Non-Verbal Learning Disability (NVLD)

What Is Non-Verbal Learning Disability?

Non-Verbal Learning Disability (NVLD) typically involves a significant gap between strong verbal skills and weaker motor, visual-spatial, and social skills. Students with NVLD may have trouble interpreting nonverbal cues like facial expressions or body language, and may also have poor coordination. It’s a meaningfully different profile from disabilities like dyslexia — NVLD often comes with strong language and reading skills, but real difficulty with the nonverbal, spatial, and social side of learning and interacting.

How Porter Academy Addresses NVLD

• Social Thinking, incorporated by every teacher, directly targets the nonverbal social interpretation skills NVLD affects — including concepts like “thinking with your eyes,” which teaches students to read a room and infer what others are thinking and feeling (see Our Approach for more on this framework)
• A dedicated Social Skills class, specialist-led and in small groups, gives direct practice interpreting social and nonverbal cues in a low-pressure setting
• Occupational Therapy builds the visual-spatial and motor coordination skills that are often an area of relative weakness for students with NVLD
• Small, developmentally-grouped classrooms give students more individualized support navigating social dynamics than a large, fast-moving classroom would allow

Learn More

For general background on NVLD, we recommend the Learning Disabilities Association of America.