Children and teens with a nonverbal learning disability (NLD)
have poor visual, spatial, and motor skills. They also have
trouble recognizing and understanding nonverbal cues such as
body language and facial expression. Children with an NLD
usually start out learning to read fairly well. They also have
large vocabularies. They tend to have more trouble after second
grade. NLD is the least recognized among the learning disorders.
Children with this problem may not be properly diagnosed and may
not get the help they need. The brain has 2 hemispheres, right
and left. NLD is caused mostly by weaker skills involving the
right side of the brain. NLD may be called the "right hemisphere
disability." The more common learning disabilities mainly
involve problems in the left side of the brain. Many children
and teens with an NLD had medical problems during their mother's
pregnancy or birth. Some of the common pregnancy and birth
difficulties are: NLD is more common when the mother smoked and
drank alcohol during the pre