Well, I need straight away to take issue with the very name of this disorder. But then, in order to understand why I have an issue with the name, you probably need to be introduced to the basic characteristics of the disorder itself. On the other hand, wouldn’t it be clever to try to accomplish both at the same time? But, what if the very insight from which I derive my opinion is likewise borne out of a familiarity with NLD so near and undear, that I am in fact rendered unable to present the very clever opening that might have worked ever so well for such an article?
Welcome to NLD – all grown up. As you can plainly see, if I do say so myself, nonverbal learning disabilities have absolutely nothing to do with being, er, nonverbal! Ah – so to my original beef with the name. It is oxymoronic and yet technically accurate! It is a double-entendre most ironically frustrating to those who understand it best and most intimately – to those whose condition and lives the diagnosis so clumsily tries to label. Is a nonverbal learning disability a learning disability in which the person is nonverbal? Duh! Of course……….
……not! Well then, is a nonverbal learning disability a learning disability in which the person has trouble with all things nonverbal, or is it a disability having to do with nonverbal learning?
Yes. Huh? Yes. In other words, both of two immediately previous descriptions aptly BEGIN to describe this disorder. See, non-verbal learning disorders are not an impaired ability to use verbal language! Non-verbal learning disorders are those in which the ability to use and interpret NON-verbal information is impaired.
There has been an increasing volume researched and written on this subject, and yet still not nearly enough. Currently, some of the best such research can be found in the literature and on Autism and other disorders on the Autistic spectrum – including Aspergers, Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), Pervasive Development Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS)sometimes or additionally referred to as High Functioning Autism (HFA), Heller’s syndrome, also know as Childhood Disintegrative Disorder (CDD), and of course Nonverbal Learning Disability, or NLD.
NLD can and does manifest in a variety ways, and can be both comorbid with, secondary to or causal of, and/or complicated by other developmental, learning, emotional, and/or psychiatric disorders. No – NLD will not “cause” OCD or Depression. Ummm….at least not via any biological pathway! Environmental stresses and outcomes from NLD can and probably DO have such results, however!
Likewise, NLD will not “cause”, say, disassociation or mania or Schizophrenia. Frankly, I am of the opinion that, of all learning and/or emotional conditions, impaired or “normal”(!), NLD bears the *least* resemblence to these and the other psychotic impairments.
I do wish to high-light, however, the very prominent overlapping of symptomology and presentation of these “invisible” illnesses and syndromes. They are more alike than they are different. Stop right there! I did NOT say that these illnesses – and especially their sufferers! – are all basically the same and broken! No? Like I said, these maladaptive “invisible” disorders and conditions are much more similar to each other than they are different.
?
Then again, so are chimps and humans! Understand?
Now let me begin. One chief concern, and a hallmark characteristic, is impaired executive functioning. In the interest of full disclosure – I implied in my opening remarks that I possess an empathy with those who suffer from NLD. That could have been taken to mean that I myself in fact share the diagnosis. That process remains one hurdle I remain still too scared and confused to jump. But do not lose my chimp to human analogy! I made that very specifically to illustrate that we are in fact SO complicated and, whether somewhat broken or not, we are still an amazing thing to behold – we sentient beings.
So, while I am temporarily uncertain as to whether or not I officially identify as having the capitalized version – Nonverbal Learning Disability – which has its own unique and defining criteria which can be found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (more commonly referred to as the DSM IV). I do struggle greatly with a package of issues, the most confounding of which is tied up in the cluster of knots that is Executive Dysfunction, and pretty crippling literal thinking. I do have great empathy for how an nonverbal learning disorder can result in the biggest difficulties managing the most basic operations of daily living.
To wit, this means that the person will typically have enormous difficulty planning, ordering, organizing, making decisions, multi-tasking, and I will add a personal note that it also can include a very frustrating difficulty dealing operationally with tasks and situations that are not objective, quantifiable, or lacking borders or black and white distinction. Comforting are those things “right or wrong”, “yes or no”, “left or right”. Distressing are all things ambiguous, unclear, subjective, and ultimately misinterprettable.
One compensatory technique is to be very verbose, even precociously so for children, and the accompanying mannerisms, either affected or authentic, which are highly stereotyped to emulate adults. There can also be a tendency to perseverate on items that are of no general interest to most folks – say plumbing; ceiling fans; fantasy and roll-playing games, shows, and accessories; and the seemingly *complete* unawareness (or maybe sometimes even nonconcern) of this boredom and subsequent social isolation.
By far the biggest tragedy facing folks who suffer from NLD is that of being misunderstood, and of misunderstanding their environment as well. Even more frustratingly confounding is the unawareness of said lack in communication – by everyone – and a resulting long (or even never ending) latency in the arrival of any kind of understanding, therapy, or relief.
But the key starting point is to increase understanding. This article sought that purpose by specifically targetting some common misinformation, and highlighting and correcting it. No – words are not the problem for those with Nonverbal Learning Disabilities, Spectrum Disorders, or Executive Dysfunction. They can in fact be a very comforting and indispensible tool.
I’d like to relate a very personal story on the transforming and ultimately urgent power words have for me in the absence of the executive functioning and “common sense” of which I have not the advantage or privilege of taking for granted:
The most striking example I can think of is my own instance of being given the words to express a capability I didn’t even reazlize I had! By high school, I had developed a pretty good ear and consequent (and benefit of) singing ability and piano playing. I could always find the note that my part (tenor) needed and was “always” (okay, usually! 😉 ) in tune.
One day when we (the chamber choir) happened to be rehearsing outside (on whimsy, and to help keep the attention and motivation of a bunch of high schoolers, I’m sure!). This meant that we were a capella (unaccompanied).
As my music teacher was preparing to count us in, he was digging for his pitch pipe so that he could give each part their starting pitch. Well, I didn’t even know that I didn’t need to hear it, I just intonated the tenor section’s first syllable of the tune (“Hush!”, incidentally).
My teacher/conductor spun around and looked at me wide-eyed and said “That’s right!”. He then asked me if I could tell him the notes of the other parts. I said “no”, but I sang (“ah” ‘d) them down in descending order (S.A.T.B.). And that was all there was to that. For the moment…
Later, when I was in college studying music education (with voice as my primary instrument at the time), I was going through the requisite “core” music courses which required theory, history, and sol feg (sight-singing). Into the third and by the end of the fourth week of my first semester, all the pitches and all the notes and all the songs I had ever had in my head had pitch names and a whole new way of relating.
I had perfect pitch! And I didn’t discover it until I found the names (the WORDS!!!!) of the pitches to express what my ear already knew but couldn’t tell me. My ear had eyes! Well, it now had what served just as good for eyes, and much more utilitarian if you ask me – WORDS! I felt a little like Helen Keller when, on April 5, 1887, her teacher, Anne Sullivan “…placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten, a thrill of returning thought, and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me.”*
*(http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/p ublic/documents/publicwebsite/public_ke ller.hcsp).
This is the comfort – the AHA! – the bringing of the world to me, and me to the world that words can provide, and for which nothing comes even a remotely respectable second. And this is the comfort and necessity of words for many or most with NLD or Executive Dysfunction. I say again that the need for learners to have personal insight, any and all available remediation for “deficits”, and *UNFETTERED* access to their very best cognitive mode, and the confidence that comes from its continued refining (and for some, like me, this is to gifted levels) is absolutely paramount to the development of a healthy resiliance to the many struggles ahead, and a concept of self that allows one to keep his head up.
If you take anything away from this article, please retain that nonverbal learning disability is NOT an impairment of the ability to use words and learn and communicate verbally. And please remember that the platitude “be yourself” is truly something to seek and live by – and that we all, yes – some more than others, need help to stay on a course that makes this life meaningful.
