Asperger?s, and some feel like they overlap or that they?re even the same thing.
The nonverbal learning disorder isn?t actually a listed disorder under the category of learning disabilities, seeing as it?s usually diagnosed as Asperger?s, but there?s no denying that there?s an impairment of some sort at work. More than placing labels, it?s important to help people who experience impairment of any sort to be on equal footing with everyone else.