What It's Like to Live with Multi-Learning Differences

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Nonverbal Learning Disorder (NLD), also known as Nonverbal Learning Disability (NVLD), is a neurological condition that primarily affects an individual's ability to process nonverbal information. This includes interpreting body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, and other nonverbal cues that are essential for social interactions. Despite challenges in these areas, individuals with NLD often exhibit strengths in verbal communication and rote memory.

Individuals with NLD may experience difficulties in the following areas:

• Social Understanding: Challenges in interpreting body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, and sarcasm.
• Motor Skills: Impaired fine motor skills (e.g., tying shoelaces, using scissors) and gross motor skills (e.g., riding a bike, playing sports).
• Visual-Spatial Awareness: Difficulty understanding spatial relationships, leading to challenges in tasks like reading maps or judging distances.
• Executive Functioning: Struggles with organization, planning, multitasking, and adapting to new situations.
• Academic Skills: Difficulties in areas such as math (especially word problems), reading comprehension, and understanding abstract concepts.
• Sensory Processing: Over- or under-sensitivity to sensory stimuli, leading to issues like clumsiness or sensory overload.nvldcenter.org+1my.clevelandclinic.org+1childmind.orgself.com
  It's important to note that NLD is a spectrum disorder, meaning its impact varies among individuals.

While NLD presents challenges, individuals often possess unique strengths, including:

• Exceptional verbal skills and vocabulary.
• Strong rote memory, aiding in tasks like memorizing song lyrics or movie lines.
• Attention to detail and a strong sense of loyalty in relationships.childmind.org+11self.com+11my.clevelandclinic.org+11

These strengths can contribute to personal and professional success when properly supported.childmind.org+6verywellfamily.com+6people.com+6

NLD is believed to result from differences in the brain's right hemisphere, which is responsible for processing nonverbal information. These neurological differences affect how individuals interpret and respond to visual and spatial information. While NLD is not officially recognized in diagnostic manuals like the DSM-5, ongoing research aims to better understand and define the disorder.verywellfamily.commy.clevelandclinic.orgverywellhealth.com

Of the common learning differences, dyslexia is probably discussed the most. Although students with dyslexia communicate normally and exhibit a typical level of intelligence for their age, their reading comprehension and writing may suffer as a result of having dyslexia.

According to Brocks Academy, an educational resource hub(Open Link in new tab) for students with learning differences, “Dyslexia is defined as chronic neurological disorder causing inability or great difficulty in learning to read or spell, despite normal intelligence. It inhibits recognition and processing of graphic symbols, particularly those pertaining to language.”

Symptoms of dyslexia include:

• Very poor reading skills: Because students with dyslexia naturally and involuntarily mix up the order of words and letters, they have a much more difficult time reading.
• Reversed word and letter sequences: Students with dyslexia process word and letter order differently than readers who don’t have dyslexia, which results in a tougher time with reading and writing assignments.
• Illegible handwriting: Students who have dyslexia process words and letters in different sequences. As a result, their handwriting can be inconsistently spaced, sloppy, lacking some letters or finished words, and a jumble of capitalized and lower-case letters.
• The International Dyslexia Association has written extensively about tactics teachers can use(Open Link in new tab) to teach students with dyslexia:
  
  • Simplify and explain carefully any written instructions.
  • Highlight or block off important information in written course materials.
  • Allow and encourage the student to use an audio recorder in-class.
  • Complement any visual instruction with verbal direction.
  • Give time to go over specific corrections on written assignments.
  • Offer examples or samples of another student’s work.
  • Assign a classmate partner to routinely compare notes taken in-class.

While dyslexia makes reading especially challenging for students, dysgraphia is a learning difference that makes writing more difficult, both on a physical and mental level. Students with dysgraphia find communicating ideas in a written form to be challenging.

Put differently, dysgraphia makes the act of writing words harder because the learning difference affects the development of complex or fine motor skills.

Symptoms of dysgraphia include:

• Problems with spelling: Students who have dysgraphia have a harder time sequencing letters and words correctly, which can affect not only the word order in a sentence, but also the spelling of specific words.
• Poor handwriting: Dysgraphia affects the way students physically write, so handwriting will also be a problem area. These students often leave out letters, use spaces between letters and words inconsistently, and mix upper- and lower-case letters.
• Trouble putting thoughts on paper: Because dysgraphia makes writing much more challenging already, students will have more trouble communicating their ideas on the page.
• Because both learning differences involve the consumption and communication of written language, there will likely be crossover in the ways you teach students with dyslexia and students with dysgraphia. Some tips for helping students with dysgraphia include:
  
  • Allow them more time with in-class written assignments.
  • Offer them printed copies of your class’s notes.
  • Issue class assignments earlier to give them more time to plan.
  • Grade their written work less on spelling, handwriting, or grammar errors.
  • Evaluate their work based on their understanding of course concepts.
  • Walk them through what areas you specifically grade for.

While dyslexia and dysgraphia both affect reading and written communication, dyscalculia makes the processing of numbers, time, and space monumentally difficult. Moreover, simple math equations can be overwhelming for students with this learning difference. Additionally, like dyslexia and dysgraphia, language processing is also more challenging.

Brocks Academy defines dyscalculia as “a wide range of lifelong learning disabilities involving math. There is no single type of math disability. Dyscalculia can vary from person to person. And, it can affect people differently at different stages of life.”

Dyscalculia symptoms include:

• Visual–spatial difficulties: People with dyscalculia have trouble remembering familiar locations(Open Link in new tab), according to Indiana’s Department of Education.
• Language processing difficulties: Dyscalculia is a tricky learning difference that can make language rules more difficult to understand.
• Trouble understanding what they hear: Because students who have dyscalculia struggle to process language, they often struggle to understand the information they listen to immediately.

Students with dyscalculia are completely capable of learning high-level and conceptual mathematics. But because they will struggle with foundational math problems, it’s necessary to intervene early. According to the Child Mind Institute, one of the best things you can do for a student with dyscalculia is to address their math anxiety(Open Link in new tab) by offering one-on-one help before or after class.

Other ways to help these students include:

• Give extra time on tests and long math assignments.
• Offer a copy of your class notes.
• Arrange inside or outside school tutoring.
• Allow the use of a calculator on tests and assignments that aren’t assessing computation.
• Prepare different, highlighted worksheets for long-form word problems.
• Check-in often to make sure they’re not overwhelmed by coursework.
• Provide plenty of extra scratch paper.
• Use supplemental learning materials, like multiplication tables and formulas.