Helping Children with Nonverbal Learning Disabilities to Flourish

A Guide for Parents and Professionals

Marilyn Martin Zion

• Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9781843108580
• eBook ISBN: 9781846426193
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Inclusive Education

`Imagine getting lost in your own home, forgetting where the bathroom is at work, or being unable to operate a simple door knob. These are just some of the myriad challenges faced by individuals with a Nonverbal Learning Disability, or NLD…In Helping Children With Non-Verbal Learning Disabilities to Flourish, Marilyn Martin gives an overview of NLD and strategies for teaching individuals with this disability. Using examples of her struggles to help her daughter, who has NLD, as well as current research, she has written a book helpful for both parents and professionals. In addition to her experiences with her daughter, Martin is a Learning Specialist with more than fifteen years of experience working with students who have dyslexia, NLD, and other learning disorders… This book is a good introduction to NLD and interventions for treating it… As it gains recognition as a distinct learning disorder, interventions and informative books, like this one, will open doors, literally and figuratively, for families and individuals touched by NLD.'

- Foreword, Autumn 2007

`Author Marilyn Martin's daughter Sara was diagnosed with Nonverbal Learning Disability (NLD). Marilyn offers a comprehensive developmental profile of children with NLD and explores the controversies surrounding the condition so parents and professionals can identify learners with NLD and ensure they receive early intervention. Offering practical advice on NLD at home and at school, the book describes step by step interventions for improving a range of skills from penmanship to social acumen.'

-Autism Us, 2007

`Marilyn Martin's book Helping Children with Nonverbal Learning Disorder to Flourish is an exciting and essential new addition to the literature. … Martin shines in her ability to match interventions to a broad range of problems and examples abound in every chapter. Clear, concise, and detailed explanations are given so that the interventions can be applied skillfully. … Each intervention is presented in a terrifically useful and usable format that includes the problem, strengths available, proposed solution, how the solution can be generalized, the goal of the intervention, and a very up-to-date and helpful listing of relevant resources.'

- from the Foreword by Michele Berg, Director, Center for Learning Disorders, Family Service and Guidance

When you continuously cannot find the bathroom in your best friend's house, or you cannot print the letter `t' when all your friends are writing volumes, you notice, and you ask questions. So it was for Marilyn Martin's daughter, Sara, who was diagnosed with Nonverbal Learning Disability (NLD).

This book skilfully combines a comprehensive guide to NLD with the inspiring story of how Sara transformed herself from that young girl whose existence seemed darkened by learning difficulties into the capable young woman she is today.

In Helping Children with Nonverbal Learning Disabilities to Flourish, Marilyn Martin presents a comprehensive developmental profile of children with NLD. She explores the controversies surrounding the disorder so parents and professionals can identify learners with NLD and insure they receive early intervention. Offering practical advice on NLD at home and at school, she describes step-by-step interventions for improving a range of skills from penmanship to social acumen.

This book is essential reading for parents and professionals working with children with NLD.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Of Related Interest
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• 1. Beginnings: Deciphering the Rosetta Stone
• 2. What is a Nonverbal Learning Disability?
• 3. Side by Side: NLD and Reading Disabilities
• 4. How to Recognize the Child with NLD at Different Ages
• 5. A Constructive Diagnosis and Remediation Plan
• 6. The Importance of the School Environment
• 7. The Importance of the Family
• 8. Charting Sara’s Language
• 9. Some Final Thoughts
• 10. A Sampler of Interventions
• Appendix: Example of How to Combine Strategies to Develop Lessons
• References
• Subject Index
• Author Index