The main disabilities in non-verbal learning disorder (NLD) are:
the acquisition and automating of motor and cognitive processes, visual spatial
integration, motor coordination, executive functions, difficulty in comprehension
of the context, and social skills. AIMS. To review the research to date on NLD,
and to discuss whether the term 'procedural learning disorder' (PLD) would be
more suitable to refer to NLD. DEVELOPMENT: A considerable amount of research
suggests a neurological correlate of PLD with dysfunctions in the 'posterior'
attention system, or the right hemisphere, or the cerebellum. Even if it is said
to be difficult the delimitation between NLD and other disorders or syndromes
like Asperger syndrome, certain characteristics contribute to differential
diagnosis. Intervention strategies for the PLD must lead to the development of
motor automatisms and problem solving strategies, including social skills.
CONCLUSIONS: The basic dysfunction in NLD affects to implicit learning of
routines, automating of motor skills and cognitive strategies that spare
conscious resources in daily behaviours. These limitations are partly due to a
dysfunction in non-declarative procedural memory. Various dimensions of language
are also involved: context comprehension, processing of the spatial and emotional
indicators of verbal language, language inferences, prosody, organization of the
inner speech, use of language and non-verbal communication; this is why the
diagnostic label 'PLD' would be more appropriate, avoiding the euphemistic
adjective 'non-verbal'
