UPPER STEWIACKE – Education and awareness are the keys to understanding Nonverbal Learning Disorder (NLD), says Angela Rudderham, a director of Behavioral and Social Skills with Bridgeway Academy, an organization that provides an academic program to students aged five to nine with learning disabilities.
"What is very obvious is that they have a lot of trouble interpreting nonverbal information," she says. "They miss all of that nonverbal contact. So messages can be interpreted wrong or not well. And a lot of misunderstandings arise as a result. The other side of the coin is that the nonverbal information that they send out is often unfitting or unexpected for the situation.
That can include such things as smiling during a sad time, inappropriate facial expressions such as laughing when the child is really upset or using the wrong tone of voice for the situation, "which ends up looking like willful behaviour rather than a medical deficit or a biological deficit."
The disorder is caused by a buildup of white matter in the right hemisphere of the brain, which impedes nonverbal processing. White matter is like a fibrous tissue that sends messages to the brain.
NLD sufferers can be taught the social skills necessary to carry on a normal life, she says, but it is a long process that takes great understanding and awareness on the parts of the people they are dealing with.
But the disorder is real and has been scientifically proven and if others were more aware, it would make acceptance of their disability much easier.
On the flip side, however, Rudderham says, NLD sufferers are most often of above-average intelligence and tend to excel in other areas.
