Nonverbal Learning Disabilities

Students face challenges daily. Completing assignments, listening attentively, and surviving the complex social peer group are a few of the daily encounters of student life. Theorists have long studied how to educate the student, how to prove that their approach and theory is valid and effective. Educational psychologists have even more keen interest on the behaviours, motivators and strategies that are used in a classroom by teachers and students. Nipissing University uses Gagne’s theory of nine events of instruction to structure its lesson plans. Exceptional students face even more challenges. The educational career of a student used to be determined by their disability, not their capability. They are the same as every other student; they just learn and/or do things a little differently. A lesson plan will be explored through the viewpoints of the exceptionality non-verbal learning disability and psychological theorists. Non-verbal learning disability Students with non-verbal learning disability have the unique advantage of having excellent memory for things they hear, advanced and large vocabulary and reading skills, excellent verbal expression, and verbal reasoning. Difficulties and challenges associated with the exceptionality include: poor memory with things they see, math skills (estimation of size, shape, distance) written expression (often because of poor handwriting), problems with sense of direction, visual-spatial organization, cause and effect, sequencing and abstract reasoning. Socially they have challenges with: adapting to new and complex situations, trouble understanding non-verbal feedback (social perception, social judgment and social interaction), talk a lot, talk out of turn, interrupt frequently, poor physi...

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