Children’s Nonverbal Learning Disabilities Scale

 

 

by David B. Goldstein, Ph.D.

 

 

 

Parents: Please answer all of the following questions.

 

 

NAME OF CHILD: ________________________________________________

 

DATE OF BIRTH: ____________________ AGE: ____________ SEX________

 

GRADE: _______ SCHOOL: ________________________________________

 

HANDEDNESS:     RIGHT ________      LEFT _________      BOTH ________

 

This Questionnaire has been completed by:    

 

Mother __________ Father __________

Other (Please Describe your relationship)  ___________________________

 

 

 

1. Motor Skills

 

a. My child has problems with balance (e.g. never learned to ride a bike).

 

Never/Rarely___ Sometimes____ Often/Always____ I don’t know____

b. My child displays impaired fine motor skills (e.g. significant difficulties learning to tie shoes).

Never/Rarely___ Sometimes____ Often/Always____ I don’t know____

c. My child has problems writing or extremely slow writing.

Never/Rarely___ Sometimes____ Often/Always____ I don’t know____

d. My child seems unusually clumsy.

 

Never/Rarely___ Sometimes____ Often/Always____ I don’t know____

2. Visual-Spatial Skills

a. My child has difficulty remembering and organizing visual or spatial information (e.g. has difficulty lining up numbers to do a math problem or lining up words neatly on a page).

Never/Rarely___ Sometimes____ Often/Always____ I don’t know____

b. My child appears disoriented, lost, or confused when entering a new situation.

Never/Rarely___ Sometimes____ Often/Always____ I don’t know____

c. My child is slow to become familiar with new physical locations (e.g. continues to appear lost or disoriented after repeated exposures to the same location).

Never/Rarely___ Sometimes____ Often/Always____ I don’t know____

d. My child has difficulty remembering the faces of people he or she has met.

Never/Rarely___ Sometimes____ Often/Always____ I don’t know____

e. My child has an auditory memory like a tape recorder.

Yes____ No____ I don’t know____

f. My child loses his or her way and needs help finding his or her way around.

Never/Rarely___ Sometimes____ Often/Always____ I don’t know____

g. My child has unusually strong verbal skills (e.g. an impressive vocabulary or early speech).

Yes____ No____ I don’t know____

3. Interpersonal Skills

a. My child often does not get the humor in a joke because he or she interprets everything so literally.

Never/Rarely___ Sometimes____ Often/Always____ I don’t know____

b. When interacting with others my child has difficulty reading the other person’s non-verbal cues, such as tone of voice or facial expression.

Never/Rarely___ Sometimes____ Often/Always____ I don’t know____

c. My child interprets what I say very literally (for example, if I tell my child ‘to pick themselves up by his or her bootstraps, they appear confused).

Never/Rarely___ Sometimes____ Often/Always____ I don’t know____

d. My child has difficulty transferring what he or she learns in one social situation to similar social situations. For e.g. my child appears confused when confronted with slight changes in a frequently encountered social situation.

Never/Rarely___ Sometimes____ Often/Always____ I don’t know____

Guidelines for Scoring the Children’s Nonverbal
Learning Disabilities Scale

 

The syndrome of NVLD includes a number of specific symptoms. Rourke (1995) has organized these into three primary areas: neuropsychological deficits, academic deficits, and social-emotional/adaptational deficits. Neuropsychological deficits include difficulties with tactile and visual perception, psychomotor coordination, tactile and visual attention, nonverbal memory, reasoning, executive functions, and specific aspects of speech and language. Deficits in mathematical reasoning, math calculations, reading comprehension, specific aspects of written language, and handwriting are primary academic concerns. Deficits in social expertise include problems with social cognition and perception as well as difficulties in social interaction.

 

Some of the symptoms identified with Nonverbal Learning Disabilities are similar to those described for other disorders. Individuals with right hemisphere dysfunction, Asperger's syndrome, and sensori-motor deficiencies each possess a number of characteristics that overlap with those of a Nonverbal Learning Disability. An evaluation by a Neuropsychologist can often assist in differential diagnosis.

 

Section H is a checklist of characteristics that may be indicative of a Nonverbal Learning Disability. A referral for a more detailed evaluation by a pediatric neuropsychologist to rule in or rule out a Nonverbal learning disability requires that the parent report symptoms in all three spheres noted in the DSRI; deficiencies in motor-skills, visual-spatial skills, and interpersonal skills.

 

A referral to a neuropsychologist or for a more in-depth evaluation of a Nonverbal Learning Disability could be considered if the parent reports deficits “Sometimes” or “Often” on over half the items examining motor skills (at least 3 of the 4 items), visual-spatial skills (at least 4 of the 7 items), and interpersonal skills (at least 3 or the 4 items).

 

References

 

Rourke, B.P. “Neuropsychological Assessment of Children with Learning Disabilities: Measurement Issues.” In G. Reid Lyons (ed.), Frames of Reference for the Assessment of Learning Disabilities: New Views on Measurement Issues. Baltimore, Md., Paul H. Brooks, Publisher, 1994.

 

 

Copyright:  David B. Goldstein, PhD, 1999

 

(The Children’s Nonverbal Learning Disabilities Scale was Excerpted from the Developmental Screening and Referral Inventory by David B. Goldstein, Ph.D., 1999.)

 

This article is posted on NLD on the Web! with permission of the author, who retains the rights to this article.