Early researchers in the syndrome of NVLD Johnson and Myklebust characterize how the children appear in a classroom: "An example is the child who fails to learn the meaning of the actions of others....We categorize this child as having a deficiency in social perception, meaning that he has an inability which precludes acquiring the significance of basic nonverbal aspects of daily living, though his verbal level of intelligence falls within or above the average. "In the adolescent years, when schoolwork becomes more abstract and the executive demands for time management, organization, and social interactions increase, students with NVLD begin to struggle. They focus on separate details and struggle to summarize information or to integrate ideas into a coherent whole, and they struggle to apply knowledge to other situations, to infer implicit information, to make predictions, and to organize information logically.As adults, tasks such as driving a car or navigating to an unfamiliar location may be difficult. Difficulty with keeping track of responsibilities or managing social interactions may affect job performance.People with NVLD may also fit the diagnostic criteria of dyscalculia, dysgraphia, or dyspraxia. Cause
Research suggests that there is an association with an imbalance of neural activity in the right hemisphere of the brain connected to the white matter. Diagnosis
Nonverbal learning disability (NVLD) is characterized by core deficits in visualspatial processing in the presence of intact verbal ability. Additional diagnostic criteria include Average to Superior verbal intelligence and deficits in visuoconstruction abilities, fine-motor coordination, mathematical reasoning, visuospatial memory and social skills.
"While NVLD is not classified into any distinct diagnosis in DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) or ICD-10 (World Health Organization, 1992), it does have a robust research base." "The majority of researchers and clinicians agree that the profile of NLD clearly exists...but they disagree on the need for a specific clinical category and on the criteria for its identification." (One researcher notes, "just because we cannot reasonably place such children into our present classification scheme does not mean they do not exist.") Assorted diagnoses have been discussed as sharing symptoms with NVLD. In some cases, especially the form of autism previously called Asperger syndrome, the overlap can be so significant as to render NVLD a pointless duplication in the mind of its detractors, with the only difference being that NVLD criteria do not mention the presence or absence of either repetitive behaviors or narrow subject-matter interests. (These are not required for a diagnosis of autism.) These overlapping conditions include, among others:

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
autism spectrum disorders, especially high-functioning autism
developmental coordination disorder
social communication disorder
right hemisphere brain damage and developmental right hemisphere syndrome
social-emotional processing disorder
Gerstmann syndromeThere is diagnostic overlap between nonverbal learning disorder and autism spectrum disorder, and some clinicians and researchers consider them to be the same condition. In clinical settings, some diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder would be more appropriately classified as NVLD.