WHAT ARE NON-VERBAL LEARNING DIFFICULTIES (NLD)?
Non-verbal Learning Difficulties are a neurological syndrome that impairs a person’s natural ability to learn how to communicate with others non-verbally and also cope with their surroundings and responsibilities. Coping with NLD is quite challenging as only a tiny fraction of how we communicate is through what we actually say. At a young age, children with NLD often have excellent memory skills, the ability to talk and read, a wide vocabulary and have a great attention to detail. Therefore the issue of them having SEN often does not come into question. This means that NLDs are often undiagnosed until much later. This is also not helped by the fact that NLDs are not universally recognised which can lead to a misdiagnosis. As the child grows up, they can begin to show signs of the skills that they lack due to their NLD. These can be divided into four areas: • Motor Skills – People with NLD often have poor co-ordination and graphomotor skills (i.e. writing and cursive) including possibly
