BrainSTARS: Non-Verbal Learning Jeanne E. Dise-Lewis, PhD, Margaret Lohr Calvery, PhD, and Hal C. Lewis, PhD, BrainSTARS

A child with a nonverbal learning disorder lacks ability to learn and generalize from everyday experiences. He often interprets his experiences differently than people around him. 

Use everyday activities:

• This child often misinterprets the actions and behaviors of others. For example, Tommy may perceive the physical contact involved in games such as dodge ball or tag football as unfriendly behaviors, or signals that other children don’t like him. The adult task is to ask Tommy to describe his perceptions, and then to help him reinterpret them more appropriately. 

Change the environment

• Keep your child’s room well organized, have a cubby for dolls, board games, etc. Set aside ten minutes each night before dinner to “clean up”, items should be placed in their respective containers.  Do not let room messes add up, rather incorporate the ideas of cleaning and organization daily.
• Highlight the relationship between a child’s current activity and how it relates to the” bigger picture.” For example, when completing household chores on Saturday, talk about how all chores are completed by each family member so that the afternoon can be spent doing something together. In school, highlight the similarity between routines across the day and use the same words and strategies. For example, show how skills learned in literature can also be used in history class,  such as outlines, highlighting skills, and note taking .
• Provide explicit instruction in the use of organizational devices for oral and written language (such cause-effect, time order, compare and contrast).
• Involve your child in structured and supervised peer activities. Remember that structured situations will help children to learn appropriate social behaviors.
• Provide a visual example of what child’s finished product (illustration, book report, clean room, locker interior) is supposed to look like.  A picture is worth is a thousand words.  Provide a completed example of homework and in class assignments.  For example, on the math page, provide a completed sample problem for reference.
• Grade assignments on content and quality.  Do not penalize for appearance.
• Discuss and explain figurative language and metaphors.
• Challenge your student to express himself concisely.  For example, “Give me a one word (or a one sentence) answer”;  “What is the one most important fact in that paragraph?”
• Provide your student explicit instruction in language pragmatics.
• Assess mastery with multiple choice and matching tests, rather than essay exams.
• Preview and pre-teach important concepts prior to introduction of new units in science and social studies (such as emancipation, democracy, photosynthesis, condensation, etc.)
• Establish classroom rules for appropriate social interaction, post rules on the wall and provide real life example of appropriate and inappropriate behavior, specifically comments.

Teach new skills:

• Teach your child how to read the non-verbal signals of others (tone of voice, facial expressions, and posture.) Teach specific social skills, social niceties, manners, and expected socially appropriate reaction to both humorous and sad events.
  • Brainstorm and role-play the following situations:
    • You see a friend sitting on the ground crying… (pat him on the shoulder and ask what is wrong)
    • You see someone get hurt (go over to him and ask if he is okay)
    • You knock someone’s papers on the ground (say “I’m sorry” and pick them up)
  • Make the relationship between behavior and values explicit.  For example, when you go over to your friend who is sitting on the ground crying and pat him on the shoulder and ask him what is wrong you are being a good friend, showing concern, valuing other, etc.
  • Praise and reward the demonstration of quality values and manners.
• Teach your child how to anticipate how their behaviors impact others, use real life situations, and videos.  Have the child guess how something would make them feel, or someone else feel.  Brainstorm and practice responses that your child has identified as making others “feel good”. 
• Practice the difference between talking to adults and talking to peers.  Highlight specific words, phrases and language that are appropriate and inappropriate for each group.

The idea of time requires explicit instruction.  While many children can tell time on a clock or watch, they do not have an inherent sense of time.  In other words, they are poor estimators of the time required to complete social and academic activities. Teach time management explicitly by estimating how long tasks will take and then timing them.  Allow your child the actual time required to complete tasks.

Teach strategies for reading comprehension skills

• Provide explicit handwriting instruction in early grades.
• Teach mechanical arithmetic in systematic, verbal, step-by-step format using examples and algorithms. Allow the use of computational aides, including number line and a number facts chart.
• Teach use of verbal strategies to interpret visual spatial information such as maps, charts and graphs. Teach him how to master and recall visual information by formulating concepts in language. For example, looking at a map of the United States, show me where Wyoming is and describe where it is to me (Colorado is North of New Mexico, South of Wyoming, East of Utah, West of Kansas and Nebraska).
• Provide explicit explanations of figurative language, metaphors, idioms, and jokes. A child with a nonverbal learning disorder often finds to difficult to understand statements such as “It’s raining cats and dogs,”  “the pot calling the kettle black,” and “can’t see the forest for the trees.”
• Provide explicit instruction in written language structures, such as cause-effect, time order, explanations by example, and compare and contrast.
• Teach keyboarding and word processing skills.

See other BrainSTARS articles.

From BrainSTARS, Brain Injury: Strategies for Teams And Re-education for Students, © 2002 Jeanne Dise-Lewis, PhD. Used with permission. The manual is available in English and Spanish. For more information or to order copies, call 720.777.5470 or chris.moores@childrenscolorado.org. A short video on how to use the BrainSTARS manual is available at www.youtube.com/BrainSTARSprogram.

Jeanne Dise-Lewis, PhD is a child clinical psychologist, director of the Psychology Program for the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at The Children’s Hospital, and Professor of Psychiatry and Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Dr. Dise-Lewis is a Magna cum Laude graduate of St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania (MS in Human Learning and Development), and the University of Denver (PhD in Child Clinical Psychology). A member of the faculty of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center since 1984, Dr. Dise-Lewis has extensive experience in working with children and families of individuals who have acquired brain injuries. For the past 23 years, she has been the director of the Rehabilitation Psychology Services at The Children’s Hospital, creating several innovative programs of services for children who have medical needs and their families. She has developed workshops and presented papers nationwide in the area of pediatric traumatic brain injury.  She has been the principle investigator of three federal grants and has developed the BrainSTARS Manual, along with other innovative consultation programs regarding acquired brain injuries in children and adolescents. She is the PI of a grant funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention titled “An Investigation of Outcomes associated with Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury” and currently is the co-director of a Personnel Preparation grant funded by the US Department of Education, “Preparing School Psychologists to Meet the Needs of Students who have Acquired Brain Injury.” 

The contents of Brainline (the “Web Site”), such as text, graphics, images, information obtained from the Web Site’s licensors and/or consultants, and other material contained on the Web Site (collectively, the “Content”) are for informational purposes only. The Content is not intended to be a substitute for medical, legal, or other professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Specifically, with regards to medical issues, always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on the Web Site. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor or 911 immediately. The Web Site does not recommend or endorse any specific tests, physicians, products, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned on the Web Site. Reliance on any information provided by the Web Site or by employees, volunteers or contractors or others associated with the Web Site and/or other visitors to the Web Site is solely at your own risk.

 Comments

There are currently no comments for this article