Psychosocial dimensions of learning disabilities: external validation and relationship with age and academic functioning

Modifiability in Emotional Understanding Among Children With Learning Disabilities

Children with specific learning disabilities (SLD) exhibit specific difficulties in high-order components of emotional understanding that involve language (e.g., recognition of complex emotions from situations), or defining emotions and providing examples. The objectives of the current study were to study (a) modifiability of emotional understanding using a short-term mediation program aimed at enhancing emotional understanding among children with SLD as compared with typically developing (TD) children, (b) the correlation of language ability with emotional understanding. A sample of 64 boys with SLD and 33 TD boys (9–11 years old) were administered emotional understanding measures, and tests of language processing. The children were given the Language of Emotions Mediation Program and retested on the emotional understanding measures. Children with SLD revealed initial lower level of emotional understanding than TD children but higher pre- to postmediation improvement. The correlation between emotional understanding measures and verbal ability decreased from pre- to postmediation only in children with SLD. These findings indicate less cohesiveness between the two domains because of the mediation program.

Imaginative Representations of Two - and Three-Dimensional Matrices in Children with Nonverbal Learning Disabilities

Children with non-verbal learning disabilities (NLD) are characterized by high verbal and poor non-verbal intelligence, poor cognitive abilities, school difficulties, and—sometimes—depressive symptoms. NLD children lack visuospatial working memory, but it is not clear whether they encounter difficulties in mental imagery tasks. In the present study, NLD adolescents without depressive symptoms, depressed adolescents without NLD symptoms, and a control group were administered a mental imagery task requiring them to imagine to move along the cells of a 2-D (5 × 5) or 3-D (3 × 3 × 3) matrix. Results showed that NLD adolescents had difficulty at performing the imagery task when a 3-D pattern was involved. It is suggested that 3-D mental imagery tasks tap visuospatial processes which are weak in NLD individuals. In addition, their poor cognitive performance cannot be attributed to a depressive state, as the depressed group had a performance similar to that of controls.

Nonverbal learning disabilities: a critical review

This article presents a critical review of the term and concept of nonverbal learning disability (NLD). After a brief historical introduction, the article focuses on the apparent rarity of NLD; the hypothesis of the frequent co-occurrence of emotional disorder, depression, and suicide in NLD; the white matter hypothesis as an explanation of the origin of NLD; and the question of NLD as part of a variety of other disorders. It is argued that NLD presents a broad hypothesis, but that there is little evidence to support its use in clinical practice.

Social cognition and its relation to psychosocial adjustment in children with nonverbal learning disabilities

The current study examined social cognitive skills in children with nonverbal learning disabilities (NLD) compared to normally achieving (NA) children. The relation between social cognitive skills and psychosocial adjustment was also investigated. There were no group differences on children's ability to represent orally presented social vignettes. Children with NLD were less able to recognize self-generated competent/assertive responses as the best solutions to a problem, expected fewer positive and more negative outcomes for examiner-provided competent responses, and showed a trend toward more frequently judging a story character as being mean. A social problem solving factor predicted unique variance in psychosocial adjustment beyond variance accounted for by nonverbal intelligence and nonverbal social cue interpretation. Results are discussed within a framework for which social cognitive deficits more broadly defined than encoding and interpreting nonverbal social cues contribute to the psychosocial adjustment problems of children with NLD.

Is neuropsychology a psychosocial science?

Many early investigators of brain-behavior relationships focused their investigative efforts on the psychiatric implications of brain damage and dysfunction. Descriptions of emotional dyscontrol and other psychosocial difficulties appeared frequently in their writings. Although dimensions of perception, memory, and cognition dominate the current neuropsychological literature, the psychosocial implications of patterns of neuropsychological assets and deficits retain their importance (e.g., in the study of the dementing diseases of adulthood). Our investigations of brain-behavior relationships and their impact on psychosocial functioning have attempted to expand upon and chart a somewhat different (subtypal) course for this area of study. One clearly evident conclusion of these efforts is that neuropsychology is a psychosocial science. Some implications of our findings for research and clinical practice are outlined.

Is there an increased familial prevalence of psychopathology in children with nonverbal learning disorders?

The cognitive and behavioral symptoms of nonverbal learning disabilities (NLD) have been described by previous investigators. Nevertheless, we know far less about the potential genetic contributions that may predispose a child to have NLD. An endophenotype model was investigated in 5 samples of children ages 9 to 15 years: NLD (n = 32); reading disorders (RD; n = 59); participants with a psychiatric diagnosis but without a learning disability (n = 55); typically developing controls (n = 31); and children with velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS), a chromosomal deletion syndrome that has been proposed as being an exemplar of NLD (VCFS + NLD; n = 20). Based on a family genetic interview, the authors' data suggest that children with NLD, RD, or a psychiatric diagnosis have a higher prevalence rate of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and substance abuse/dependence. Psychiatric controls and children with NLD--but not children with RD-- showed higher prevalence rates of familial bipolar disorder.

Learning disorders in children and adolescents

Findings indicate that students with severe learning disabilities can profit from instruction geared toward abstract higher-order comprehension when it is designed according to their particular instructional requirements. Early intervention improves outcomes for most children with disorders of learning, attention, and cognition. Impairments in the physical, language, sensory, or mental domains are usually harder to diagnose before a child's entry into school system, but they are easier to treat if caught early. Children with above-average intellectual abilities often have the ability to compensate or master appropriate coping mechanisms that greatly minimize their overall negative outcomes. Parental attitudes and commitment, availability of resources, and the presence of an associated neurologic deficit or medical disorder can also significantly impact outcomes.

Nonverbal learning disability: a tutorial for speech-language pathologists

Nonverbal learning disability (NLD) is a diagnostic category that is unfamiliar to most speech-language pathologists. This brief tutorial describes NLD's characteristics, a theoretical model proposed to explain its source, and areas of overlap between NLD and similar diagnostic categories. The communicative profile, made up of difficulties in pragmatic and semantic language in the presence of relatively preserved syntactic skill, is also discussed. Empirical evidence relevant to NLD is also evaluated. Many questions remain unresolved, but until systematic research provides definitive answers, speech-language pathologists are encouraged to rely on careful description of the individual child's communicative strengths and weaknesses to identify appropriate targets and to focus intervention on improving the child's ability to communicate effectively in everyday contexts.

Psychosocial functioning of young children with learning problems

BACKGROUND

In this study, psychosocial functioning of different groups of young children with learning problems was investigated using a diverse set of psychosocial variables (including behaviour problems, academic motivation, social preference, and self-concept).

METHODS

For this purpose, children with low academic achievement, with a specific learning disability based on an IQ-achievement discrepancy, and with a specific learning disability based on an achievement discrepancy, were selected out of 276 children of the first grade of regular primary schools. By means of multivariate analyses, their psychosocial functioning was compared to the functioning of children without learning problems.

RESULTS

The total set of psychosocial variables was able to discriminate between children with and without learning problems, with medium effect size. Attention problems as reported by the teachers turned out to be the most important single psychosocial predictor for group discrimination. However, results varied according to the type of learning problem and the type of psychosocial problem. Children with a specific reading/spelling disability and children with low general academic achievement differed most from their peers without learning problems with regard to their psychosocial functioning. Poor cognitive self-concept was related primarily to low academic achievement, poor learning motivation might be specific for math problems, and a low social preference score seemed most characteristic of children with a specific learning disability.

CONCLUSIONS

Studying several psychosocial variables simultaneously in different groups of children with learning problems leads to a further refinement of the current knowledge.

Disorders of cognition, attention and learning

The inability to successfully navigate the educational system can cause serious problems for children, their parents, the Indian society, and the world at large. When children are required to engage in academic exercises which require attention, specific cognitive abilities and processes, and demonstrations of learning, a subset of these children are unable to perform due to some type of intellectual, emotional, behavioural, physical, or environmental deficit. Any combination of these factors can result in school failure. Although, resources for remedial or special education services in Southeast Asia and India are particularly meager, efforts must be directed towards the retention and achievement of those children who do enroll in primary and secondary schools. Learning disability represents a major form of impairment in society, and much more needs to be done to bring about a general awareness of its consequences. An urgent priority is the education of physicians and teachers about disorders of cognition, learning, and attention.